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Anyone have suggestions for a basic digital camera?

Dark Void

Dark Void

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jun 1, 2011
2,614
479
Hello,

I have been posting here at MacRumors for a couple of weeks now and decided that this would be an appropriate place to receive some suggestions.

I am not a photographer by any means. I have Photoshop CS5 and I use that to edit images that are free for use and to mess around with stock photographs. I also like to make signature banners, avatars, and the like. It is a hobby and I am not looking to make a career out of photography/photo-editing. I basically do not output any work, I just photo-edit for my own enjoyment and like to personalize my desktop and my signature spaces on forums and things of that nature to the best of my ability.

With that being said, I looked into iPhoto for the first time the other day and I quickly realized it was not for what I currently do. It is my understanding that iPhoto is for those that take their own photographs and use it to sort them with a few different options. So ...

Would anyone please suggest a quite affordable, basic digital camera for me? I do not want one simply to utilize iPhoto, I have wanted one for a while and it's nice to have software to work with it. I just want it to produce fairly high quality images and simply plug into my Mac and transfer the photographs, quickly and simply. I don't need anything fancy. I will be using the camera for photographs of everyday life, myself, friends and family, eBay listings, and things relating to that ... very basic photographs. Thank you!
 
El Cabong said:
(1) Budget?
(2) Point-and-shoot vs. DSLR preference?
Click to expand...

1) sorry, probably should have elaborated a bit more. i couldn't justify spending more than $100 (tl;dr bolded) on it as i would just use it for the basic purposes listed and i feel like anything more would be overkill in terms of my photographic abilities. then again, i have no knowledge on the pricing of cameras, and something that produces quality images like i am asking could easily cost more than that, i have no idea.

2) could you explain what you mean, please? i'm quite new to photography as a whole.

@quasinormal: thanks i will take a look. :]

edit: taking a look at these it seems i am in way over my head with the idea of a $100 budget.
 
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I found the model with the feature finder of dpreview.com, and when I searched on Amazon, I saw the amazing deal.

Later I saw it's the #1 seller there. I didn't see any deal so radical in the top 100 digicam list.
 
cube said:
I found the model with the feature finder of dpreview.com, and when I searched on Amazon, I saw the amazing deal.

Later I saw it's the #1 seller there. I didn't see any deal so radical in the top 100 digicam list.
Click to expand...

i may just go for this, it has 24 hours left for the free one-day shipping so i have until this time tomorrow to decide. i can get a case too for $4 and change. $81 for a camera and case with free next day shipping sounds like a steal to me.

is there anything else i should know about maintaining it in terms of purchasing? i.e. will i need to buy anything to keep it working? it may be a bad question but i know nothing of digital cameras. looking at the "also purchased" section, do i need any sort of "flash memory card?" also, what does it run on in terms of power? any replaceable internal parts that die out quickly that i should be aware of?
 
You need to buy a memory card. Digicams usually come with a uselessly tiny flash card. You have to buy the right kind. This camera takes:

SD: up to 2GB
SDHC: 4GB to 32GB
SDXC: > 32GB to 2TB

SDHC and SDXC are classified in classes of minimum sustained speed (for video). You should look around to check which is the minimum recommended class for this camera (maybe 6 is enough).
 
great price on that little Canon:D

The smaller digital cameras are not usually known for their great battery life so if you plan to take it out on a day trip and shoot all day you may want to invest in a backup.

Even with a small memory card and a battery you could still end up @ <$100
 
See if you can download the manual from Canon, and it will tell you how much storage you need for pictures and video (just use the highest quality, storage is cheap).

The bigger card sizes are more useful for video, but note that photo cameras usually impose a limit on how long a single shot can be (5 minutes, for example).

Apart from video, a 4GB card will allow you to walk into most photo shops and transfer it to a DVD for a few bucks, but storage is so cheap that you're better off buying several cards (maybe you can carry an USB reader and find an Internet cafe where you can actually use it to make backups).

There are also some small backup devices taking a notebook hard drive just for backing up memory cards, some of them quite inexpensive, but make sure the type of memory you buy is supported.
 
amazon says that this is frequently purchased with the camera that you linked and i can get that with the case and the camera for $91.87.

it says it's SDHC and 4gb so it fits the limitations you listed. is this what i am looking for and does that sound like a solid deal?

also, does this mean that i can basically store 4gb of photos on it and that's it? i suppose i would want to buy multiple ones as you said, then. and this thing charges, i am assuming, based on Ravaroo's post?
 
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In my experience, Transcend is good value.

I saw somewhere it recommends at least class 6 for this camera. I think this should be right, as the video it shoots is not HD.

According to the Canon specs, a 4GB card would fit almost 1500 photos OR 32 minutes of video at the highest quality (or whatever fitting mixture, say, 750 photos + 16 min of video).

http://usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/...tal_cameras/powershot_a3000_is#Specifications

"Battery Pack NB-8L, AC Adapter Kit ACK-DC60Approx. 230 shots Approx. 6 hours*LCD screen on. The above figures comply with CIPA testing standards and apply when fully-charged batteries are used."
 
I think you may want to consider the Panasonic FH25 which has some wide angle and shoots 720p video.

I didn't suggest it before because it has too many megapixels for me to feel confident, but those two features are quite important.

For the record, I still don't feel confident in 2011 with any compacts with more than 6 megapixels, but that's what's sold today (I saw a Nikon in the dpreview finder with 8 megapixels, but I think it offered less control than the Canon).
 
Well, I don't know about the controls, but the Nikon L21 has electronic stabilization, so forget about it.
 
i think i am going to go with the Canon Powershot A3000IS, 1 Transcend 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card, and the Lowepro Ridge 10 Camera Case for $91.87. it seems well within my price range and seems to include everything that i need for my purposes.

thanks a lot for your help and patience cube i really appreciate it.
 
Archlord said:
i think i am going to go with the Canon Powershot A3000IS, 1 Transcend 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card, and the Lowepro Ridge 10 Camera Case for $91.87. it seems well within my price range and seems to include everything that i need for my purposes.

thanks a lot for your help and patience cube i really appreciate it.
Click to expand...

It's an extra $5 for the 8GB one, which may be worth getting if you want to shoot videos or go away without a computer ever.

I've got a Lowepro backpack and can attest that their products are great. They're not always the most aesthetically pleasing, but are very functional.
 
that makes sense, actually, as two 4gb cards would be $16. perhaps i will go with the 8gb then just to be safe. i probably won't use it that much for video so ~1500 photos sounds good with the 4gb but the 8gb does seem like a better deal so i will go for that. thanks for pointing that out mackmgg.

and yeah, i simply went for the case because it's four dollars. good to know that it's a quality brand in your opinion. :]

edit: whoops, one more thing (sorry), looking at the canon link that cube posted, i noticed software updates for mac os x. is it possible that i will have to go through a few processes before being able to transfer my photos into iPhoto, or is it just as simple as plugging it in and letting it do its thing?
 
Archlord said:
that makes sense, actually, as two 4gb cards would be $16. perhaps i will go with the 8gb then just to be safe. i probably won't use it that much for video so ~1500 photos sounds good with the 4gb but the 8gb does seem like a better deal so i will go for that. thanks for pointing that out mackmgg.

and yeah, i simply went for the case because it's four dollars. good to know that it's a quality brand in your opinion. :]

edit: whoops, one more thing (sorry), looking at the canon link that cube posted, i noticed software updates for mac os x. is it possible that i will have to go through a few processes before being able to transfer my photos into iPhoto, or is it just as simple as plugging it in and letting it do its thing?
Click to expand...

You should be good to just plug the camera into the computer and iPhoto will open right up. The easier and faster way (in my opinion at least) is to just pop out the SD card and insert it into the card reader built into your MBP (I think it has one). iPhoto will still open up just like if the camera is attached.
 
I saw some people having trouble with Canon and iLife '11 when importing directly. Look if it has been fixed.

If you look at the top of the amazon page, you will see that there is a free bag+card offer.

BTW, I always buy Lowepro bags.
 
thanks to everyone that posted. this is exactly what i was looking for and it seems to be a great deal. i'm very pleased with all of the information provided and what i am reading on this camera.

i'll go for it tomorrow before the shipping deal ends. thanks again everyone! :]
 
The only high megapixel compacts I would consider buying are the Fujifilm EXRs.
 
i went ahead and got the a300is. thanks again for your suggestion, exactly what i was looking for, and cheap, too. :]
 
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