Does anybody know much about digital cameras. I am in the market for one now. I am looking for the best one I can get for about $200.00. Does a glass lens make much of a difference? How about megapixels? I heard that megapixels doesn't matter much unless you are making really big prints. Any help is appreicated.

 

This is pretty much the best one you're going to find for $200. As a bonus, it uses regular AA batteries. No need to carry around a cord or charger.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1134703785704


I personally have a Casio Exilim but I bought it based on compact size so I can throw it in a flight suit pocket. I want a digital SLR.

KC-10 FE out...

 

Sony has a few nice ones. I had a Fuji that was pretty good, but gave it away when I got my D50.


BREW

 

What makes it the best choice? Is there a must-have feature I should be looking for? What if I up my spending limit a little? Is there a better choice for a little more money? Thanks, I know nothing about this stuff.

 

What are you looking to do with it?

In that price range (let's say under $250), you will find enough models with more than sufficient megapixels to print 8"x10" prints. Personally, I have found that anything over 6 is overkill these days when using Sam's Club to do my printing.

The model listed above has a 4x zoom, which is nice. You can probably not go wrong with Canon. A lot of models in this price range only have 3x zooms. Olympus has a model with a 5x zoom that is slightly more expensive, the FE-200. (I own a couple Olympus point-and-shoot and Nikon DSLR)

Do you want to put it in a pocket or a purse? Do you care what storage media it uses? (i.e. do you have a bunch of SD cards lying around you want to reuse?) Do you want to be able to take control of the camera settings or always use it in automatic mode?

 

They are just like an analog camera only use digital media instead of analog film.....

Best way out of that situation is to by one.....

Arent we all?

Well thats a steep limitation......

Just like an analog camera, the quality of the image is only going to be as clear as the quality of the lens...... So yes the quality of lens can make or break a digital camera too.

This one is actually a little tougher to explain....... Simply because Megapixel is a very misunderstood.

A Megapixel is 1 million pixels
A pixel is a picture element... one little dot containing the color information for the space that it takes up and that when put together with other pixels makes the picture.

The reason that Megapixel rating is an inaccurate way to determine the quality of a camera is due to pixel arrangment.

Example I could make an 8 megapixel image be 1"x1" at 8 million pixels per square inch.

Or I can balloon that out to 8 million inches by 8 million inches, or about 666,666.5 feet by 666,666.5 feet at 1 pixel per inch and still only have an 8 megapixel image.

I have a 3.3 MP (2.8 effective megapixel) camera that I make high res 20"x30" prints from..... and have used that same 2.8 EMP camera to do art work for billboards too.......

 

Honestly, it all depends on what YOU want. I researched for about a year off and on and then prolly 3 months hard core before I bought my Nikon D50 SLR. Theres a lot to consider. How you're going to use it, what kind of pictures you will be taking and what features you really need. I kow we've talked about it a bit on here, try a search and see what info you come up with. I'll try to find out the model Sony my buddy has and let you know.

P.S. be careful of the guy who posted above me, he's cost me alot of money



BREW

 

Depends upon how you look at it.....

You could have bought something cheaper, been unhappy, and either stopped taking pictures wasting that money to takejust a few hundred pics... or got aggrevated, thrown the cheapo camera way and went and bought something 5 times moee expensive to make sure that you got what you wanted..... I showed you how to get a camera you were happy with the first time for the least amount of money.......

It's not my fault that you didn't get what I told you to................

 

Thanks guys. I am researching now. I will probably only use it for 8X10 pictures at the largest. I saw one, I forgot the model, that is about the same size as my Razor phone. I like the fact that I would be able to put it in my pocket. I need to find out the specs. Thanks again.

 

One word: Glass. The most important thing on a digital camera {or any camera} is the lens. Stay with the optical zoom [the lens actually does the zooming] and away from the “digital zoom” {the cameras “computer” zooms-sort of a fake zoom}. The more optical zoom range and the “faster” the lens is [how much light the lens can bring in-this allows you to shoot in lower light conditions.]

Under the assumption [and you know what they say about those ] that this will be used as a general picture taking camera and not for special use, you might look at the Fuji F650. It has a 6.0megapixel and a 5x optical zoom. I know Tigerdirect has them for 219.00-don’t know if anyplace else has them cheaper. I got the predecessor for my father and he loves it. The Canon is also a great camera and very well made. I love mine and use it quite a bit {SLR}


A couple of places to look for info:

www.steves-digicams.com Very user friendly and they rate the cameras in different groups.

www.dpreview.com A bit on the “techi” side, but has good reviews also.

Woof
Bowser

 

Thanks Bowser, that is the info I need to do my comparisons.

 

I based that on:
Ease of operation (I know 4 people that have either this exact camera or one that's only like one model off from it Canon is the most popular brand they carry in the Base Exchange)
Optical zoom (as someone pointed out, digital zoom on the camera is a waste of time, any good photo software can do it 10X better than the camera)
Size
AA batteries (if you're out in the field and your battery dies, no problem, just pop in a set of AA and keep snapping away)

If you shop around, you can surely get a better camera at a better price but this one is a nice all-around model. If you go thru Ebay, I'm sure you can nab it for well under $200.

KC-10 FE out...

 

You are talking about the a540 right KC-10 FE? The optical isn't quite as good in that one opposed to the Fuji f650 and the Olympus FE200. Another difference that I noted is the Cannon uses AA batteries instead of Lithium-ion batteries. Is that good or bad other than the ease of buying AA's as temporary use if I forget to charge them. Thanks for your help. This site always amazes me on how helpful it is.

 

Check out what dominates the top ten popular camers - Canon. The A540 is a very nice camera and is down to $200 @ every Best Buy and Circuit City. It has a 2.5" LCD and 6 MP compared to the A530 which is 1.8" and 5MP for $150. I wouldn't worry about 4x or 5x optical zoom without image stabilization. The 3x optical zoom is often bad at full telephoto.

I have an older Powershot A series camera and I love it.

I like the standard AA's. High capacity rechargables are cheaper than any proprietary batter you will find. They last a long time (2000mAh & up), and yes, can use common alkaline in a pinch.

 

So you are saying that the 4X zoom and 5X zoom will not really make much difference for general picture taking with no bigger than 8X10 prints?