Small but good digital Camera

[Cpt.Caveman]

Any recommendations and tell me the ones that I definitely should not buy?

[This message has been edited by Cpt.Caveman (edited 08-15-2001).]

[jon]

How much are you looking to spend?

[Cpt.Caveman]

500$ but is that reasonable? Mabye I should just get me the tiny Elf AFS if that aint enough for a good one?

[Jman]

Cavey-

gonna post pictures of yourself (like Will) for the Cell Phone Pu.. er, Possie?

[jon]

AFS sucks and is a total rip off. Negative is too small, on and on and on.

I personally love Nikon cameras.

http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1078.html?tag=st.co.1016.dir.1078

http://www.photographyreview.com/

 

 

[Dru]

work camera is the Sony Cybershot DSCF505 2.1 megapixel with Zeiss digital zoom, it takes real nice pictures but cost $1200 CDN.

[jon]

So that is like $200 american right?

[Alpine_Tom]

Check this month's Popular Photography, which has an article on this exact topic. (It's the one with the new Minolta Maxxim 5 on the cover)

 

[Cody]

I second the Nikons--just bought this one: http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=11065345&m=82&cat=83&scat=84

Love it so far.

[This message has been edited by Cody (edited 08-15-2001).]

[hikerwa]

for about $500 bucks the canon digital Elf is a good deal. the digital Elf doesn't have any film, it's digital. I have two 35mm slr's, a digital video camera, and an older kodak APS film camera. I think all work well, my digital video also has a still camera function. I think that it depends on what you want to do with the images. for prints you still can't beat 35mm or APS film with a digital camera, you can get all your prints burned to CD for a small extra fee when they are processed. That way I can use film for prints and the images for the web.

Just my two cents....

[EddieE]

I use an Olympus D-490 (and love it)...they don't make them anymore, but this year's models are good, albeit a bit larger - they did increase the size of the lens so getting the right exposure is easier. If you want pix that can be reprinted at any size larger than 4x6, I would recommend at least 2.1 megapixels. At that price point you should be able to get a camera that shoots short movies too.

[pen]

.

[David_Parker]

try http:/www.cameraworld.com They have great prices, knowledgeable sales staff and no tax 'cause they're in Oregon.

[pen]

Sorry about that last post. My question was concerning the asp film to cd. Are you saying that I can take my developed asp film and have it burned onto a cd at ANY photo shop? If not, where can that be done?

[jon]

Camera World is actually kind of expensive, but it is still a good place. The cheapest places are on the east coast typically in New York. Some are really sketchy and some are very good, I can tell you which one's I've had good and not so good experiences with. A good local place in the Seattle area is OpTechs which is off of Denny St. exit in Seattle, and Glazers which is down the street. Prices at OpTechs are pretty good and the people are incredibly nice, you just get screwed with the sales tax.

Pen - Cameras West should be able to do APS to KodakCD, also Pacific Color in Greenlake, Overlake Photo in Bellevue, just call around.

[wotan_of_ballard]

seattle film works (or whatever their new name is) will burn 36 slides or prints onto a CD for $5 (? or $10)if they're doing your processing. but the quality of the CD image SUCKS compared to what a good amateur will do with his slide scanner. digital images I've gotten from Seattle filmworks are good only as thumbnails, and sharpenening programs don't do much for them, the original quality is so bad.

lazerquick offers a good high quality (and cost) a buck an image? scanning service.

[EddieE]

Oh yeah, one other thing that's a good idea:

If you go to Cameras West/Ritz Cameras they offer an in-house warrenty for a little extra that will replace your camera if you trash it. All you gotta do is bring the pieces back. I asked the sales person straight up if I dropped it off a climb, was it still under warranty. Without hesitating he said, "yes" - sold.

Also I don't think it's worth the risk to buy anything grey market. You'll see unbelievable prices on cameras from the east coast, but they don't come with any warranty attached, and the quality control is suspect.

[bobinc]

The Nikon 775 gets high marks but I haven't actually used it and there may be concerns about durability. It does have a 3x zoom, is under $500 (from cameraworld), and is said to take amazing macro shots.

[Rodchester]

I have used the APS film and think it is decent at best. 35mm blows it away. I just have them scanned when I need to use an image on the computer/web.

[CascadeClimber]

I'm very happy with my Sony DSC-P1. 3.34 megapixels, a 3x optical zoom, and a pretty small form factor, though not as small as the Elph (but the Elph only has a 2x zoom).

Downsides:

- Frigging expensive Sony memory stick technology.

- Hard to tell if pictures are in focus before reviewing on computer.

- Damn if that isn't an expensive, fragile thing to haul into the mountains.

It isn't the digital camera I would choose if I wasn't taking it climbing, but I couldn't find a better combination of price, size, and features.

Here are a couple links that may help:

http://www.steves-digicams.com http://www.imaging-resource.com

Cameraworld does not have the best prices. And lately they seem to have a bad attitude. I got my Sony from Abe's of Maine. J&R Music also has good prices and service.

-CC

Oh, yeah, almost forgot. The memory included with the cameras is a joke. In the case of the DSC-P1, the included 8Mb card holds all of 5 images at the highest resolution. If you choose a 3 or 4 megapixel camera, get a 128Mb storage card, at least.

[This message has been edited by CascadeClimber (edited 08-15-2001).]

[fleblebleb]

Hullo Capt'n. Here are the top-of-the-list things I'd look for if I were in the market for a new digital camera right now -

Number 1, 2, 3: a good lens

Number 4, 5, 6: at least 2 megapixel CCD

Optical zoom, preferably 3x

Focus/exposure lock (half-press button etc)

Compact flash storage (type II if possible)

Small form factor/light camera

OK for cold, wet/hot, dusty conditions

Cheap, because it might break

Of course you can't have all of them in a single camera...

Nikon has really good lenses. Sony uses Zeiss lenses that I understand are good. The Canon Elf apparently doesn't have quite as good a lens. Olympus is another company that has good lenses.

I don't know much about the quality of the various CCDs beyond that for $500 you'll definitely get two megapixels.

The Canon Elf is a sweet form factor for climbing, and has an extra bonus: For $50 you can get a see-through box on it that makes it waterproof down to 3 feet, dustproof, even insulates a little bit against cold/heat. That's pretty neat. The Nikon Coolpix 775 also has a very nice form factor, but Nikon doesn't sell a nice box like that for the Elf. Darn, eh.

Sony uses those @#$% memory sticks which is stupid and locks you in to using Sony only. Compact flash is much better, it lets you share the cards between lots of devices from various manufacturers (and comes in large sizes). Compact flash type II rocks - that lets you use IBM microdrives which you will have a really hard time filling even if you snap all day. You'll pay more than $500 for a camera that takes type II though - the Nikon Coolpix 995 is somewhere between $700 and $1000. Another nice thing about these Nikons is that they take adapter lenses.

I have an older Nikon, the Coolpix 950. It's a 2.1 megapixel camera and much more durable than I anticipated when I bought it - I took it to the summit of Rainier 10 days ago and it worked fine; it was cold enough that my film camera malfunctioned. I did keep it inside my fleece jacket and in the sleeping bag at night.

If you're shopping for a bargain, earlier this week I heard on the radio that one of the downtown photo shops is selling the 950 for ~ $500. That's a neat price - they're $700 most places and I paid between $900-1000 two years ago. I don't remember which store though but I guess you could make some phonecalls to find out.

Does anyone have experience with Olympus digital cameras? Does Olympus have a small form factor camera, like the Elf and the Coolpix 775?

Cheers/stebbi

 

[fleblebleb]

Oops, forgot one thing - there should be a decent optical viewfinder, and you should be able to turn off the LCD panel. You won't see anything on the panel in bright sunshine anyway, and they burn batteries like hell. Save those rechargeables for actually snapping pictures, get a big memory card, then look all you want at home...

[billcoe]

Who could have seen 10-12 Megapixel cameras with typically 3x optical zooms selling in the @$200 range 5 years later? I think I payed $600 for my Olympus 3.3 Megapixel 3X zoom, same exact camera with a 4mp 3X zoom was going for $299 a few years later. It's a dinosaur now.

[Bug]

My Canon A720 was on sale last Nov for $223 including tax.

8mp, 6X optical zoom, 2 AA, lcd and viewfinder so I can turn the lcd off, light, compact.

Takes a 2G SDA and I think even a 4G.

Shoots great movies too.

[Dannible]

I was thinking about that the other day. The first digital camera that I ever used was a Sony Mavica that was .3 MPs, had no zoom, and cost my elementary school something like $800. More recently I got a canon 20d, a 8 MP slr for $600.