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Digital Camera - What should i buy?

If you are looking for $300 digital camera, you have no choice but point to shoot. But if you are willing to spedn $600 or above to get a digital camera, you should seriously considering about purchasing a DSLR. There is really no comparison on the photo quality between the Point and shoot and DSLR regardless the megapixel.

D50 with lenz is as low as $799 on the Internet now.
 
iGary said:
hasselbald_h1d_2.jpg
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Why not this?

http://www.letsgodigital.org/html/events/PHOTOKINA-2004/news/mamiya/MAMIYA-DIGITAL-016.jpg

Though for me, as pricey as it is, I am lusting over the Epson R-D1. Though for the same price, I could end up with the E-300 and a couple sweet lenses. The R-D1 would help me justify keeping the Leica lenses and bodies that I now have and cherish.
 
justinshiding said:
I might as well also echo the sentiments of the many people who wrote before me...

I just bought a Cannon SD400 (5.0mp, 3.0x optical zoom) and I can't say how much I love it. It's small, fast, and takes lovely pictures! The SD500 I felt was too large (relatively speaking) so I opted for sd400. The lithium ion battery seems to last forever and the camera has some very cool modes that you might find useful depending on your tastes.

I paid 294 (US$) via dell (with the right series of coupon codes) and there are still places charging more than 350, so I got a pretty good deal for such a lovely camera!

Anyway , enough rambling.

Cheers,
justin
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As much as I love the SD200/300/400, the better option optically is the SD500. It flares a bit less than the former series does. Not a problem for most, but for the "purest" in me, a small point.
 
Chip NoVaMac said:
Why not this?

http://www.letsgodigital.org/html/events/PHOTOKINA-2004/news/mamiya/MAMIYA-DIGITAL-016.jpg

Though for me, as pricey as it is, I am lusting over the Epson R-D1. Though for the same price, I could end up with the E-300 and a couple sweet lenses. The R-D1 would help me justify keeping the Leica lenses and bodies that I now have and cherish.
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I just finished reading the reviews on that camera in Digital Photo Pro and Popular Photography. It's a nice piece.

I'm just a label queen. :p
 
OT: Still about digital choices

iGary said:
I just finished reading the reviews on that camera in Digital Photo Pro and Popular Photography. It's a nice piece.

I'm just a label queen. :p
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I know what you mean. The R-D1 is nothing more than a Bessa R2 (a $400 camera) with digital. But I am older than you ( :) ) and want something smaller and lighter for my street shooting. Otherwise I might had gone with the refurb'd 1DmkII and a refurb'd 24-70L that we had recently in our shop.

Since I work off the DOF scales a lot with the experience I have with the Leica; I would love to see a true DRF (digital Range Finder) The lenses could be smaller and sharper, and maybe faster. Heck, I would have settled for an Olympus OM-1D! I just want my DOF scales, fast start up, decent noise reduction (ever shot 1600 iso film - it is not the cleanest images you'll find).
 
Have you see the difference between the D2X and the 1DsII? Digital crop really helps because you only use the best part of the lens. Canon should abandon full frame and work on 1.3x up.
 
jared_kipe said:
Have you see the difference between the D2X and the 1DsII? Digital crop really helps because you only use the best part of the lens. Canon should abandon full frame and work on 1.3x up.
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Agreeded, but most of what I have seen has been trying to negate the 1Ds in regards to the wide-angle lenses. On normal and telephoto it seems to hold its own. Though that is the reason overall that I am in deep lust over a 1dmkII. !.3 and all. The best of all worlds IMO.
 
Actually...

I've been looking around for a replacement camera, not that my current camera is bad AT ALL. I have a 2 year old Canon Powershot G5, and the pictures it takes are NICE. I've taken it to two trips to San Francisco, and I always get great pics. It's a 5 MP camera, and although for me the verdict is still out if more megapixels do in fact make for better pictures, I've been looking at the Canon SD500, a 7 MP camera. The reviews point to it being a great camera. I might wait until the price comes down a bit further though.
 
Detlev_73 said:
I've been looking around for a replacement camera, not that my current camera is bad AT ALL. I have a 2 year old Canon Powershot G5, and the pictures it takes are NICE. I've taken it to two trips to San Francisco, and I always get great pics. It's a 5 MP camera, and although for me the verdict is still out if more megapixels do in fact make for better pictures, I've been looking at the Canon SD500, a 7 MP camera. The reviews point to it being a great camera. I might wait until the price comes down a bit further though.
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Might point you to an earlier post of mine here is a little comparison of the Fuji F10 vs Canon SD500 at iso 400. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilmf10zoom/page7.asp
The Canon costs $450 best site, and the Fuji costs $300 best site. I'd buy the fuji, and I have a canon dslr.
 
I don't get how anyone could live without an optical viewfinder. Holding the camera far away makes it much less stable and you have to rely on the LCD to tell you what the picture will look like. Plus the battery life is much lower, etc. That's why all those Panasonic cameras scare me, and why even if the Canon A95 has lower quality it's more appealing.
 
Detlev_73 said:
It's a 5 MP camera, and although for me the verdict is still out if more megapixels do in fact make for better pictures, I've been looking at the Canon SD500, a 7 MP camera.
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Megapixels only give you increased print quality at larger print sizes. Also increased megapixels give you the ability to do some cropping of the final image for printing.
 
StokeLee said:
Im a mac newbie, eeek, you say, im getting better honestly,,
Anyway, i am going to buy a digital camera, Ive done a lot of looking arond and i can get anything from a 3mp to a 7.1 mp camera for between £200 to £300 pounds,, sorry im not sure what that is in $$$$ maybe i should download a convertor widget, lol, but what im looking for is some reviews of some folks who have got a digi cam and a mac, im loking for seamless compatibilty between the two, I think i kow that almost probably every cam works with a a mac, but id love some advice,

Thank you

Lee
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Seeing as you're in the UK, Lee, try www.pixmania.co.uk and have a look at the Canon Ixus 700 (possibly the SD500 in the US and beyond). We just got one with a case, 512MB SD card and delivery for £311 and it's an awesome bit of kit looks-wise, user inter-face-wise and, of course, photo quality-wise. Highly recommended.


AL
 
Uhm why is everyone jumping in and recommending specific cameras without asking what the original poster actually requires?

For example I have a Canon Powershot S50, which was one of the best in it's class when I bought it it but lately I've gotten sick of the bulk of it and not being able to slip it into my pocket so I got myself a Canon SD400 to take travelling with me. I was looking at the comparable Nikon but it didn't have a viewfinder and I liked the feel of the SD400 in my hand plus I already know the Canon interface.

I was also looking at some Sony's but they pretty much got ruled out straight away due to the whole memory stick thing, they have way too many different memory sticks out there. Now if the cameras used Memory Stick Duo Pro then maybe I would have thought about it as both my phone and PSP use that card.

I also have a Canon film SLR (EOS300D, the film version of the consumer level Digital Rebel) and a copuple of lenses but with the travelling I do the portability of a point and shoot camera took precedence over the much better image quality of a DSLR.

The all important first question is what is your budget? Then you start looking at what features you need and find something that has a good mix of the features you need for your price point.
 
jaseone said:
Uhm why is everyone jumping in and recommending specific cameras without asking what the original poster actually requires?

The all important first question is what is your budget? Then you start looking at what features you need and find something that has a good mix of the features you need for your price point.
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no, many have offered suggestions that are within the budget of the original post...but if the original poster is willing to spend more or needs certain features, other suggestions (like the digital slr) have been made. you're right that budget and needs need to first be addressed, but i think most of us have done that.
 
jaseone, you have a good point about finding out what the original poster will be using the camera for and what his needs are. He did give us a price range though, £200-£300.

I am no expert on digital cameras but was in a similar situation a few months ago. I was purchasing a Mac for the first time (not a swticher, dual-user) and wanted a digital camera to work with my PC and Mac. I was new to digital photography as well which seems to be the case with the original poster too. The sites recommended in this thread are very good, I checked most of those out and looked around for what I wanted.

I ended up with the Canon PowerShot A95. I don't like the really compact cameras because I have big hands and I wanted the camera to be comfortable in my hands - still the A95 is not that big, IMO. It's 5 MP has some really nice features. I wanted it to have good auto settings as well as manual controls so that I could grow with the camera - still using presets most of the time. So far I have been very pleased with this camera.

Your needs might be different, but I thought I'd share my experience - hopefully it will be helpful. Best thing to do is figure out what you want and then just read up about the camera offerings on the digital camera sites mentioned. Once you get it narrowed down to a few options post a thread here to get more specific feedback about quality and featuresets. Good luck!
 
greatm31 said:
I don't get how anyone could live without an optical viewfinder. Holding the camera far away makes it much less stable and you have to rely on the LCD to tell you what the picture will look like. Plus the battery life is much lower, etc. That's why all those Panasonic cameras scare me, and why even if the Canon A95 has lower quality it's more appealing.
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The only cameras mentioned that don't have a view finder is the Fuji F10, and the Panasonic FX7, and LZ2. But those are both compacts which often don't have a view finder. The Pana FZ20, FZ5, and FZ3 I linked all have electronic view finders, so they shouldn't scare you one bit with their superior quality.
 
Budget is around £300 sterling. About $550. I would go above this for adding on extras such as memory card, carry case, extra battery.

Im from the UK so thank you all you guys in the US but some of the camera's available here have different names, Canon SD500 I think is the Canon IXUS 700, but im not quite sure,, the specs look the same. And i like this camera, its small enough to just about slip in my pocket. Im not a professional, never will be, just after "point and Shoot".

So thats one camera. The other is the SONY Cyber-shot DSC-T7 black.
Its even smaller, but ive only found one review for it so im not sure.
Prices

SONY Cyber-shot DSC-T7 black is £266 inc vat or £322 with a case and 512mb mem card

Canon IXUS 700 is £270 inc vat or £326 with a case 512mb mem card and spare battery.

These are the links for each of them

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/86202/art/canon/digital-ixus-canon-ixus-7.html

and

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/98827/art/sony/cyber-shot-dsc-t7-black.html


The only query i have about the Sony one is that i was pretty sure that the T7 was 7.1mp where as on its specs it states 5.1mp.

If it is 5.1mp a question.

What is the difference in that 2mp??????

Thank you for all your replies

Lee
 
StokeLee said:
Budget is around £300 sterling. About $550. I would go above this for adding on extras such as memory card, carry case, extra battery.

Im from the UK so thank you all you guys in the US but some of the camera's available here have different names, Canon SD500 I think is the Canon IXUS 700, but im not quite sure,, the specs look the same. And i like this camera, its small enough to just about slip in my pocket. Im not a professional, never will be, just after "point and Shoot".
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Fuji F10 off amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007Z9ZQI/qid=1119281657/026-8716070-3492413
Panasonic FZ20 http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...1759/br=3-9/br_lfncs_ce_9/026-8716070-3492413

FZ3 http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...81831/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/026-8716070-3492413

FX7's http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/026-8716070-3492413

I can't seem to find the FZ5, and the FZ3 isn't available, but it goes to show you that these cameras are probably available in the UK, and not under different names. And here is the Canon S2 IS (not differently named) http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...281992/sr=2-1/ref=sr_bt_1/026-8716070-3492413

EDIT: and I found all the Panasonics from the pixmania place you had too.
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/panasonic/36/marque.html
EDIT2: you can get the Panasonic FZ5 and a 256mb SD card from that pixmania for less than 300pounds. And the Canon S2 IS with 256mb SD for less than 400pounds.
EDIT3: but it looks like you are going compact which means the FX7 for 216pounds (available in silver black blue and copper) and apparantly a 256mb card and a case for 237pounds, and the same deal with a 1gb SD for a mear 276pounds. http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/56685/art/panasonic/lumix-dmc-fx7-black.html
 
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jared_kipe said:
Ya, should have gotten it when vistek.ca was giving away PMG5s when you bought one.
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That they were giving away PM G5's, which we constantly gripe about the pricing of, should show just how expensive this badboy is.

That said the Mamiya 22mp Medium Format hybrid looks like it might be....um.... nevermind. Too expensive.

Guess I have to settle on a lousy D2x!
 
I'm also in the same boat with buying a new digital cam. I'm upgrading from a 2.1 MP HP (about 3 years old) to a Sony Cybershot 7.2 MP . Anyone have any advice onto the Sony family or even the camera itself?

Thanks again,
`Vash
 
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