Which digital camera to choose c.q. buy?!...

[efoto]

Thanks for the retailer recommendations, though I'm not in the US. See my first post, you'll see the prices behind each camera are listed in euros. Anyways, I've nailed it down to only two cameras now, like Applespider suggested I'd do, being these:

- Sony CyberShot DSC-P73 (116x56x35mm) for €212*;
- Canon Digital Ixus i/PowerShot SD10 (90x47x19mm) for €232.

The Sony is, obviously, the cheapest of these two. Atop of that, it takes pictures at least as good as the Canon and comes included with rechargeable batteries and charger. But, quite important, it's substantiably bigger.

Sorry about that, I must not have read very thoroughly, sorry about that. I'll do some checking over lunch here and see if I can find anyone over in that neck of the woods awake to assist with some recommendations.
If your purchasing online....does the e.tailer have to be in the Netherlands or anywhere in Europe?

 

[Stallion]

Thus, it needs to be small, light, have good battery-life

Just one warning. I've been doing research on smaller cameras as well, and these 2 things are just about mutually exclusive. Virtually every one of the tiny cameras out there have proprietary(sp?) batteries, and pretty crappy battery life (around 120 pics). It's just something you have to live with. However, with the batteries being so small, you can cary around 2 or 3 of them with little problems.

Just wanted to give you an FYI on that one. It was dissapointing to me at first, but I'm comming to grips with it now.

 

[Bengt77]

Sorry about that, I must not have read very thoroughly, sorry about that. I'll do some checking over lunch here and see if I can find anyone over in that neck of the woods awake to assist with some recommendations.
If your purchasing online....does the e.tailer have to be in the Netherlands or anywhere in Europe?

No need to apologize! Where the e-tailer is located doesn't really matter. In fact, in can be in the US as well, but then the shipping fee would be more expensive than any possible price advantage. So, no, the e-tailer doesn't have to be in the Netherlands, though I guess it would be a plus.

 

[Bengt77]

Sony, anyone?!...

I should also note that the Sony is almost (well, not exactly, but still) twice as heavy as the Canon. It's 243g vs 140g. Also, and I only just yet realized, the Canon has no zoom, whereas the Sony has 3x optical zoom.

I guess that makes a choice then: I'll have to settle for a slightly bigger and heavier camera, since I really do want one with (optical) zoom.

 

[duja_snooze]

i bought an ixus i about 6 weeks ago.

picture quality is great, and it has the focus-assist light which helps in dark conditions. if you dont mind not having an optical zoom then i'd go for this one. i don't find the lack of zoom a problem.
battery life has been great, and works seemlessly with iphoto.
best thing about it though, which has already been mentioned by someone else, is the size. it's about the same size as my phone, and i love the fact that i dont have to worry about whether to take it with me or not. the camera i had before was also small, but not small enough so that i could easily slip it in my pocket, so i didnt really use it much at all.
if your looking for a nice, cool, easy to use camera that u can take anywhere, then look no further.

 

[papersushi]

I have been impressed by Casio Exilim EX-Z40. Canon PowerShot is nice, but Canon has always got battery with very short battery life time. Casio Exilim EX-Z40 is credit cared size pocket camera, yet have very nic eoptical zoom and awesome battery life. The picture is very clear. Definitely consider Casio Exilim EX-Z40.

 

[aricher]

Yeah - the Casio Exilim is an excellent camera - amazing battery life - AND endorsed by Steve Wozniak!

 

[Qianlong]

I bought my Canon Ixus 430 at camerahuis.be, their main shop is camerahuis.nl.

http://www.camerahuis.nl
http://internetcamerasdirect.nl.server10.firstfind.nl/
http://www.alternate.nl

Veel plezier met uw aankoop

 

[Bengt77]

Veel plezier met uw aankoop

Ai, wat formeel; ik word aangesproken met u! Dank je wel voor je links. Dat zijn inderdaad ook de e-tailers waarnaar Kelkoo verwijst. Zullen wel goed zijn dan, toch?!...

Sorry, all, that was Dutch. Probably total gibberish to most of you. Didn't mean to be rude, but I couldn't resist replying in my native tongue.

 

[Bengt77]

All over again...

Okay, so now that the Canon Digital Ixus i is basically out of the picture (since it doesn't have - optical - zoom), I have to look at another camera. Of course, the Sony is excellent, but I do indeed want two cameras to choose from. So now I'm looking for another Canon camera in the price range of the Sony and that seems hard to find.

What I could do, of course, is do a little step up and compare Canon's Ixus 40 (quite a bit more expensive than the Ixus i) to Sony's DSC-P93, DSC-P73's bigger brother. Then it seems to be a total no-brainer. The Sony is (still) cheaper than the Canon and offers a resolution that's one whole megapixel better (or at least more).

The cheapest I've seen both camera being sold for is €245 for the Sony and €319 for the Canon. Of course, Memory Sticks are more expensive than Secure Digital-cards. A 512MB SD-card costs some €60 whereas a 512MB MS-card costs more than twice as much: somewhere around €130. Then again, the Sony is still slightly cheaper even after adding the price of the cards to both cameras.

Oh, the confusion. What to do now?!...

 

[Bozola]

How much for a Nikon 4200 in Europe?

4MP, SD, 3X Zoom.

 

[Bengt77]

How much for a Nikon 4200 in Europe?

4MP, SD, 3X Zoom.

Cheapest one I just saw on Kelkoo Netherlands is €265,50 including shipping. It's bigger brother, the 5200, is being sold for only €40 more.

Kelkoo has a special deal of a Nikon Coolpix 4200 with a 512MB SD-card. Together they sell for €333.

 

[Dave00]

I've had two Canon digital elph's (the S110 and S400,european equivalent is the ixus) and I think it's superior in terms of a compact, powerful, easy-to-use camera. The only real drawback is less-than-optimal performance in low-light, which is an almost universal problem with compact digicams.

As far as picture quality/glass, the Olympus's have always been (and will probably continue to be) far and away the best. Canon and Nikon are probably tied for a close second, with the others far behind. Sony pics are definitely "grayer".

Main problem I have with the Nikons is that they sacrifice compactness for ergonomics (they have that curvy shape). The memory stick is the major limitation for the sony's. Definitely more $/MB, and less interoperability. CF, while larger, is much more widely used. This comes into play when, say, you're in a foreign country and you need a new card or want to burn a card to CD or upload it to the net. I much prefer proprietary batteries to AA; they charge faster, are smaller, and tend to last longer.

Another nice thing about the canons is they're quite sturdy. i've severely abused mine, and it's still kicking. Movie quality is actually pretty good; I forget the specs (?320x320?) but regardless, playing them on a TV you can definitely appreciate the action, even if it is a little less detailed than standard video.

One advantage to getting you camera at a retailer like circuit city is the ability to return it after you've had a chance to use it.

Good luck.

Dave

 

[Bengt77]

Okay, I've made up my mind. I've talked to two friends this evening. Both are more into photography than I am. One advised me to go Canon, whereas the other advised me to go Sony. So that didn't help at all.

However, I've decided to go the Sony way. It has a 5 megapixel CCD-chip, the Canon 'only' offers 4 megapixel-quality. The Sony camera seems to last longer on a pair of charged batteries than the Canon, and uses standard AA-sized batteries, which could come in handy when travelling.

The Canon is smaller, yes, and lighter. So it would make for a better take-with-you-anywhere camera, but the Sony (with higher quality CCD-chip, longer battery life and a very good price) just attracted me more in the end. Don't really know why, but sometimes one just has to step up and make a decision.

Sony, here I come. I'm not ordering right away, since I haven't got my salary for this month yet. Only three days to go, though, so I might just do it anyway. But not now. I'll let you know when I made the purchase, what it cost me and what Memory Stick for what price I bought with it.

Thanks for all the advice and info, people! Greatly appreciated, really.

 

[Bengt77]

A done deal. Literally.

Okay, I ordered the camera! I've actually done it! It's done! It'll be mine in about two or three days. Hopefully, it'll arrive this weekend. I really hope the company where I just ordered it (Discountcamera B.V.) delivers on Saturdays, too. I paid €255,80 for it, including €6,80 shipping.

I've also just ordered a 512MB Memory Stick Pro from eBay. It wasn't an auction, it just was a cheap, limited time offer. I paid €87 for it, including €3 shipping.

So together, I paid €342,80 for both the Sony DSC-P93 digital camera and a 512MB Memory Stick Pro from SanDisk. Please tell me, is that a good deal? Please, comfort me. This was the most expensive thing I've bought in a while. Also, it's the single most expensive payment I've ever done over the internet. I really hope everything goes well...

As soon as I receive the goods, I'll post here again, to let you know how happy or unhappy I am (will be) with them.

 

[JDar]

Congratulations!

That Sony looks like a capable camera and good size for carrying all the time. I don't know the exact conversion rate so can't comment on the price.

It uses AA batteries--that is very helpful in my opinion rather than some of the weird proprietary batteries and variable life. Consider getting some high capacity rechargeable AA's and a fast charger then you are set with that high capacity memory card you added. Have fun, and post some pictures in the photo gallery.

 

[Bozola]

All of the cameras that you were looking at were good choices so there is no wrong decision.. only right ones! You will be happy with your purchase.

On a side note. AA batteries are nice but a bit heavy. I was against the whole proprietary battery concept, but my Nikon 5200s 'proprietary' battery only costs 20$, so it's not that much more expensive.

Finally, if this is your first digital... a plan for your photo storage should be invoked. Remember.. if you delete it.. it's gone. No negatives!

 

[Bengt77]

That Sony looks like a capable camera and good size for carrying all the time. I don't know the exact conversion rate so can't comment on the price.

It uses AA batteries--that is very helpful in my opinion rather than some of the weird proprietary batteries and variable life. Consider getting some high capacity rechargeable AA's and a fast charger then you are set with that high capacity memory card you added. Have fun, and post some pictures in the photo gallery.

I picked it up yesterday. I couldn't wait to have it delivered, and the store that acts as the front-end for the e-tailer is only 15 kilometers from where I live. So here it is. It's quite small. Even smaller, actually, than I thought it would be, and that's great!

Pictures look good, although I haven't taken the time to take some good photos, yet. Ah well, that'll come later. The memory card hasn't arrived yet, so I can't record high quality (640x480px, 30fps) movies yet.

Anyways, I'm happy! The camera comes with it's own batteries, like I said, a USB-cable (of course) and an AV-cable to link it to a tele. Quite generous, if you ask me. Only thing that's not included is a carrying case, but I believe none of the compact digitals come with one.

Oh, and yeah, I'm happy with it!

 

[Bengt77]

That's a good idea!

Finally, if this is your first digital... a plan for your photo storage should be invoked. Remember.. if you delete it.. it's gone. No negatives!

Ahhhh... good advice is always welcome. I'll be careful with what to delete, yes. And now is finally the time to check out iPhoto, since before now I didn't really have any reason to use it. iLife is looking more and more interesting...

 

[Abstract]

At the risk of repeating myself....

Look at the Nikon 3200, 4200, and 5200.

decent price, good optics, small size, Nikon lens

I have 3 friends living with me in residence who have the Coolpix cameras: 2 with 4200s, and one with a 5200. They all take blurrier pictures than my Canon A60, 2MP camera, on average. The Coolpix cameras seem very easy to pick up motion blurring when compared to my Canon. This is in darker lighting conditions, or where people aren't careful about sitting perfectly still, such as spontaneous shots of friends at a party. Of course, my A60 is larger in comparison. However, it just goes to show you that less megapixels doesn't mean poorer image quality. I'd rather take pictures using my 2MP camera than d/l my friends' pictures from the residence network, although I'm usually too lazy and let them take all the photos so that I don't need to.