digital camera recommendation

[robbybogers]

my mom is looking for a new digital camera, she wants to spend about $400 on it. Any recommendations?

[medea]

for $400 check out these two 3.2megapixel cameras from Canon: Canon Powershot Digital ELPH S230 and the Canon Powershot S30.
www.powershot.com

[fujimi442]

well, I was just in the market for the same price camera, so what Im about to suggest has come from many hours researching my options. I would say that If she wants something small that takes great pics, go with the canon s230 (http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/s230.html) . Or if she wants somehting alittle larger but with a larger zoom, 2x optical vs 6x optical, and lense options go with the finepix 3800 (http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/fuji_3800.html). Both are 399 at bestbuy, just kinda depends on what she is looking for. I am very happy with my s230, I needed something small, if I didnt need something so small I would have gone with the 3800.

[iJon]

well i looked at cameras for a while. it was between the powershot s45 and the powershot s230. macbandit helped me choose and i ended up getting the canon s230. it is a wonderful camera. its small and fits right in my pocket. the only down part is the optical zoom isnt that great. the digital zoom can distort it a lot. for a simple and easy to use camera by a great company look no further than the s230. i would go down to best buy or your local camera shop and just pick up one and take some pictures.

iJon

[fujimi442]

wow, i got distracted from my post! I was the only responder when I was posting, lol

[Les Kern]

The 230 is a great camera, but consider the Casio Exilm. Don't laugh. On a whim I bought one at of all places Wal-Mart (whom I tend to NOT support if I can help it) and it is unbelievable. I used my free .Mac photos from it, and they turned out perfect. It's incredibly small and inexpensive to boot. I didn't think 2.0 would cut it, but I was wrong. It outperforms my 3.0 camera, and it holds 119 pictures and a 30 second quicktime movie AND records my voice.
http://exilim.casio.com/home.htm

And if it's good enough for WOZ, it's good enough for me!
http://exilim.casio.com/reviews.cfm

[chrisfx811]

i got a fuji 3800 for xmas, and i absolutely love it. uses the new xd cards, which are small and higher capacity than smart media. 6x zoon is so much fun, and records 60 sec clips w/ sound

[P-Worm]

Check out the new Coolpix 2500 from Nikon. Good res and VERY portable. It's the ultimate consumer camera!

P-Worm

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by iJon
well i looked at cameras for a while. it was between the powershot s45 and the powershot s230. macbandit helped me choose and i ended up getting the canon s230. it is a wonderful camera. its small and fits right in my pocket. the only down part is the optical zoom isnt that great. the digital zoom can distort it a lot. for a simple and easy to use camera by a great company look no further than the s230. i would go down to best buy or your local camera shop and just pick up one and take some pictures.

iJon

There are some clip on telephot extenders that really improve the zoom. They bolt to the tripod mount and put a lens in front of the normal lens. They don't sound like they would work very well but you would be very impressed. I recently saw a photo taken with one that turned out a clear license plate from a half mile away.

[iJon]

Originally posted by MacBandit


There are some clip on telephot extenders that really improve the zoom. They bolt to the tripod mount and put a lens in front of the normal lens. They don't sound like they would work very well but you would be very impressed. I recently saw a photo taken with one that turned out a clear license plate from a half mile away.

wow that is pretty cool. i probably wouldnt use one. I have to take some more pictures with the digital zoom on to see how it looks. The pictures i am taking anyways arent that far away. i use my dad's camera for that. His has a 4x optical zoom. thanks for the info bandit.

iJon

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by iJon


wow that is pretty cool. i probably wouldnt use one. I have to take some more pictures with the digital zoom on to see how it looks. The pictures i am taking anyways arent that far away. i use my dad's camera for that. His has a 4x optical zoom. thanks for the info bandit.

iJon

In my oppinion the digital zoom works pretty well at lower levels. You have to put the pics on a computer to really see what I'm talking about. I don't have my camera in front of me now but I believe the first step after optical into digital is 2.6x and it work quite well. Every step you take from there just degrades a little more but for large objects that you just need to take a closer look at it works pretty well even at max digital. I did some experimenting with it taking photos of mountains from the air and even at max digital zoom the photo turned out better then if I took a normal photo and enlarged it using a program like Graphic Converter.

[yzeater]

I'd go with the Nikon Coolpix 4300 for $400 from www.dbuys.com (that's where we got ours). It's a 4MP camera. Compact Flash. 3x optical zoom. The photo quality is really good, and the price is excellent for a 4mp camera