I need recommendations for a decent digital camera between $300-$400

Me ^ | 11/2/03 | zarf

[rollo tomasi]

Digital slr are coming down in price and that will solve the "slowness" problem. I could see them as low as $500 in the next couple of years.

[supercat]

Digital slr are coming down in price and that will solve the "slowness" problem. I could see them as low as $500 in the next couple of years.

A bit out of my price range. And I don't know why digital SLR's would be faster than any other sort of digital camera.

Do you know of any reviews that give side-by-side speed-related specs for different cameras? DPREVIEW.COM does include very nice detailed speed reports for each camera, but doesn't seem to include that data in the side-by-side comparisons.

[Richard Kimball]

Be careful on eBay. A LOT of the cameras posted for sale there are scams. I generally work with higher end cams, but at one time there were something like 12 1D Canon cameras for "sale", and over half of them were scams.

I generally check DPreview and then look at B&H Photo for prices. They're reputable, and if you find a price significantly lower, you should be suspicious. Personally, I'd stick with Canon or Nikon. Sony produces some decent cameras, also.

[Tijeras_Slim]

A80....Guy in my office has one. Played with it a bit and bought one for my lab (record experiments, take pictures of little bitty stuff, etc...) plus needed something that was easy to use so it could go out in the field and be useful without having a steep learning curve.

[zarf]

Some of the prices on Ebay are not believable. I've bookmarked a Canon G3 on my watch page that is be offered (sealed, in the original box) for 199.99.

It's got to be a scam.

[VOA]

I've used my boss's Canon PowerShot G2 a lot the past year (maybe you can get it at a good
price now that the G3 model is out).
It's a good 4 MP camera, decent zoom capabilities, etc.
And the package my got has the Zoombrowser and low-level Adobe Photoshop software,
these two allow easy photo management and editing, respectively.

About the only downside: not so good macro (real close-up) capabilities; I'd recomment
investigating Nikon if that's crucial; special batteries are require the
Canon re-charger...so expect to spend some money for extra battery packs if you need
to shot a lot or keep the camera powered up a long time.

[VOA]

I've used my boss's Canon PowerShot G2 a lot the past year (maybe you can get it at a good
price now that the G3 model is out).
It's a good 4 MP camera, decent zoom capabilities, etc.
And the package my got has the Zoombrowser and low-level Adobe Photoshop software,
these two allow easy photo management and editing, respectively.

About the only downside: not so good macro (real close-up) capabilities; I'd recomment
investigating Nikon if that's crucial; special batteries are require the
Canon re-charger...so expect to spend some money for extra battery packs if you need
to shot a lot or keep the camera powered up a long time.

[RedWhiteBlue]

I have been using a Canon A50 for about 4 years now, and I really like it.

I don't know about the batteries for the A80, but the A50 came with an expensive LiIon that doesn't last too long. Fortunately, Canon also makes a battery kit that contains a rechargable battery and the ability to use AC power for juice to take pictures. I highly recommend this optional kit. It pays for itself really fast.

I would also recommend a card reader for whatever type of data card comes with the A80 (A50 comes with a CompactFlash card). They are cheap. It is much quicker to transfer the pix to the computer with a separate card reader; otherwise you'll have to turn on the camera and that drains your battery quicker.

If you can afford it, also buy an extra data card and battery and you'll always be ready to go.

[Lokibob]

Here are 2 examples of the Mavica pictures:

 

 

 

[Las Vegas Dave]

One of my biggest complaints with almost all digital cameras I've seen is their incredible slowness.

And I add not very good in the cold, below 32 possibly useless!

[pnz1]

We have the Olympus too and have been very happy with it. I don't know if all of the digital cameras use regular AA batteries or not, but this one does. Our "regular" camera used a special battery that was very expensive.

[Chapita]

I bought my wife a Nikon CoolPix 775. It was highly recommended by a photographer pal. We both love it.

[Petronski]

Find out what current owners think: epinions.com

[cornelis]

Be careful on eBay

That's true. Caveat emptor. Buy with a credit card.

[pfflier]

I've bought several for our school and have grown to like the Sony MV line. They use standard 3.5 floppies or mini CDs and are very user friendly.

They do not need a special cable or interface to display on your PC, they are MPG files and directly output on you system with no hassles.

The only drawback is that you need plenty of disks/CDs to document your pictures if you plan on taking alot. I typically get 8 high definition or 20 regular definition pictures on a disk. Even here though, the media is available almost anywhere. Any Wally World or drug store has the floppies...cheap.

Avoid digital zoom if you can get optical zoom on your camera. Optical zoom is done by lenses before the picture is processed and is a super good quality feature. Digital zoom is done after the picture is taken and results in grainy or pixelated pictures.

[Elliott Jackalope]

I used my Canon D60 to take some aurora pictures last week. It was 29 degrees outside, with a wind chill factor that probably took it down to around the mid-teens. My camera worked flawlessly. Just FYI.

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

Click the image for the best site out there for digital cameras. Personally I use a Canon Elph when I'm out snowboarding and have had no problems at all with it. Good luck.

[budman_2001]

Canon A70 was my choice.

The wife walks in a couple months ago, and says "I want a digital camera of my own. I'm tired of borrowing other peoples', and the shared camera is always missing."

So, a couple of weeks ago, the wife announces "Today.". I pop on to the 'net, check some review sites (as mentioned on the thread), and pick the A70, based on price/performance and features. The lowest 'net price is $259, but Best Buy has 'em for $299 + tax out the door.

At the camera counter, the wife gets to check out all the models, testing which ones feel too big, feel too small, have good LCD, blah-blah. The Nikon Coolpix comes in with a lot of the same features and same $299 price, but the wife's hands wanted something bigger to grab onto and something with a little more weight.

After settleing on the A70, the sales person then pulls out the A80 at $399. Not much more in the features package that I could find for $100 more, same basic body, weight, controls, software, etc. Just more MP.

In the end, almost went for the A80, but decided that the A70 would do fine, and put the $100+ savings into a 256MB CF card, rechargable Lith-ion batteries and charger, and a little tripod. Got a Best Buyers Club 10% discount on the accessories, so she picked up a little accessories bag.

Of course, having the digi-cam without a color printer nearby would be a "hardship", so also picked up the Canon BubbleJet i810 printer for $150 and an ink cartridge resupply kit.

Got everything home, setup, and not one problem with any of it (except we left the camera on too long while connected to the PC, and had to charge them up.

In the end, the final discrimators were: Price/Features, touch and feel, and cost of accessories. The A70 hit the sweetspot on everything.

[MosesKnows]

Cameras are not subject to wind-chill but it is impressive if the electronics worked at 29 degrees.

[glorgau]

I just wonder how much of this was made in America. Probably none.