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faraway so close
11-18-2007, 10:14 AM
Hi,
I am planning on buying a camera for my husband for Christmas. The trouble is that I've read so many reviews that they are all starting to sound the same. My husband has a large, fancier camera but never uses it because of its size. I'm looking to get him a camera that will take good images and have as many manual settings for him to play around with as possible.
I would really appreciate your guidance in finding him a camera he will love. Thanks!


Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible.
$250 or under would be ideal, but I can probably go up to $300

Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?
The smaller the better-he has a nice SLR already, but rarely uses it because it is so bulky.

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you?
8-10 -basically, the more the better-

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify)
Standard at the very least
* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)
10
Do you care for manual controls?
yes
General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?
scenery during hikes, family photos (we have some really active dogs, so he'll need a camera that can handle taking pictures of them)

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
Yes
Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
yes
Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
Yes
Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate?
I have a Kodak that I love, but t is pretty old--he was looking at Olympus at one point--the quality of the camera and its images is more important to me than the brand.
Are there particular models you already have in mind?
I was looking at a few Samsungs (nv11)
(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)
Image stabilization possibly, he would probably enjoy a wide angle feature...

David Metsky
11-18-2007, 10:57 AM
Two you should look at are the Canon A720 and A570. Both are fairly small, full featured cameras with good image quality, full manual controls, optical viewfinders (good if he's coming from a dSLR), and won't cost you an arm and a leg. The A570 is a better value, but has less zoom then the 720.

For any camera that uses AA batteries you'll need to budget for NiMH rechargeable batteries and charger for $30 or so. And any camera will need a bigger memory card, budget $15 for a 1G card.