[NautiNurse]

Opportunity for a Sony plug!

[BrooklynGOP]

Things that I find to be important are - low shutter lag, compactness, long zoom, image quality (ofcourse), full manual controls (ie, control over shutter speed, apperture, etc). I just upgraded my canon s230 to pentax 750z. so far I am happy. It got 5x zoom and 7.1 megapixels, full control and pretty compact.. also got a flip out lcd display that I thought was a gimmick at first, but now I find it to be very convenient. Ofcourse it all depends on your needs. Check out these websites for camera reviews - dcresource.com, dpreview.com, steves-digicams.com and imaging-resource.com

[Fierce Allegiance]

Price range?

[Citizen James]

Kodak Pro SLR - you will be mine one day, oh yes, you will be mine. Sorry, I had a Wayne's World moment.

[leftee]

We use an Olympus 750 .

[NautiNurse]

I have a Sony PC-330 videocam that also takes beautiful still with the memory stick.

This year, considered buying the Canon Rebel (can use the lenses from my old Canon Rebel 35mm) and the Olympus C8080. However, the Sony takes such great pics, I'm on hold for a new camera right now.

Very detailed reviews for lots of cameras can be found at dpreview.com.

[jrestrepo]

For me the big issue is how does it perform in lowlight. I love my camera (Fuji) except in low light, then I want to make it end up in tiny little pieces on the floor. The problem is that in low light, the auto focus does not work well at all.

[WildTurkey]

My choice last Xmas was the Canon A70 but the price didn't break so I got the Kodak EasyShare CX6330. Very happy with it except that the resolution (3.1 mp) is ok for 4x6 but would like better. Some resolution is lost in their conversion to JPG format. Color corrections for different types of lighting (outdoor/indoor/flourescent) work great. Stick with one that uses AA batteries and get a set of rechargable batteries with a charger.

The A70 has been replace with the A75 and looks like a winner.

I went with the 256k card but would prefer two 128k cards as there is a lag when viewing photos when there are large numbers on the card (at least with my Kodak).

[MineralMan]

You left out one thing: How are you going to be using this camera? That's the real question.

Answer that, and you'll get some useful recommendations.

[Lawdoc]

I love my Nikon D-70.

There is a fair learning curve even though I had been a long time user of a N-80. That is not to say that it is difficult to take a photograph right out of the box - it isn't. Rather it took more time to learn the digital specific features and the differences in using digital vs. film.

Good luck

[Recall]

We JUST did this and it came in the mail this week. WOW is all I can say right now!
We got a Sony Digital Still Camera (also does video)
Model : MVC-CD500

We are still playing with it but I couldn't be happier with what we have seen so far.

www.sony.net

[MadAnthony1776]

I got a Canon PowerShot S1 IS. I like it a lot. Easy to use with 10x optical zoom (more important than digital zoom)and about 3+ digital zoom (distorts the pixels), and 3.2 mega pixel resolution. I would have liked at least 4 mega pixel resolution but couldn't find anything in the price range I was looking in that had 10x optical zoom. I also upgraded the memory card right away so when on a trip I wasn't overly limited by the memory to what pictures I could take (with the card I got I can take approximately 500 pictures before a download).

[Coyoteman]

One of the classics, now pretty cheap (about $175-225) on ebay: Nikon Coolpix 990.

Good close-ups, 3.34 megs, which is publishable quality (we just did a full-color picture book using this camera for many of the close-ups and a Hasselblad for the rest). Has the rotating head section which is great for hard-to-reach places.

[abner]

I love my Sony's. I have a Sony DSC-F707 with almost 28,000 photos on it, and a Sony DSC-F828 with about 7,500 photos.

I've also bought several other Cyber-Shots for other people as gifts.

They are wonderful!

Memory sticks are great, they go from camera to camera, and from camera to computer to laptop....

Image quality is amazing.

For lots of Sony Cybershot photos: My web site

[eyespysomething]

FYI, maybe you can help?

[Roses0508]

What are you going to do with the camera? I'm on my third Fuji because the price point is good for a good macro feature. The macro feature is important because I mostly photograph my roses. The 3000 series allows color filters - also useful. The auto focus is reliable for the most part. Bit by bit I learn to use the more advanced features, but mostly I set to macro, set to auto focus and take pictures.

I'm on my third one, because I've given the older versions to one of my children and purchased the newest several times. More megapixels!

[reg45]

bump

[goldstategop]

I'd go digital and keep a 35 mm point and shoot film camera for backup. But digital is the way to go.

Today, digital cameras go up to 12 megapixels. Beware that small cameras have a noise problem in that if you shoot over 200 ISO or low light situations, its likely to show up in pictures and to subdue or remove it, you'll have to do considerable post-processing in Photoshop.

With that caveat in mind, compact cameras are great and people prefer them to SLR's since you don't have to change lenses and can put them in a pocket. There are lots of brands to choose from but Canon, Fuji, Kodak, Leica, Panasonic, Olympus and Sony are the top brands. Decide what camera meets your needs and buy it. And get the biggest SD or CF card to write to so you don't use up all your digicam's memory.

Most important: have fun shooting!