There are some very good pictures here.
I'm wanting to buy a decent camera, instead of the budget one I constantly own.
What are you guys using?.
I'd like to spend a fair amount on one camera, not the NZ$120 I did with my first camera, that has a view-finder that you have to look through, not the LCD screen on the back.
Any thoughts?

{Scott, if you think that this thread is in the wrong area, please by all means move it!.}

I'd like to get one of those fancy digital cameras too. Though I would be snapping off pictures left and right and posting them here daily. Anyone have any suggestions for digi-cameras with Apple Macintosh capability?

I have a Kodak DX3215 1.3 Mega pixel i takes a bit long to boot so not good for click and runs but it's in the $600 $700 range when i gotit bad thing litum batt good runs on good AA batts

ShockMe,
Any new camera will work just fine with a mac, they handle pictures and cameras better than windows anyway. Just make sure it has USB, or you have a card reader that is compatible with your camera (About $10)

I've been using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 for the last 2 years. 5 Megapixels, 12x optical zoom(!). Picture quality is excellent, colors are very close to original, I like it.

Nevertheless, I would not buy it again: There is no optical viewfinder, only one
large LCD which is impossible to read in bright sunlight, and a mini LCD in the
top left of the camera which would be ok but has low resolution only so you can't
really use it for precision focussing. (Yes the camera does have autofocus but
sometimes I want it to focus on a different object than it thinks). The final solution for this flaw would be an SLR type camera (was too expensive then).

For the full range of photo phun, watch out for an optical zoom with a large range, digital zoom is something you can do on your PC more conveniently.

Don't skimp on the storage capability: A picture can easily occupy 2-3 MB. My camera came with a 16MB card which is simply ridiculous, so I got a 512 MB SD card, large enough for 150+ photos (= big enough for me). Use a quality brand card here (I use Kingston or SanDisk), the cheapies frequently save on protection against electrostatic discharges which will kill the card, or are slow to store the picture so you can't take fast sequences of pictures. Card type(SD, XD, MM, whatever) is not too important as long as it's compatible to your PC/Mac/... card reader, or the camera has its own USB connection.

Planned obsolescense is a big thing in this market: Get all the accessories you will ever want for your toy as soon as you can afford them, or they may be available no longer... or just hard(er) to obtain. Also get a second battery pack so if one pack is empty, you can switch to the second. Better yet, get a digicam which uses standard batteries, and invest into some modern (LiIon, NiMH, etc., NOT NiCd!) rechargeable cells plus a good charger.

And most important: RT*M, even if it has 500 pages You might find a surprise or two in there... and will make you a better photographer because you know how to adjust the camera/what you can do with it. It's really worth your time.

MMMMMMMMM, 5megpix.
Just how many megpix can you post? A 640x480 pic is usually excellent for the internet if that's the objective and that may less than 2mp.
However, is you want to enlarge the pic or make a decent print it would be marginal at best.
the 3mp may be a good choice for a modest budget as prints up to 5x7 should be very acceptable and 8x10 are often quite good also. But enlarging the pic decreases the pixels and thus the quality. But a 3mp pic often times is too large for the Internet postings and the pixels often are reduced anyway.
With 5mp you have more to work with when you enlarge of edit. But you still have to address the size of the picture to Email or post.
To compare picture sizes some common sizes are 640 × 480 = 307,200 pixels or 0.3 megapixels which is plenty good for the internet and most Emails, 1.3 Megapixels = 1280x1024, 3.1 Megapixels = 2048x1536, 5.2 Megapixels = 2560x2048, etc.
As you can see the picture gets larger.
.
And go for a good optical zoom. There are some good ones of up to 10x with image stabilization. If you have a computer to edit your pics stay away from the "digital" zooms as the ones I am familiar with reduce the mp of the pic being

Mike, what better place could there be than the Photos Section? Thanks for starting it.

I'm also planning to upgrade.
I've been running the same Olympus D-100 for years now, (at a whopping 1.3 megapixels)
It still works fine, and obviously is rugged as a mule, seeing it's been thrown around in my tools daily, dropped from boom trucks and such. The case has saved the day many a time.

But the time has come.......
Digital zoom is worthless, optical zoom is great. It must use AA batteries.

Other than that I'm open to, and welcome, any suggestions.
Thanks

I have a SONY Cybershot, 3.2 MP, 3x optical zoom, uses Sony Memory Stix, & AA batteries.

Rechargables, or 1 shots. Battery appetite is on the healthy side, def not 'diet'

Pic quality is great to most people.

Someday, I may get the 'hang' of e-mailing pics!!

John

Where I am, there are all sorts of Point and Shoot digital cameras in the 4-5 MP range, with optical zoom and memory card capable (usually SD, some XD or other), for the $200-300 Cdn range. All should work with Mac just fine.

I have a Kodak Easyshare 76-something or other, 6.1megapixels, 6x optical, 6x digital (really clear!), yada yada yada. I print with an HP PSC 1310 all-in-one. My camera came with no media card, only 32MB internal memory. I have a 256 card for it, and strangely, it stores more pictures at a higher resolution than my friends 512 card! I like this camera because of the propietary rechargeable battery, saving me $$ on AAs. I take pictures, pop the card into my cheap $10 SD Card Reader (USB Cable! Where are you?), and dock the camera. Pop card back in, and I'm done.

Now, would I buy one again? No. #1, it's huge. #2, the batteries cost $79, #3, the battery clip broke one day when I took the card out, making me lose that $79 battery, #4 Slow to process in some modes, and a few others. What I do like is, the nice digital zoom, which works beautifully and doesn't pixelate the image at all.

Ian A.

I have a canon A95. I love it. 5mega pix. It has a flip lcd, great quality lots of features, It take video, speed shots and a lot more. I have found the best thing, battery life. it takes 5 AA regular batteries. they last four a long time. I have friends that have different cameras that they dont last have as long, and they say the batteries will go dead In a week with the unit off. I stored my camera a month and still took about 30 pics before they got low.

I have an HP Photosmart R707. It sounds like it may be what you don't want, but, I have been very pleased. It might be worth checking out.

Thanks for all of your comments guys!.
Scott,
I wasn't sure if this thread should be in the General Discussion Area or not.
Like a few others here I own a 1.3MP camera,
but I would like to have one with an LCD display
The Canon unit that the local Fire Brigade has here is a great camera, but I don't have a spare NZ$3500 to part with.
Like any sort of technology, things get cheaper as the market adjusts itself and you can often get a pretty good deal.
The one thing that I am after, is a couple of good links to what half the jargon associated with digital cameras actually means?.
I'd hate to buy another lemon.
Any takers?.

Also, isnt it true that the more mps you have the more likely you will have to resize pic's before posting them? Too many bytes or something?

Yes, mailing humungeous size pics is a problem, since you must e-mail to mods. A private subscriber has a limit to his server mailbox, which about 7 Mb will fill. He then can't receive any more, plus it siezes his mailbox temporarily till he downloads, so please don't!
Reducing the size of a pic is pretty straightforward, [RT M!]. My method is to work straight off the 'view' menu in the pic loader and hit mail. This automatically downsizes the pic to say 50 Kb, [ ample for posts clarity ], plus it sets up the Outlook Express page ready to mail. For a series of pics I multiple e-mail, rather than faffing about creating files, finding them, resizing and collating before mailing.
I now only use the camera software to store pics. Creating files is just extra work, plus I cannot yet fathom the stupid Microsoft hierarchy to find them again later!

BTW, we had this exact same thread December 2005 [F1 006602] for reference others comments. Still got my Casio QVR51* (c. US $500.).
5Mpix. No problems at all, it's a lovely little camera, over 50 shots on the card, good battery endurance and even an idiot can follow the load and handle software, [ and I do!] .

Alan

ps. *It has optical zoom, and runs short video if you want to.

[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 09-09-2006).]

Dave T:
As far as sending us Moderators pics goes, I'd say the larger the better (within reason of course).
Each Moderator has their own (I could be wrong here too) sizing for pics as posted in this area.

The size of the picture we can post isn't really much of an issue.
More a case of what fits the page and can be loaded quickly enough to not keep the dial up connected folks waiting forever.

For example HERE'S a copy of Adam (Rewired's) burning capacitor as it was sent.
This is only a 2048 X 1536 pixel image, and is only 673KB. When viewed at only 37% of its size, it fills nearly the whole screen on my computer.

Obviously this would not be practical, so the image must be edited some. In its form on the thread it goes with, it's only 550 pixels wide.

(Alan, my mailbox is 2 GB, and I'm only up to about 12% useage. Don't worry about me hitting the high water mark for a while We prefer larger photos to smaller ones.)



[This message has been edited by electure (edited 09-09-2006).]

Mike,

I have the Minolta Dimage A1 (5 MP) and my Brother has the A2 (8 MP). We're both very happy with them. I especially like the viewfinder options where you can hold the Camera down low or up high and tilt the screen up or down as needed.

Minolta Dimage A1

Bill

May I suggest a Panasonic TZ1.

small and compact, with 10x zoom, 5 mega pixel (its all you really need), Image stabilizer, 2.5" high resolution screen.

Easy to use, quality made, and takes great pics.

If you can live without a viewfinder (lots of cameras are shunning this), and don't mind using a proprietary battery, then I highly suggest this camera.
{How about a link that doesn't stretch the page out?}

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 12-11-2006).]

I've been very happy with my Canon A95.

5MP, uses CF memory cards and AA batteries.

The CF cards were important as I have lots of them, and adapters to use them in any PCMCIA slot.

AA batteries are important as I didn't want to get stuck with a dead NiCd or NiMH battery, and no way to charge it.

Other things I like include the swiveling screen, which can go in almost any direction, and can be shielded from damage when not in use.

Olympus D360L - This camera (1.3 megapix) is an awesome workhorse. Had it for years, takes great shots, has both glass optical viewer and electronic. Great price and never EVER had a problem.

I'm a big fan of the Canon Powershot S and A series. I've got a 5-year old 3mp S30 that has served me extremely well- the new cameras out now are high in megapixels and have gotten extremely cheap. I've got a 7.2mp Sony with a 12x optical zoom I use at work, too, but that's too bulky/expensive for everyday use. I have a miniature solid-state camcorder I got for $120 at radio shack that's also a 3mp camera; it doesn't have a flash or optical zoom, but outdoor daylight photos turn out pretty good. It's a lousy camcorder, too, but it's just so freaking small, I use it all the time.

For everyday shooting, 3-5mp is fine and there are so many choices it's almost impossible to narrow the field based on options. I'd recommend something with a 2-3x optical zoom and one that takes movies so you can use it as a camcorder. Beyond that, it's all preference- go into the store and take 'em all for a test drive! Then go home and order online for significantly cheaper

Reason I ask this is because if I go for a walk and want to take pics, I want the camera away from my face.
Hence the LCD display.
Only the cheapest of camera's have a viewfinder.
Nothing gives away a person with a camera like having it near your face.
To a degree, phone cams don't have the resolution to shoot good pics either.
All I want is Point>Shoot>Done.
Your thoughts?.

Hey Trumpy, just from personal experience, I've owned motorola and samsung camera phones, none of them were worth a flip. Unless you like your pics to have that fuzzy underwater type look to them.

I have a fuji finepix camera that has a nice size view screen to look at before you snap a shot. 6 mp, think I spent 350.00 or so for it.


Luke

[This message has been edited by Luketrician (edited 12-04-2006).]

Ragnar (Texas Ranger), submitted some damn good pics here and I was wondering what he was using at the time?.
One thing that my cam does not do well is take pics in low light levels, use the flash, you get a white sheet.
Teach me to buy cheap crap.