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View Full Version : FINALLY getting me a digicam!


lance176
09-22-2006, 09:33 AM
I'm looking to buy my first digital camera. I have no idea where to start, though. I want something that is rather slim, and would be nice and handy for vacation photography / party pictures / misc. stuff like that. You know, everyday use. I'm not talking about super small or anything, I'm just not looking for a digital camera with a gigantic lense on the front. I would like for it to have a nice sized screen. More importantly, I want a nice camera that I can use for photography. I'm not a professional photographer by any means, so I don't need anything VERY technically advanced, with filters / lenses / blah... Just something that takes nice clean and crisp photos - day or night. Another thing I'd like is for it to have a good macro mode. I'm not talking about something that will make an ant look like a dinosaur, just something that allows me to take a clean and clear picture from an inch or less away. Also, I don't know if its me or the cameras I have tried, but I want a camera that DOESNT TAKE BLURRY PICS WHEN I BARELY SHAKE IT WHILE CAPTURING. Also, I don't know much about camera specifics, but I'm looking for the 7+ megapixel range. (The more the better, right?)

I know this sounds very picky, but I have no knowledge to start with when buying a camera. Anybody have any suggestions? I'm looking for the 400-500$ range. Thanks!

EDIT ---

Sorry! Didn't see the sticky thread.

Budget
400-500$

Size

Slim, no attachment / lense thing sticking out on the front (when the camera is off)... I dont know, something around the size of the canon powershot, sony dsc, casio exilims (that general size range)

Features

7.1 or more megpixels.

Zoom:
Not too important. 3-4 will work, but of course, anything high is acceptable.

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)
9

Do you care for manual controls?
Yeah, I'm not going to be TOO technical, but I am going to want to have a lot of features and controls to play around with. This is learning experience for me, so I'm not going to need anything extremely technial, but we'll see.

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?
Party pics (nights out drinkin with friends), and general photography. This includes scenery, vacation pictures, MACROS, and just random point and shoot kinda things. Oh, and M A C R O S.

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
Probably not.

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
Here and there. I need a camera that handles well in the dark.

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
No sports, but yeah, action photos.

Miscellaneous

I'm not looking to become a professional photographer, but image quality and features are important. I want this to be a rather slim camera that I can take around with me to parties and such, but also one that I can pick up and go take some nice photographs. I'm going to be taking a lot of macro pictures, as well as pictures of plants, animals, lakes, sunsets, beaches, fields, etc. Please remember that any suggestions you make will be seriously considered, because I have no idea where to start with this. A camera that I used and liked was the 8.1 MP Casio Exilim EX-Z850. I didn't use it much, but I liked its design and BIG SCREEN. I don't care too much for the menus, however, but I am looking into the 10 MP Exilim also.

bascom
09-22-2006, 03:24 PM
Yes the Casio Z850 seems like a good small one. So are these:

Canon A powershots - bigger but have full manual controls
Canon SD's - small but don't have full manual controls
Fuji F30 - best one in low light
Sony W50 - doesn't have full manual controls

Most of the small ones use li-ion batts and have little or no viewfinder. Is that ok? If not go for a Canon A.

Tweek
09-22-2006, 03:39 PM
Yes the Casio Z850 seems like a good small one. So are these:

Canon A powershots - bigger but have full manual controls
Canon SD's - small but don't have full manual controls
Fuji F30 - best one in low light
Sony W50 - doesn't have full manual controls

Most of the small ones use li-ion batts and have little or no viewfinder. Is that ok? If not go for a Canon A.

I've done research on the W50, I woudn't even consider it, horrible low light performance and overall low IQ (image quality), the SD's are nice but out of the list I'd say most definately look at the A series PowerShots from Canon and the Fuji F30, the Canon A710 IS isn't really huge and packs some serious power.

Note: I would say that Canon kinda treats the SD series like laptop companies do with ultra portable laptops, SD may be smaller and lighter but more expensive, with less features, less image quality and less performance then the A series that are just slightly larger.

lance176
09-25-2006, 02:08 PM
86 views, and only 2 replies? Am I being to picky with this camera?

Jesse
09-27-2006, 07:10 PM
I think most of the people viewing your post are like me - looking for our first digicam and trying to get as much information about them as possible before we buy. We really can't advise you on which camera is best for you.

After reading all of the reviews and many, many forums, I've come to the conclusion that a camera with all of the features I want doesn't exist. I'll probably settle for a camera that has the most features that I want and hope that one day somebody will make the perfect camera for me.

downtrodden
09-27-2006, 07:50 PM
Hands down Canon A series. Something like the A620. It has a nice swivel screen which sounds gimicky, but for party pix, it's actually quite nice. Also my sis's A620 has a nice macro mode and some nifty features.

I went for the S3 though, for a longer zoom- 12x. Image Stabilization- which *HELPS* minimize hand shakage.. and the camera has an AWESOME macro mode and super Macro mode. In my sig there is a link to my flickr gallery, feel free to have a look. ALL pix were taken with the S3. If you go to the garden spider set i have nothing bu macro and super macros of a spider to give you a good idea of the macro power of this camera.

Beanboy
09-28-2006, 12:29 AM
I'd say Canon A710IS or Fuji F30