Digital camera suggestions?

[beez7777]

Hey everyone, I'm looking to buy a digital camera for my mother. She's a real estate agent, and takes pictures of houses a lot and puts 'em on the internet, gives them to people, etc. Right now, she has an old Sony that writes to floppies, and she's expressed her desire for a new one. It'll be part mine, so I'm lookin at a 2 MP camera. 2 MP should be enough, and the price seems right. I've looked at a few, and I like the Canon A200, and also the Nikon Coolpix 2500. My friend said that Canons are guaranteed to work perfectly with iPhoto, which is what I need. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to buy, maybe good/bad experiences with these or other cameras?
thanks, beez

edit: actually, the Canon A40 seems like a better camera than the A200

 

[King Cobra]

The camera my father has is a Nikon Coolpix 990. It works incredibly well. You can plug the thing into the TV and view the pics stored on there, or load them into iPhoto.

I don't think my father has had that much experience with anything from Canon, though.

 

[alex_ant]

You didn't mention the price you were looking to spend, but I'll just assume <$250 or so. If she'll be taking pictures of houses, I would recommend finding a camera with as good a wide-angle capability as possible. A few cameras in this price range go down to 35mm. The rest are 37 or 38mm, and those couple mm can make a noticeable difference. The better the wide-angle capability (lower number = better), the closer you'll be able to stand to the house to fit it inside the frame, and the more you'll be able to see of an interior space. A few cameras you might want to look at are:

- Fuji Finepix 2650 (3x zoom, 38mm wide-angle)
- Canon A40 (3x zoom, 35mm)
- Canon S200 (2x zoom, 35mm, pocket-sized)
- Nikon Coolpix 2000 (3x zoom, 38mm, pocket-sized)
- Olympus D-520 (3x zoom, 38mm)
- Olympus D-380 (no zoom, 35mm)
- Minolta DiMAGE X (3x zoom, 37mm, pocket-sized)

There are plenty of others, especially from companies that haven't historically been camera companies (Sony, HP, Panasonic, Toshiba, etc.) Most digital cameras work fine with iPhoto - there is a compatibility list here.

 

[beez7777]

yeah, alex, you hit the nail on the head- im lookin to spend, about 250. right now, the A40 IMO looks the nicest, and seems like a pretty good deal. the Minolta is cool too, but it might be a little too small, if thats possible.

 

[Over Achiever]

I read on C|Net that prices for 2MP cameras are going down...to under $99 they say (companies desparate enough to sell for a loss). Can't find the stinkin' article to back me up tho'...but I think you'll find good deals after thanksgiving

 

[mmmdreg]

It's a bit more expensive because its 4mp but my canon powershot s40 is a great work of art...its small and has good features..zdnet also gave it editors choice for various catergories when it was released..now its been made obsolete by the s45 but my point is that canon's cameras (in my experience) are extremely well made so go for one...does your mother have a mac?

 

[beez7777]

Originally posted by mmmdreg
...does your mother have a mac?

well, I'm only 15, so I still live in the same house as my mom. I have a 17" iMac, and she likes it so she checks her mail and stuff on it, and if we were to get a digital cam, then my computer would be the one of use.

 

[BenderBot1138]

Smile...

All the suggestions above are excellent, but if she's using a Mac, and it sounds like she is by your description of iPhoto compliance need, you should check the Apple Site for compliance as well.

Alex_ant mentioned about about Apple's compatibility list, but I repeat the click here sentiment so you can ensure the device you are going to buy is iPhoto Compatible. No body doooooes it bettttter... Maaaakes meeeee feeeeeel saaaaaad for the reeeeest... Straight from Apple is best.



I use My Optura 200 MC DV Camcorder for quick pics as well as rough footage on the fly. Have you considered a DV camcorder... more expensive yes, but you're in the information age now, and moving pictures (also called "talkies" for you younger kids) are all the rage.

 

[ftaok]

Originally posted by mmmdreg
It's a bit more expensive because its 4mp but my canon powershot s40 is a great work of art...its small and has good features..zdnet also gave it editors choice for various catergories when it was released..now its been made obsolete by the s45 but my point is that canon's cameras (in my experience) are extremely well made so go for one...does your mother have a mac?

mmmdreg,

The S45 isn't available in the US yet. At least it wasn't when they announced it back in October. Besides, it's way overkill for what they need it for (although they could always use it for other things as well).

One other thing to consider. Do you guys already have "flash" media? If so, what kind do you have? If you already have Memory Sticks (since you have a Sony - floppy disk, but they did make floppy/MS adapters), you might want to look at a Sony. If you have CF cards, the Canons make sense. If you have a Palm Pilot that uses SD cards, a digicam that uses SD cards is a no-brainer.

For a 2MP camera, I'd recommend the Canon S200 Digital Elph. They retail for $300 now-a-days, but you can get them cheaper if you look around. Walmart.com had them for $275 a while back.

BTW, would the "movie" mode be useful for your mother? If so, Sony's DSC-P7 and P9 have the best movie mode for the lower end cameras. They can record video with sound at 15fps with no time limit (up to the card's capacity). Canon's cameras can record video/sound at 20fps, but are limited to 4/10/30 second clips (depending on resolution setting). The newer Canons can record up to 3 minutes, but the speed was reduced to 15fps. Just something else to think about.

 

[moby1]

The Canon S330 is what she wants

It's an awesome little camera - the best 2 MP out there.

I'd recommend BuyDig.Com which has it at around 279 + ship.

I love the Nikon CoolPix 900 series/ 4500 but I wouldn't reccomend them to a 'casual' user. I did not care for the canon S40 - at all.



For examples of what the S330 can do check out;

http://homepage.mac.com/moby1


moby1


...also, there is a QuickTime movie (slide show) at;

http://homepage.mac.com/moby1/.Public/Nightmov/nightfly.html

All these pics were taken with the S330.

 

[beez7777]

there's so many choices....
i like the digital elph (s200, 330, etc) and i think theyre nice lookin, but my dad has a regular elph, and as much as i like it, i kinda want somethin different. other than size, is there any advantage with the digital elves over the a40? size is the only advantage i've found, but the a40 seems like a better camera- better optical zoom, more of a 'camera' type feel to it. movie mode is cool, but its not gonna be a deciding factor.

 

[filmcutter]

The Fuji 2650 is a sweet little camera. The XD Picture card is nice and tiny with a "theoretical" limit of 8 GB! It's a fairly sturdy camera, a bit bigger than most, but it feels good to hold, easy to control and I don't worry about dropping it or losing it like I had with Elphs, etc.

3x optical zoom, Movie mode, the usual digicam extras. Uses AA batteries, and with the lower power consumption of the XD card, you can actually run with normal AAs for a decent time, or drop in NiCds and you're on your way...

It's on sale at lots of stores now for $200

A good deal!

 

[alex_ant]

Originally posted by beez7777
there's so many choices....
i like the digital elph (s200, 330, etc) and i think theyre nice lookin, but my dad has a regular elph, and as much as i like it, i kinda want somethin different. other than size, is there any advantage with the digital elves over the a40? size is the only advantage i've found, but the a40 seems like a better camera- better optical zoom, more of a 'camera' type feel to it. movie mode is cool, but its not gonna be a deciding factor.

The Elph S200 has only a 2x zoom, but it's slightly smaller than the S330 which has a 3x zoom. Compared to the A40, the Elphs are smaller and built more solidly (stainless steel bodies vs. plastic on the A40). The Elphs come bundled with a Li-ion battery and a charger. The A40 uses AA batteries, so you'll probably need to buy NiMHs if you don't already have them, but the upside to that is, if you buy a good set of NiMHs and a charger, you'll probably get significantly better battery life than an Elph.

Those are about the only differences. As far as photographic features go, the S200, S330, and A40 are pretty much exactly the same. The Elph S230 is 3 megapixels, but it's also $350+.