Shaky Hands

[sdcushing@mac.com]

Hi! I'll try to one-up the poster with tendinitis. I have a familial tremor, a shakiness which will get worse as I get older.

Then suddenly, a plethora of image stabilization devices (real and for marketing-purposes) have appeared. Simultaneously, My beloved Olympus L340D has become incompatible overnight with the simple software, available media cards, and even card readers. I need to get a new camera, like, tomorrow!

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera?
Realistically, I'd love to spend $250 and put the rest into software, memory for my computer, but I can spend maybe $750?

Size

* Small as possible, but big enough to shoot from a tripod

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you?


not sure -- 4 could do it?

* What optical zoom will you need?
Maybe still none for now. (autofocus with image stabilization)

* How important is “image quality” to you? 10

Do you care for manual controls? no

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?
Honestly, I need it for ebay to survive :eek:, but I'm going to be blogging with images if the technology will hold me up.

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

Mostly no

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

Yes, most studio work

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?

Very Little

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate?

Like Canon, Olympus

Are there particular models you already have in mind?

Canon Powershot at some level, Panasonic with it's new stabilization technolgy

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD).

Don't know what this is called since I am such a newbie, but would like to be able to set the tripod vertically as well as horizontally, and would like to be able to shoot photos of myself (my sweet Olympus didn't have a remote, and a lot of what I sell is couture clothing and accessories)

OK, if anyone has any ideas I will elevate you to David Pogue status in my iconography, and if you want, send you lots of old useless parallel cords, tethered mice, and other parts of digital history. LOL. And thanks for your help

[griptape]

would like to be able to set the tripod vertically as well as horizontally, and would like to be able to shoot photos of myself

To address that, the head of the tripod should be able to flip 90 degrees. This has nothing to do with the camera.

As for something you can take pictures of yourself, the Canon S3 (and S5) have flip out swivel screens you can see yourself, as does the A630. But if you don't care to set anything manually, you'd probably be better off with the A630, as its auto mode is a little more accurate. But it doesn't have built in IS. I would honestly have a very hard time recommending anything that has IS that you don't need a decent level of manual control knowledge to use well. If your budget is as high as 750, you could find a rebel XT and get a 50mm f/1.8 lens for it, which would be fantastic for your indoor studio shots on such a budget, and you can get a remote control for it as well for self portraits, but IS lenses start around $600. And again, if you're just wanting to use auto mode, it's probably not worth the cost.