banjoandy
09-21-2006, 04:00 PM
My siblings and I are looking to bring my Dad into the digital age with a new camera. He's pretty tech savey so I'm not to worried about that being a problem. He's always been into photography, does alot of traveling and always comes back with tons of pictures.
Would like to keep it around $400 price range
Size is not a big issue. He currently uses a Nikon, which has a huge carrying case.
Not sure how many megapixels would be best. Image quality however is very important. Also needs the capability to zoom, although we figure a zoom lense might make a good christmas present. Camera should also have manual controls along with automatic.
In general the camera will be used for all around general photography. Big scenery pictures (i.e. mountains), wildlife, portraits of him and my mom around the world, thanksgiving dinner, and possibly some action photos, such as my niece running around freaking out.
Although he usually doesn't get pictures blown up it would be a nice feature. He has a good printer and I'm sure some of his photos he wouldn't mind being blown up (8x11) and hung on the wall of his den.
Also quality in the product itself is very important. Whatever we get will be well taken care of, but it needs to last a good long time. For example, I have a low end canon that I've been using for years, and it still works great (knocking on wood right now:)
So far the one I've found that seems to meet these criteria is the Canon S3 IS (with a bigger memory card, better batteries) Would this be a good choice? Are there other brands/models I should check out? Also is JR.com a good place to buy from?
Thanks for any imput.
Would like to keep it around $400 price range
Size is not a big issue. He currently uses a Nikon, which has a huge carrying case.
Not sure how many megapixels would be best. Image quality however is very important. Also needs the capability to zoom, although we figure a zoom lense might make a good christmas present. Camera should also have manual controls along with automatic.
In general the camera will be used for all around general photography. Big scenery pictures (i.e. mountains), wildlife, portraits of him and my mom around the world, thanksgiving dinner, and possibly some action photos, such as my niece running around freaking out.
Although he usually doesn't get pictures blown up it would be a nice feature. He has a good printer and I'm sure some of his photos he wouldn't mind being blown up (8x11) and hung on the wall of his den.
Also quality in the product itself is very important. Whatever we get will be well taken care of, but it needs to last a good long time. For example, I have a low end canon that I've been using for years, and it still works great (knocking on wood right now:)
So far the one I've found that seems to meet these criteria is the Canon S3 IS (with a bigger memory card, better batteries) Would this be a good choice? Are there other brands/models I should check out? Also is JR.com a good place to buy from?
Thanks for any imput.