could you recommend some pointers for me to start my digital cam research ?

[pancha]

Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible.

Up to $300US for point and shoot style only

Up to $600-700 US if SLR

Not fixed, can afford more so price is not so much the issue as quality for money and camera doing what I need it to do – no more – no less


Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?
Doesn’t matter, but smaller is always better in the long run - however not a deciding factor.

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you?

Don’t know. The more the better, but after some reading it seems it is not always important to have more than 5 mpx. Am I doing professional work? I don’t know if I can call it that or not to justify the extra mpx.

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify)
Probably 3-6x would be nice.

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)
10

Do you care for manual controls?
Yes.

I specifically want manual control of lens, (zoom and focus) aperture and shutter speed.
I’d also like an auto option for those times when the camera knows just as well and decides a lot faster and more accurately.
Good white balance I would consider essential. Do you agree?
A good lens. ( A poor lens is fine if lenses are interchangeable and the body of the camera is excellent and the price difference is great, and an additional lens is a better choice anyway than any of the lenses that come with other more expensive cams anyway)
Excellent image quality – detail is essential.
A decent viewfinder for monitoring image composition.
All other things are nice, but not important. Even if the lens is a basic fixed 55 mm that’s fine as long as the image is excellent quality.
Probably the option for interchangeable lenses would be great.



General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?
Still life (for magazine presentation/folio presentation/web presentation) / indoor / portfolio/ documentary photography/

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
Occasionally. But I have a couple of regular 35mm SLR if I really needed that functionality anyway.

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
yes

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
Not so much

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate?
From experience not keen on minolta, though apparently it’s an ok brand of minolta camera I bought.

Are there particular models you already have in mind?
Casio/ sony – but only because they’re the first words everyone spills when talking about buying new digital cameras. Reading other reviews it seems to be ‘canon’

I DO like pentax normal SLRs
I don’t like Panasonic dvd cameras. Poor quality and annoying badly designed controls.
My friends swear by Canon
Everybody else swears by Sony and Casio for compact digitals with good resolution and not too higher price. But they are also regular consumers of all the ‘latest’ gadgets
I am not sure I am too keen about Fuji
But I really have no idea. That’s why I am going here first. I wonder if there are other interesting options apart from the above “famous and popular” ones. I don’t mind famous and popular. I just wonder if there are other lesser talked about cameras that deserve a look for my purposes.
I am happy to buy an older not state of the art model. As long as I can get quality and compatible media – anything is ok. I have a mac so mac compatibility would be nice.



(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)
Not really, but wide angle would be nice.
IS not important – have tripod
Weatherproof not imp really
Rotating LCD is nice

[Donato777]

Hi,
If you go to pdreview.com, you can first do a side-by-side review of the specs for the models that interest you. Here is the link: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sidebyside.asp
They also have a feature search to narrow down your choices.

Then, you may read the full review, if available on that forum, or others. Photoxels.com has a "Review Matrix" with every review that has been written for each manufacturer up to now. Just click on the reviewer and read:

http://www.photoxels.com/reviews-matrix.html

From reading your preferences, you may want to consider the Canon A620 or S80 (for a true wide angle lens compact). I love Canon and have the S80 which I find to be an superlative model. I picked it up at Dell with one of their discount coupons for $443.00 shipped. It retails for $549.99 elsewhere. Cnet.com has a stellar review for this model and dpreview.com plans to release theirs this week.

The Fuji F10 is a great little model and you can pick that one up for $300 or less.

The Casio Z-750 is reported to be excellent too, but many users have complained about a lens error appearing shortly after purchase which can render the camera inoperable. For that reason, I would avoid it like the plague. Others who have it and love it and have not had the lens error problem will disagree, of course, but once the lens error happens to you, you will regret slapping down your hard-earned cash for a camera that does not work. All the best in your search.

[Balrog]

You said you have a couple of film slrs - what brand are they? You might be able to pick up a digital SLR body which can use your old lenses ..
You said you like pentax normal SLRs .. in that case I think you'd enjoy the *istDS.

[pancha]

Thanks for the replies.
I'll go and follow your leads now, and post back a little bit later, either on decision or with more questions. Probably more questions!

SLRs
I have a pretty ancient Pentax k1000 SLR - no interchanging lenses - but I've found that has never hindered my photography. I don't know, it's something about that lens, the composition of the photos always feels nice in the end product (even if everything else has failed miserable) I guess even the image quality isn't excellent if you compare it with other brands, but still, it's just right.

I later bought a Minolta (fixed lenses but interchangeable) (don't know brand - shows how much I use it) and extra lenses - (zoom)
Took it overseas with me for 2 years and never used it. It's just wrong. I don't really know why - and it's a much better condition and gadget loaded camera than my pentax any day.

I also have an olympus point and shoot which was never great.
I've also used someone elses canon SLR (before digital came about)- that was pretty nice
I think the art school photography dep used to use Nikon. (nice quality pictures.
And I've loaned the camera from work - a sony, point and shoot style, for web work, and those photos were nice quality too.

:)

[Jason25]

Honestly, it sounds like you could use a compact P&S as well as a DSLR, since you seem to want the features both provide!

[Balrog]

Hmm .. i thought the K1000 did have interchangeable lenses .. ?

Anyway, check out the Pentax *istDS .. it has the best viewfinder on the market, for consumer DSLRs, and it's a joy to use .. you can still get it for $650 with an 18-55mm lens.