Digital Cameras

[Rare Groove]

So I just got a new job and I've decided it's a good time to treat myself to a new digi cam. My old 1.3 MP cam isn't really cutting it anymore

I tried the search but didn't see any recent threads on this subject, so I'd like to get your opinions on the best digital cameras. I'd like to get something that I can take nice macro shots with. I'd rather spend a little more money to get something I'll be happy with for the long haul, but at the same time I don't need the 'best of the best.' Just looking for a quality cam. So what do you all recommend?

 

[Guest]

i've been using the fuji finepix s7000 for a while now and i love it.. every picture in my gallery is by it, and im sure i could improve a lot of my pictures and take better pics if i knew all the capabilities of the cam

 

[Insomniac]

I have a sony cyber-shot dsc-w50
6.0 megapixel whole bunch of shooting settings. Decent macro but you need a better lens to get upclose. The new one is a 7 megapixel for like 250 or less. I think they are great cameras for the price. The Carl Zeiss lens makes for clean shots.
picture of an iris I took with the camera:

 

[Rare Groove]

Thanks for the comments. That's a really crisp iris pic, Insomniac. Great job! So I've been happy with every piece of Sony gear I've had in the past and your opinions mean a lot more to me than random web reviews. I went ahead and found the Sony DSC-W100 on sale and bought it online. I'm going to pick it up at the store tomorrow. Now I'll finally be able to take some real pics! Thanks again

 

[Truth]

I have 3 digital camera... 2mp, 4mp, and 7mp. The 2mp is never used..the 4mp is used for regular shots...and the 7mp is used for extreme closeups.

 

[Verite]

Go compare different cameras side by side in staged shots here.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/IMCOMP/COMPS01.HTM

 

[jcsmooth]

Check out http://www.dpreview.com/ for a plethora of information.

If you don't mind doing a bit of research, find yourself a used camera that was used by a serious photographer for a few years. I think for the same price you'll probably get a better lens and better features (perhaps not cutting edge) on a used camera. This idea was given to me over the holidays from a relative who has been shooting nascar for 10 or 15 years.

Can't wait to chuck out my 2.0mp. For such low quality it sure does weigh a ton, haha.

Good luck with the purchase,
JC

 

[Deft]

Lol 1.3? Thats how much my phone has! If I were to buy a new cam (mine is 3.2) I'd get a digital rebel from canon.

 

[waydee]

I stand by Canon, i've never seen a bad canon digital camera and the powershot series of cams has some of the best manual controls (essential if you want to take really good shots) available for consumer level cameras. Great optics, easy to operate and the ability to use different lenses without the expense of buying an SLR. I dont think you can go wrong really.

 

[Guest]

sony cybershot

deff...


easy to use...pretty much universal...easy to find parts


very high quality

Sony Cybershot

 

[Deft]

Mines an old cybershot, deecent cam, does its job allright and can take some great pics under good light.

 

[HeadyPete]

I am on my second Olympus 5.1mp (C-5500 SportZoom cam. First one was 3.1mp C-3000 Zoom) and I really like them. Image quality is great. Optics are top notch. 5X zoom is better than most with 3X. The new one boots up quick and is much quicker storing the movies to card. Shooting at 2048X1536, I get 221 shots on a 512 meg xd-picturecard. That's lots at very high rez. 1024X768 is a usual norm.

My first digi experience ever (1998) was shooting sailboat races (J24s) with an Olympus on a partly cloudy day that was amazing. Borrowed from a friend, it was easy to use and intuitive, I still have a CD of those shots. The quality has gotten much better since then, but it was so cool to see shots right away and discard crap ones.

I was open to a different brand, but after reading opinions and reviews and weighing cost factors and such, the C-5500 was the one at the time. Another Olympus.

Good luck!

 

[Yummybud]

well I sold cameras and camcorders during christmas this year so I know a bit about cameras.

personally I do not like sony cameras. One feature you may want to consider is optical image stabilization which stabilizes the image (the lens floats and moves) so you don't get blurry pictures which would be usefull for getting clear macro shots.

in my opinion canon makes the best digital cameras. canon 700is is nice, 4 times zoom, optical stabilization and nice overall camera.

panasonic cameras with the Leica lenses are also realy good cameras.

Nikon makes some nice cameras also (of course depends which model).a

canon 700is is about 300-400.

 

[rusto]

yes get a cannon.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0608/06082404canona630640.asp

I got that cannon A640 (black one) and I absoultely love it, http://newegg.com has some good deals.

 

[Guest]

Nikon....Nikon....Nikon

Just a heads up, after conciderable research on dig-cams. First of all, how much money ya got. Now save some for a flash. KEH.com is a well known place for cameras, they sell used ones as well. Nikon has the best tech support by far. And some of these cameras can get pretty difficult to use. If you set it down for awhile; you will forget how to use it, no lie.

Look at the lens focal length you need for your shots. A 24mm is a wide lens and works great to get the whole grow in the pic. While 85 mm is more of a portriat lens, and slightly enlarges your subject. Beyond this, the lenses suffer from a higher f stop. Meaning longer to get in focus, and very poor light gets to the lens. Anything over 2.8 f stop is almost not worth the trouble.

Then, do you wish to change lensess, a SLR. More money. Stay away from zoom lenses; slow, noisy, etc. The best lens line up. is a 24 or 28 mm,
a 50 mm, and a 85 mm for most applications.

If you want some great objective advice from elsewhere; try this. find sites which are for photography students. often instructors put up sites for thier students, to help them select a camera appropriate for thier upcomming school work. Great advice !!!

Be carefull listening to others recomend a camera. They are often narrowly focused, very subjective. I have been in the electronics business almost all my life. And a saleasman will tell you want he thinks you want to hear. Most salesmen are uinderpaid, and the ones who really know what they are talking about; are in fields which pay the money they deserve.


Good Luck

 

[HeadyPete]

So what do you think of Olympus and what do you say to all the online reviews by photo pros that say the Nikon (at this price point, not SLR) has poorer picture quality and colour reproduction than others?

 

[Guest]

I have a Sony W7 and am quite happy with it. I think that I will upgrade again though soon. This website shows professional reviews on a lot of different digi cams....

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/

 

[Guest]

This is a common mistake. Disspariging one manufacture, in order to make another look more apealing. If you were going to compare brands, you have to be specific. And manufactures use different enviroments to calculate the values of thier features. The guy who sold camcorders probably knows thus about lux values of light. Or an amplifier rating of your stereo. The same aplies here.

The best thing to do is, take advice from one who knows the cameras (used it exstenively), and has nothing to gain by helping you. This is not only a hard to find source, and may already limit you due to an instructor only using a few handfulls of different models. As an example, look at Karen's Site. This is very objective information, which is what you need.

http://photoethnography.com/


Articles from magazines are run by companies which must pay for thier staff, and business exspendatures. Now, all of this does not mean to ignore all information you read or hear about a particular product, just put it in the right context.

After realising how corupt the sales game is, you are ready to start narrowing down the features needed of your new camera. As mentioned above, price willing to shell out, focal length desired (or interchangability, SLR), light requirements / speed of focus ( F. Stop), camera shoe for an external flash, user friendly software, warranty, mega pixel size (for enlargements / or reductions), technical support offered, and warranty length.

After you determine what is important to you, and what you have to spend. You are ready to begin your conquest. Barrow a friends camera, and get a feel for it, look at the quality of both the product, and the pics. Computers have color settings, so what you see; may not be in fault of your camera. I hope you are now seeing all the varibles envolved in getting a sure thing. So don't be so hard on yourself here.

Companies are now more concered with thier stockholders than the customer. So alot of the features may have not been tested for very long. This is why I say Nikon...Nikon....Nikon. Their products are rigiorlously field tested. Call thier technical support team first (24/7), and get a feel for the service.

Internet sites offering consumer coments can be mis-leading as well. Often users do not read the manual, and post coments before becomming familiar with thier product. Be aware, there are people on the payroll who's job is to write mock-up comments pretenting to be the consumer. Again, put this info into context.


Here are my set-ups:

Canon SLR A-1, 24mm f1.4 asepherical, 50mm f2.8, 85mm f1.2 asepherical
Nikon E-8400 (24mm-85mm / 8 mega pixel), Nikon Speedlight SB-600
Canon Rangefinder Canonet G111
Yashica Rangefinder GX
Gitzo Reporter Tripod
Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium

Each camera is used for different situations. The Rangefinders for street photography, or indoor parties. The Digital for convenience of down loads, and light weight. And the Canon SLR for lens system interchangability (very heavy to carry around).

The 8400 listed here can be found at keh.com, used for around the mid 400's. The flash will run ya 250, and you wont find this used anywhere.
The pictures are uterally astonishing.

So you really need to know alittle about photography as well, before choosing a camera.

Photography and the Art of Seeing
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...103-0335653-2487849?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Black and White Photography: a Basic Manual
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/03...103-0335653-2487849?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Basic Photography, Seventh Edition
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/02...103-0335653-2487849?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Lighting for People Photography
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...103-0335653-2487849?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Understanding Exposure
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/08...103-0335653-2487849?s=books&v=glance&n=283155


So, you may pick the wrong camera at first, so what. It wont be the last camera you buy. And you will have a refined outlook on ya next purchase.
I hope this puts a more realistic approach to choosing a camera.




.

 

[Rare Groove]

Wow, lots of really good info and links here. Really excellent references. Thanks to all who've contributed so far.

Speaking of Olympus, that's what my old cam was, the 1.3 MP beast. That thing is about 10 years old, has an 8 MB memory card, and uses 4!! AA batteries. Those last about 72 pics then you have to pop in 4 fresh ones, hahah. I'm sure many of you remember those monsters. It took surprisingly decent pics, but is definitely a far cry from what one can get today.

I was seriously looking at the Canon 700 IS, yummybud. I compared it side-by-side to the Sony DSC-W100 on the website Verite provided. The Sony seemed to put out much 'warmer' photos consistently, and the macros looked just as good as the Canon. I saw no reason to spend the extra $$$ for the Canon. Not to mention the Canon has the viewfinder right above the center of the LCD- I could see that screen getting pretty smeared up.

So I picked up the DSC-W100 this morning. Man this thing blows away my old cam!!! I haven't really messed with it much or read the owner's manual yet, but I'm impressed with the quality on Auto mode right out of the box. Tried to get a bud close-up for y'all. I think a small tripod will have to be next on the list

I'd love to see any other comments or resources you all can provide, because as Chilly Willy says, this won't be the last camera I buy. And I'm sure there're others out there looking to upgrade as well. So thanks again. Peace.

 

[Guest]

Get the Canon Powershot A630, 8MP and 4x optical zoom for less than $300. It has a swivel LCD which is an amazing plus. You can't go wrong!