Jump to content

Which Camera to buy?


Recommended Posts

I still use the out dated under rated DC 240.

I cost me around 4 hunz when new and can be bought on E-bay for around a Single Hun.

I use mine for everything Including attaching it to my Meade ETX 90EC telescope for Awsome close ups.

If/When you get you digi, the main issue will be what format media will you use??

Does your GPSr use SM,SD,FM or MD (Smart,Secure,Flash,((MiniDisk or MemStick(sony)) memory?

You might want to stay with the same type so you will only need to use/have one type reader for your home/moble PC.

The cheap Digi's are just that CHEAP!

 

I hope more readers will post on this topic as this is a must have item for Caching as well as for those special times.

 

Sofa, King, We, Todd, Did

Link to comment

The first consideration in my book is to look at a camera made by a camera company, not an electronics company. The most critical part of any camera is the lens. Camera manufacturers specialize in lenses.

 

The next in importance is get a camera with an optical view finder. There are some out there that just use the LCD screen as a view finder. They don't work well in bright light.

 

Lots of mega pixels is mostly hype. You'll be using lower resoulation most of the time anyway. I get very nice pictures with my 1.4 mega pixels and I don't see any difference when I use my 2.1 mega pixel camera.

 

The only othere thing I can think of at the moment is you want to be able to use rechargable batteries (Ni-MH).

 

The rest depends on what you're comfortable with. Size, feel, features are all dependent on why type of photography you plan on using it for.

 

Go to several camera store and play with them and ask questions.

 

Byron

Link to comment

I'd agree with Byron. The camera companies seem to be making better digital cameras than the consumer electronics companies.

 

I have a Canon S100, which I like a lot. My wife has a S110, which is the same tiny 'ELF' size, but has a few extra bells and whistles.

 

But, there are lots of decent cameras out there.

 

-jjf

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by Mr. Vic:

 

I also have the Canon S110 ELF and love it. It takes great pictures and fits in my pocket. It also has a stainless steel exterior which I like.


 

Let me add my praises for the S110 to Mr Vic's. I bought it after a great deal of research; I tended never to take a camera with me because they are bulky and just get in the way. This one fits in my pocket and the optics are superb, and it goes on every geocaching expedition.

 

I hear there is another very compact camera recently released (by Minolta?). Anyway, for geocaching, the S110 is perfect. What should make you very happy is that it runs about $350 now. Add an extra battery (you'll want one) for about $40 and a big compact flash card (I got a 128 MB for $40 at Fry's), and you're right in the ballpark.

 

I'll bring mine Saturday to the Bay Area picnic, where you can see it.

Link to comment

I thought I'd give you my two cents, since I just bought a new dig about two month ago. I got a sony dsc-p71 for about $375. I researched on several web sites that compare camera's. If you want to do any 8x10 size photo's the experts agree that you need at least 3 megapixels. If you don't care about big pics then you can get away with less. Also, optical zoom is the way to go, digital is garbage. There are a ton of other things to consider, but for the money it's hard to beat the sony, plus you can take video (no sound) with it as well. When you choose which one check if Sears has the model you want, if you print out a quote for them they will match prices off the internet. Hope this helps.

Link to comment

Sony and Panasonic use the excellent German lens manufacturer Leica on some of their digital cameras and videos. I haven't read any comparisons between the electronic and traditional camera manufaturers with comparable quality lenses. Have others?

 

Also, I wonder what the value of a great lens if you are shooting or if your camera is at the low end of the Megapixel range anyway? The pixelation will overshadow and make the lens quality moot.

 

Any comments on both these points would be appreciated. I'm looking for a "snapshot" small digital for geocaching and other internet use with some printing now and then, but basically I'll use my traditional cameras for film prints and enlargements. Any suggestions?

 

 

Alan

Link to comment

Another point to consider is the batteries. My sony came with two rechargable AA's, same as I use in my gps. Some camera's use a propietary battery that is very expensive. I like only having to worry about charging one type of battery and being able to exchange them if they run low in the gps. They seem to last a long time too.

Link to comment

Olympus has now come out with the C720 to replace the C700 it has 8x Optical zoom with 3.3 megapixels (as compared to 10x optical zoom and 2.2 megapixels) It is a very nice camera. Does cost 599.00 ar Best Buy.

quote:
Originally posted by Ttepee:

Personally I'm a believer in the Olympus C-700... or I think it might be 710 by now... has a 10x optical zoom... though you have to be pretty still at that point... a hiking staff with monopod screw makes for a nice pic icon_smile.gif


Link to comment

Olympus has now come out with the C720 to replace the C700 it has 8x Optical zoom with 3.3 megapixels (as compared to 10x optical zoom and 2.2 megapixels) It is a very nice camera. Does cost 599.00 ar Best Buy.

quote:
Originally posted by Ttepee:

Personally I'm a believer in the Olympus C-700... or I think it might be 710 by now... has a 10x optical zoom... though you have to be pretty still at that point... a hiking staff with monopod screw makes for a nice pic icon_smile.gif


Link to comment

The most important consideration is image quality. Even if you only want to take snapshots, eventually you will want better image quality. That means excellent glass (lens), excellent CCD, and high pixel count.

 

I have several digicams from several manufacturers and if buying another I would go with either Nikon or Olympus. Both have been rated as having superior image quality.

 

Having a camera that uses AA batteries is also an excellent idea. Less important is the media type. Smart media or compact flash? Doesn't matter. It shouldn't enter into your buying decision. Neither should the software that comes with the camera for downloading images to your system. You will probably end up using a card reader instead.

 

My Olympus takes video with sound, but it sucks. It's only 15 frames per second so it's very jerky. Generally speaking, a video camera takes terrible still photos and a still camera takes terrible video. (Did I mention image quality?)

 

The ability to stitch images into panoramas can be done with any digicam, so don't let that influence your decision.

 

Ability to store uncompressed TIFF images is not important. You won't use it.

 

Optical zoom is important; digital zoom isn't.

 

Optical viewfinder is good. Bright LCD is also good. I wouldn't consider a digicam without an LCD.

 

There are other important issues like white balance, image stabilization, macro, etc., but these are more important to the prosumer.

 

Not much difference between a 1.3 or a 2.1 Megapixel image, but jumping to 3.3 there is. Most images taken with a digicam will end up being cropped before printing so you want as many pixels as you can afford.

 

You can email me with any other questions or just post them here.

Link to comment

From a completely different point of view, I went out and bought the cheapest digital camera I could buy--the Pencam 2 from Aiptek. Got it for about $40 at Wal-mart.

 

My thought is if I drop it, break it, or lose it, I'm out $40.00. I've already got a GPS and a Palm with me, usually, I don't want to have to worry about another expensive electronic item.

 

On the plus side, it takes fairly decent pictures. They're a little grainy, but I'm not out there to win any awards.

 

Bret

 

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.

When a man found it, he hid it again."

Mt. 13:44

Link to comment

I bought a Canon Powershot A-10 a few months ago after EXTENSIVE research and reference checking. I paid about $240 and it is now about $200. It is so awesome, my daughter has purchased one a few weeks ago, and now my brother is getting one!

 

If in doubt, check some of these pics out (medium compression, high resolution: http://www.bigfatgrandpa.com/DCIM/ (mostly pics of geocaching, caches I hid, etc.)

 

Of course, it eats batteries like a benny muncher with a bankroll, so you MUST also get the MAHA AA recharger system (which both my daughter and brother are now bying!)

 

I went a little crazy and bought a 256mb stick (who really needs to take 1000 pics between downloads to the PC) but a much smaller memory stick will do nicely.

 

Trust me, for this price, you WON'T be disappointed with this awesome camera!

 

--majicman

 

(Always trade UP in both quantity and quality and Geocaches will be both self-sustaining and self-improving!)

Link to comment

I got the Nikon Coolpix 950. I've had several people see the shots and ask what camera I shoot with. One guy even sold his Kodak and bought one of these. The photos look natural, its easy to use, has real Nikkor lenses and best of all, you can get a factory refurb at nikonoutlet.com at a greatly reduced price. Just checked the site and they have 2 at $299.99. Plan on adding a larger compact flash card, a card reader (for speed) and 2 sets of rechargeable NI-MH batteries too. I have a 32 meg card and I can get roughly 100 shots at 1024x768. Only drawback I have found is that its a battery eating machine. I've got it set to auto-off at 10 mins so 2 sets of batteries will get me through a full day of shooting. NI-MH batteries are the only way to go. NI-CDs are basically useless. If I need to I can put in AA alkalines and go several hours in a pinch. If I had to buy again I'd still buy a Nikon, only I'd get the 995!

 

When GPSr's are outlawed, only Outlaws will have GPSr's.

Link to comment

I really like Olympus' line of digital cameras. I have the old D-450Z ($400 new in 99 or so). I shoot film on my Nikon, but until I can offord a Nikon D1H, the little Olympuses will do fine. They have many models and a few in your price range.

 

Garmin GPSmap 76

"If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."

Link to comment

Sony DSC-P5 ... I like the quality, size and weight ... max. 3.1 megapixels ... shoots good quality photos at lower resolution as well.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------

Co-founder of the "NC/VA GEO-HOG ASSOCIATION"

... when you absolutely have to find it first!

Link to comment

I would avoid Sony cameras for 2 reasons:

 

First, you have to buy their expensive and crippled Memory Sticks for flash memory (Sony has intentionally crippled the MS so that one that works in a camera will not work with a DV camera or an MP3 player, etc.).

 

Second, the optical quality of cameras made by camera companies (Nikon, Olympus, Canon) tends to be better.

Link to comment

I've got a Coolpix 775. LOVE IT.

Sharp pictures, great features and you can probably get one on-line (buy.com) or at Sam's Club for about $375 or less.

 

It's small, light and fits easily in my purse...always have it with me.

 

Only drawback is it comes with a small memory card (8mb); buy a 64mb card - I've gotten 90+ images on it even when shooting at highest quality/size settings.

 

Good luck.

 

------------------------

icon_wink.gif

Link to comment

I've got a Coolpix 775. LOVE IT.

Sharp pictures, great features and you can probably get one on-line (buy.com) or at Sam's Club for about $375 or less.

 

It's small, light and fits easily in my purse...always have it with me.

 

Only drawback is it comes with a small memory card (8mb); buy a 64mb card - I've gotten 90+ images on it even when shooting at highest quality/size settings.

 

Good luck.

 

------------------------

icon_wink.gif

Link to comment

 

I respectfully disagree with the first part of this statement. Digitizing optical images are 100% electronics. As a broadcast engineer I consider Sony one of the CCD technology pioneers.

I do agree with the statement that lenses are the critical part of a filmbased camera. But with digital cameras the CCD and the electronic image processing is of equal importance. Therefore I have selected the famous German Carl Zeis lens and the electronics of Sony combined in the DSC-F707 with its 5 megapixels resolution. The Nikons and Canons with the same megapixel number cost twice as much.

Do we need this type of camera for Geocaching. I don't think so since the max uploadable image can not exceed 100Kb. All the pictures I took for Geocaching I had to resize to fit the requirement.

I loved my Sony but it is hated by the women because of its sharp images showing all their facial shortcomings. I had to unsharpen their portraits to make them happy.

 

[This message was edited by lostsoul on June 21, 2002 at 08:33 PM.]

Link to comment

I bought a Sony Mavica off of eBay for under $150. Works just great! The rechargeable battery lasts forever between charges and the camera itself takes great pictures.

 

Another big plus, in my book, is that it records the pictures on standard floppy disks in jpg format. No wires, no memory cards, none of that hokum to fool with.

 

Just pop the floppy in the A drive and I've got my pics!

 

-----------

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything." - Mark Twain

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by lostsoul:

...I loved my Sony but it is hated by the women because of its sharp images showing all their facial shortcomings. I had to unsharpen their portraits to make them happy.


 

Sounds like you have to either trade down your cameras or trade up your women!! icon_smile.gif

 

Alan

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by lostsoul:

...I loved my Sony but it is hated by the women because of its sharp images showing all their facial shortcomings. I had to unsharpen their portraits to make them happy.


 

Sounds like you have to either trade down your cameras or trade up your women!! icon_smile.gif

 

Alan

Link to comment

I have an older 2.2 megapixel Olympus that I love. I'm currently drooling over the new Olympus 3.3 megapixel with 8x optical zoom. The Olympus cameras use a high quality glass lens. (Some aren't glass any more.)

 

Look for at least 3x optical zoom. Digital zoom means nothing! You can digitaly zoom as much as you like on your computer.

 

Do you plan to print your pictures? A 2 megapixel camera will make an acceptable 8x10 as long as you don't need to crop your picture. A 3+ megapixel will give you more room to edit. Stay away from anything less than 2 megapixel unless you just plan to use pictures for the web.

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by Alan2:

Can I use the new compact models with the USB connection and asociuate software? My computer does not have the USB port only the serial one. It has a 233M Celeron processor with 64M memory and Windows 98 Edition 2.

 

Tks

 

Alan


That's a tough one. USB is the standard interface now. Some cameras may still have a serial option, however. You maybe able to add an USB card but your Windows 98 may not support it. The USB standard wasn't worked out when Windows 98 was first released but your edition 2 maybe ok.

Link to comment

Alan2,

 

Your Windows 98 SE supports USB. You can just add a USB card if you have an available slot.

 

Rather than using the software that comes with cameras for downloading images, most heavy users spend $30 for a card reader. Pop the media card out of your camera and into the reader and you now have an additional "drive" on your system. Just drag and drop from there. Most are USB, but you can still buy parallel port versions. Serial connections take forever to download images, but they work.

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by fizzymagic:

I would avoid Sony cameras for 2 reasons:

 

First, you have to buy their expensive and crippled Memory Sticks for flash memory (Sony has intentionally crippled the MS so that one that works in a camera will not work with a DV camera or an MP3 player, etc.).

 

Second, the optical quality of cameras made by camera companies (Nikon, Olympus, Canon) tends to be better.


 

IMHO ... none of these issues means squat to me ... I only use the memory stick in the camera ... and they've gotten pretty cheap lately ... not to mention the memory stick slot on my laptop makes things very compact and easy to work with.

 

While the Cybershot I use most has a very good lens and was reviewed in several places very highly ... my other Sony has a Carl Zeiss lens ... kind of hard to beat Zeiss for quality lens.

 

So ... I'll stick to what works for me.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------

Co-founder of the "NC/VA GEO-HOG ASSOCIATION"

... when you absolutely have to find it first!

Link to comment

10X optical zoom. (has 2.7x digital zoom but avoid using it)

Built in Panoramic mode only with Olumpus Smart Media cards.

Image Stabalization

2.1 Megapixels image size 1600x1200 pixels.

Built in flash.

 

It is a little big and bulky but the results are great. My preference is for TIFF format but the implementation is very cumbersome on this camera so I'm trying to find ways to make JPEG quality something that I can live with. For geocaching snapshots and documentation images, this usually isn't a problem.

 

My previous camera was a Kodak DC-50 which was ideal for web page work back in 1999 but sits on a shelf these days.

Link to comment

Add me as a lover of (some?) Sonys, I'm not sure if they all have the Zeiss lenses but my DSC-F505 does and it is spectacular, whereas my buddy has a Kodak of similar res and it has noticably poorer quality. It only has 5x optical zoom which is pretty good but one of the Mavica series has like 16x optical that was quite amazing, but I didn't like the package near as much and I was worried about dust and moisture damage to the floppy drive so I returned the Mav.

 

The only thing I own that uses the mem sticks is this so compatibility wasn't an issue and the memory price is high-ish but average for these relatively niche products.

 

I'm not sure if these will be found in your price range, new it was C$1300 two years back, if you can find a trade-in, I'd say do it.

 

[This message was edited by park2 on June 22, 2002 at 02:22 PM.]

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...