I'm looking for a digital camera in the under $150 price range. Nothing too fancy, just your basic, point and shoot camera. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks
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Digital Camera advice
- Thread starter yg17
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My only advice is to stay away from low-end Canons. I got one from Best Buy, and every picture was blurred unless I turned on the ridiculously powerful flash, in which case every picture was washed out. I took it back, argued for nearly 45 minutes with a manager, had to pay a restocking fee, and got a Panasonic DMC-LZ3 for about the same price (a bit under $200 then). It's a nice camera, though you may want the LZ5, since that actually allows you to record audio when shooting video. Found that out too late, and wasn't gonna go argue some more for an exchange...
My point in that rambling mess is, the Panasonics with the Optical Image Stabilizer are pretty nice, and pretty inexpensive.
My point in that rambling mess is, the Panasonics with the Optical Image Stabilizer are pretty nice, and pretty inexpensive.
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I'm extremely happy with my Olympus µ digital 600 (aka stylus 600 in the US), which I got last Christmas. Nice size, mostly good pictures, large LCD, extremely good battery life, nicely designed. It should also be very affordable after the entire µ 700 series and now recently the µ 1000 was released, and you might just find it around $150 if you shop around a bit... 
Under a buck fiddy? My advice would be to hit the local pawn shops or eBay for a deal on something in the 'used but not abused' range.
The #1 question you need to ask yourself before camera shopping is what are you going to do with the images you take with the camera?
People often toss Megapixel numbers around, but the truth is, more mega pixels only give you a 'bigger' image.. which only helps if you're planning on printing 8x10's or want high detail when zooming in on an image.
For most general purpose camera applications, like taking pictures for the web, eBay listings, or pics of family gatherings, etc a 2.1 MP camera is more than sufficient.
If you'll be using the camera a lot, I recommend getting one that runs on a rechargeable battery, and has a optical viewfinder, as well as an LCD on the back for review of your images.
The reason is because using an LCD to frame your shots can really eat thru batteries fast. An optical view finder and Lithium Ion rechargable battery will give you a lot more time between charges, and save you a boat load of money in batteries.
The best 'el cheapo' camera I have is an old Sony Mavica FD91 I bought from a pawn shop for $75. 14x optical zoom, LiIon battery. It was originally built to save images directly to a floppy, but for $40 I bought a floppy adapter that lets me write the images directly to a Memory Stick, so I can take literally thousands of pictures on a fully charged battery.
For your budget of $150 or less, your best value is going to be in buying something used.
Thanks. My parents have a higher and Canon and the pictures are great. Not sure what the model number is, but I know it wasn't too terribly cheap. I'll keep that in mind though
D'oh! Didn't even realize that forum existed since I never post in it. Could a mod please move this thread?
I was also looking at the following cameras:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Niko...45933/catOid/-13062/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sony...55413/catOid/-13062/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Koda...59471/catOid/-13062/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
Any comments on those?
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I know it's already been said in this thread, but just stay away from the low end Canons. I have one, and the indoor picture quality is quite horrible.
I had a Kodak Easyshare back in the day (a 3.1MP one), and it was great. It was a bit slow between pictures, and the battery life wasn't that great, but it took a lot of abuse and took really good photos. It was great for just pointing and shooting and not worrying about anything, since you knew the photo would be good no matter what. It did die after about two years of use, but with the way I tossed it around, I couldn't have expected much more out of it.