Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Digital camera questions and recomendations.

I currently have a Canon PowerShot A40 digital camera i have had for a few years. It is now time to get a new one and im having trouble figuring out what to get. I figured maybe i can tell you what i did not like about this camera and you could tell me either A. this is all digital cameras or B. give me advice on a camera that would solve those gripes. So here goes.
Gripes:
-takes AA batteries and it eats them really fast.
-a lot of the menus and settings rely on symbols and i still cant remember what any of them mean without getting the book out
-when i turn off the flash all my shots get motion blur.
-the time it takes to take pic from button push (shutterspeed?) which gets worse as the batteries wear down which as i mentioned is really fast
-no red eye reduction
-anything but auto settings seems to complicated. (but that could just be my photo inexperience)
I think that about sums it up any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. oh budget is $150 - $300 approx.
Thanks Jake

I purchased a Kodak 7525 from HSN online a few months ago.It's rated at 5 Mega pixels and includes a dock for charging and easy upload.It is a simple camera to use,takes fantastic pictures and videos,comes with rechargeable batteries and solves most of the problems you describe. The best part is that it cost $230 .If that model is unavailable the 7530 is the same.It may cost a little over $300 but is definitely worth the money.

I spent a lot of time on the site below when I went camera shopping and it paid off! I bought an Olympus that was highly regarded by Steve and it has been a great camera since day one!

http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html

You're in luck - I just a taught a seminar on point-and-shoot digital cameras.

Batteries:
Some of the higher end p/s cameras have their own rechargeable battery. For the most part, you're stuck with AA. P/S cameras eat batteries. The only way to reduce it is by not using the LCD screen and relying on the view-finder (which crops the scene by about 15%)

Menus:
Get used to it...they're all cryptic in their own way.

Flash:
You're getting motion blur b/c the shutter is slow due to low light. If you want to shoot without the flash and you want to minimize/eliminate the blur, increase the ISO. You will need to experiment with this to see how high you can set your ISO and still get acceptable quality - the higher the ISO, the more noise introduced into the signal. Just like grain quality if you're familiar with film. If you find that you can get acceptable results above an ISO setting of 400, you'll need to use your flash - or use a tripod if shooting still-life.

Time Issue:
Get used to it. Unless you buy a top of the line digital SLR, you will have some sort of delay from the time you depress the shutter release until the shutter actually releases. P/S cameras are the worst offenders.

Red-Eye:
red-eye reduction is a popular feature in p/s digital cameras. I'm surprised you don't have it.

Settings:
If you have a "P" setting or "auto" setting, I'd use that. Any sort of manual setting on p/s cameras is time exhaustive and cumbersome. Your best bet is to learn how to use exposure compensation. It seems that most p/s cameras need a one half stop to one stop decrease in exposure.

Canon, Nikon and Olympus make great p/s cameras. My personal opinion is that more than 3 or 4 mega pixels on a p/s camera is overkill for most people. If you've never made a a print larger than 8x10 of something you've shot, odds are, you aren't going to. If you mostly make 4x6 prints and save the shots you like for memories, a 3-4 mega pixel camera will more than meet your needs.

Hope this answers your questions..

^billy

Yep, shutter lag along with slow auto focus are probably my biggest pet peeves. I have a Fuji S7000 who's shutter lag I can live with for most shots. The half to full press lag is 0.2 seconds. If I've forgotten to "half press" first, the full press lag is 0.7 seconds. I just wish I knew how to actually use the thing other than in full auto mode.

I would try to find a camera that uses the same media that yours does now. Not having to buy new cards will free up cash to put towards the camera.

Jake, I found this site to be helpful:

Digital Photography Review

Good luck on your quest!!

It's easy to get past the shutter lag on most digital cameras. If you hold down the shutter release halfway while you're setting up a shot, it will snap instantaneously when you push it the rest of the way.

In reply to:

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Flash:
You're getting motion blur b/c the shutter is slow due to low light. If you want to shoot without the flash and you want to minimize/eliminate the blur, increase the ISO. You will need to experiment with this to see how high you can set your ISO and still get acceptable quality - the higher the ISO, the more noise introduced into the signal. Just like grain quality if you're familiar with film. If you find that you can get acceptable results above an ISO setting of 400, you'll need to use your flash - or use a tripod if shooting still-life.

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Thanks squirrelz. with the above inf i think you just saved me $150-$300 because that really was my biggest gripe.
The half press you guys refered to also addressed my other main gripe.
now if i can find that it has a red eye setting i will be in business.
Thanks again guys.

Peter, not always. While my Fuji is respectable at 0.2sec for half to full press, friends have a Nikon that is AGONIZINGLY slow - bordering on making the camera useless.

snakeyes:

The A40's flash operates in either Auto, Red-Eye Reduction Auto, Forced, Suppressed, Red-Eye Reduction Forced, or Slow Synchro modes.

I got that info from:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/A40/A40A.HTM

When you select the flash type, odds are you will get an "eye" icon next to or incorporated with the flash icon when you selecte red-eye reduction.

Hope that helps.

^billy

thanks a lot i have noticed that eye icon and i assumed thats what it ment put it does not seem like it sends that first red eye flash.
Thanks again