Under or Around $600

[MrSayer]

I'm a digital artist and I'm looking to cut out the photography middle man and start going out and shooting my own resources. I'm looking to be getting a good entry-level camera. I'd like something that has good image quality, mainly for people, objects, and some on-location stuff. My price range is around 600 or lower. I'd like something compact in size, but not so small that I'd break it. I'm also looking for something that will have a pretty full life/ wont need to be replaced in a year from now.

[John_Reed]

I'm a digital artist and I'm looking to cut out the photography middle man and start going out and shooting my own resources. I'm looking to be getting a good entry-level camera. I'd like something that has good image quality, mainly for people, objects, and some on-location stuff. My price range is around 600 or lower. I'd like something compact in size, but not so small that I'd break it. I'm also looking for something that will have a pretty full life/ wont need to be replaced in a year from now.The DMC-LX2 is one camera to look at, with manual control, a native 16:9 sensor, image stabilizer, and the ability to shoot in RAW. The other one is the DMC-FZ8, more zoom, less wideangle than the LX2, but also the RAW capability, which I think would give good benefits for your digital art.

[coldrain]

I would walk around the Panasonic offerings mentioned above, because Panasonic does not make all that good a camera, due to their bad sensor and internal processing.

They are very noisy in comparison to most other cameras.

The Canon A series is very highly respected image quality, performance and feature wise. Jut read a few reviews by Jeff Keller in the reviews section about the Canon A series.

Another interesting camera which is better in lower ligh non-flash photos: the Fuji F30/F31fd.

Another well liked and pretty good camera, more expensive than above mentioned: The Canon G7.

All these are compact but not flimsy, and well built.

[MrSayer]

im definitely looking to be able to edit the RAWs. i like the g7. I think at this point its a toss up between the canon g7 and a panasonic fz50. i dont mind a little extra noise. the panasonic just seems to have a little bit more balls to it and some of the extra features seem a little more people-friendly. i have a friend trying to make me breach the digital slr line with a nikon d40, but i really just dont know if i want to try and tame that beast quite yet.

[seo]

G7 does not have Raw capability.