JLR
03-12-2005, 05:57 PM
Budget
What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible.
Prefer $200-300 (not including additional memory); $400 if necessary
Size
What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?
Moderately small: Canon A85 too bulky, Elph 410 too small, Nikon 4200 and Sony DSC-W1 just right…
Features
How many megapixels will suffice for you?
4-5
What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x)
Standard
How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)
8-9
Do you care for manual controls?
A few (ISO and white balance at the very least)
General Usage
What will you generally use the camera for?
Vacations, parties, some casual sports
Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
8x10 at the largest (very rarely)
Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
About 50%
Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
About 50%
Miscellaneous
Are there particular brands you like or hate?
Nikon, Canon okay (I’m familiar with the Coolpix 3200, and the A85 looked good but was too big for good portability)
Are there particular models you already have in mind?
Basically I want something that is fairly straightforward, very portable, and can take clear pics on the fly. However, I want some degree on manual control in case I really don’t like something (if, for example, the given “scene modes” are insufficient). Durability is also important (I won’t be dropping it in the sand, but I don’t want it to explode if some snow falls on it).
I plan to be editing most of my pics in Photoshop, but I’m also not a computer genius, so a terribly confusing software package is not good.
That being said, I’m considering the following cameras, which I’ve only briefly had a chance to demo (by bad salesmen, so I may be missing obvious features!):
Nikon 4200:
Pros: Good size, the variety of “scenes” seems like a good idea
Cons: Shutter lag, Autofocus made it very picky about which shots it took, even in “sport” mode (camera and/or subject needed to be quite still).
Nikon 5200 (didn't try)
Sony DSC-W1:
Pros: LCD size, very quick to start up, appeared to snap crisp photos quicker than 4200
Cons: Not sure… Confusing software? LCD gobbles batteries? MemoryStick-Pro?
What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible.
Prefer $200-300 (not including additional memory); $400 if necessary
Size
What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?
Moderately small: Canon A85 too bulky, Elph 410 too small, Nikon 4200 and Sony DSC-W1 just right…
Features
How many megapixels will suffice for you?
4-5
What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x)
Standard
How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)
8-9
Do you care for manual controls?
A few (ISO and white balance at the very least)
General Usage
What will you generally use the camera for?
Vacations, parties, some casual sports
Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
8x10 at the largest (very rarely)
Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
About 50%
Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
About 50%
Miscellaneous
Are there particular brands you like or hate?
Nikon, Canon okay (I’m familiar with the Coolpix 3200, and the A85 looked good but was too big for good portability)
Are there particular models you already have in mind?
Basically I want something that is fairly straightforward, very portable, and can take clear pics on the fly. However, I want some degree on manual control in case I really don’t like something (if, for example, the given “scene modes” are insufficient). Durability is also important (I won’t be dropping it in the sand, but I don’t want it to explode if some snow falls on it).
I plan to be editing most of my pics in Photoshop, but I’m also not a computer genius, so a terribly confusing software package is not good.
That being said, I’m considering the following cameras, which I’ve only briefly had a chance to demo (by bad salesmen, so I may be missing obvious features!):
Nikon 4200:
Pros: Good size, the variety of “scenes” seems like a good idea
Cons: Shutter lag, Autofocus made it very picky about which shots it took, even in “sport” mode (camera and/or subject needed to be quite still).
Nikon 5200 (didn't try)
Sony DSC-W1:
Pros: LCD size, very quick to start up, appeared to snap crisp photos quicker than 4200
Cons: Not sure… Confusing software? LCD gobbles batteries? MemoryStick-Pro?