Best digital camera

I am looking for a digital camera that takes pictures like a 35mm, On the spot quickand clear.

Don't buy an older model--we tried to take a picture of our 2yr and all we got was a pic of the couch--he had jumped down between pushing the button and the actual pic. The newer models out this year seem to be addressing this problem. Prices have dropped significantly, too. Good luck.

one word

Canon!!

Better word: Nikon! :D Hee hee.. it's the whole Ford/Chevy, Coke/Pepsi, FedEx/UPS thing.... your mileage may vary.

All kidding aside, and in an attempt to actually be helpful, I would recommend the following web page: http://www.dpreview.com/ The broadness of your question really is somewhat similar to asking "what kind of car should I get?" Perhaps if you look around and narrow down what you are really looking for (SLR/Point and shoot, price, size, performance) then the web page reviews will help you narrow down to just a few models and you can make an informed choice.

Theron

P.S. I just remembered, DPReview has an excellent Buying Guide feature search page! Give it a try!

If you check the new Consumer Report it rates and discusses digital cameras. I have the Canon SD300 (4 megapixel) It is rated a best buy...it is very small and takes great photos I only wanted a camera to take snap shots not photos to enlarge..however, if you want higher resolution so that you can make larger photos or have more telephoto Canon makes other models in this series. Just remember the higher the mega pixel camera you get the more space it uses for each photo on the digital film card.

Good luck

Better word: Nikon! :D Hee hee.. it's the whole Ford/Chevy, Coke/Pepsi, FedEx/UPS thing.... your mileage may vary.

 

All kidding aside, and in an attempt to actually be helpful, I would recommend the following web page: http://www.dpreview.com/ The broadness of your question really is somewhat similar to asking "what kind of car should I get?" Perhaps if you look around and narrow down what you are really looking for (SLR/Point and shoot, price, size, performance) then the web page reviews will help you narrow down to just a few models and you can make an informed choice.

 

Theron

 

P.S. I just remembered, DPReview has an excellent Buying Guide feature search page! Give it a try!

I agree......ford, coke, fedex and ups (depending where and what I am sending;)

I agree......ford, coke, fedex and ups (depending where and what I am sending;)

Of course the fact that I already have 2 Nikon 35mm bodies and nearly half a dozen lenses pretty much locks me in to a Nikon Digital SLR as well!

And believe it or not, FedEx won't deliver before noon where I work! So for next morning, we have to have UPS! how crazy is that?

Theron

Anyone have a recommendation for a digital camera that will take nice shots in the ship's dining room? Ours always seem to come out very dark and with a lot of red eye. (And, yes the red eye flash is on...) We bought a Casio Exilim recently and have been very disappointed with the picture quality.

Laura

Anyone have a recommendation for a digital camera that will take nice shots in the ship's dining room? Ours always seem to come out very dark and with a lot of red eye. (And, yes the red eye flash is on...) We bought a Casio Exilim recently and have been very disappointed with the picture quality.

 

Laura

Dining rooms are notoriously dark! Very difficult to photograph. Basically, if you want to use your flash, you will have to settle for close subjects only, such as the people around your table. Redeye is going to be a problem, because it is so dark your pupils are open wide so you can see, and that enhances redeye. For shots of the room itself, your best bet is to try to brace your camera on something very solid. Perhaps the edge of a table, or a railing, or something similar. One trick is to use your two arms propped on a table as a sort of a bipod, but even that can be hard to hold still enough to get a good shot. Flash will be pretty much useless for this because it won't fill the room, and if you do use it, then either the close things will be overexposed, or the far things will be underexposed.

If you want shots of the room for your album, you might try going during the day, lunch perhaps, when the curtains are open and it is brighter in the room. Every little bit helps!

Theron

one word

Canon!!

I agree....I have the 6490 Easy Share and love it. We have a beautiful album that looks like a pro took the pictures!! I even made shots for the entire group of all of us in one pic. Printed them myself when I arrived home!

Better word: Nikon! :D Hee hee.. it's the whole Ford/Chevy, Coke/Pepsi, FedEx/UPS thing.... your mileage may vary.

 

All kidding aside, and in an attempt to actually be helpful, I would recommend the following web page: http://www.dpreview.com/ The broadness of your question really is somewhat similar to asking "what kind of car should I get?" Perhaps if you look around and narrow down what you are really looking for (SLR/Point and shoot, price, size, performance) then the web page reviews will help you narrow down to just a few models and you can make an informed choice.

 

Theron

 

P.S. I just remembered, DPReview has an excellent Buying Guide feature search page! Give it a try!

I also recommend the site mentioned above. This site, http://www.steves-digicams.com/ also has nice reviews.

I personally own two Olympus digital cameras. I am highly pleased with both, and would recommended them in a heartbeat. I have a more compact camera (which I prefer for indoors), and a slightly clunkier camera that has a larger 10x optical zoom (which I absolutely LOVE for outdoor photos). However, Olympus recently announced that they will be moving out of the consumer (amatuer) segment and focusing on the professional market. Unfortunately, that means that my next digital probably won't be an Olympus. :(

Someone else mentioned megapixels...try to go for at least 5. Not hard to do with the dropping prices now. Just as important (in my opinion) is optical zoom. An absolute minimum is 3x. More is better, especially if you enjoy taking a lot of outdoor, or faraway shots. Do not get optical zoom mixed up with digital zoom. Digital zoom is absolutely worthless...it degrades the quality of your picture. A common marketing ploy with camera manufacturers is to advertise a camera as having 12x zoom, etc. Read the fine print: that will usually translate to 3x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom. Multiply the 3 and the 4 together and that's where they get the 12 from.

Some final words of advice: After buying your camera, stick an address label on it somewhere. If you lose it, at least you'll have a chance of getting it back if an honest person finds it. Also, spend a few extra bucks and buy a good camera case. I've dropped both of my cameras on a couple of occasions (and I'm actually a very careful person!). I'm convinced that being in a good case is what saved them both. Both Circuit City and Best Buy carry a brand called LowePro, which I highly recommend. They're reasonably priced ($10-$15), very well made, and come in a variety of sizes.

Nikon 4600 did a good job as well, and its not alot of money. Even my Olympus D-535 took some very nice shots on our last cruise. Husband has one of the Fuji that is more like a 35mm camera (but is digital) that does great, but for someone who doesnt want to have to play lots with a camera I like the other two we have. I owuld say research what you want out of a camera and what you want it to do..

taken with a canon.

If you want a camera that will take a great picture by just pointing and shooting, I would recommend Kodak. My mom has a Fuji which I find very complicated and difficult to get a good picture. I never have to worry with my Kodak. It will take pictures of anything in any light. My pictures below are taken with my Kodak in only 2 megapixel mode. I put them online and have them printed online. I find that the prints are as good if not better than 35mm.

You may want to also check out www.cnet.com They have hundreds of digital cameras on thier website with reviews and pricing information. I have purchased many items based on thier "Editors Choice" reviews and all of those items work very well including my old Olympus 1.3 megapixel camera which was an "Editors Choice" 5 years ago and still works like new.

I like my Nikon Coolpix. It takes great pictures. It would probably take even greater pictures if I would practice enough to be able to use all the features available!:p

Get at least an 8 mega pixel camera and be sure to buy a good photo editing program such as Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Emphasis needs to be placed more on the editing software and how to use it rather than the brand of camera.

Learn how to control contrast, brightness, burn, dodge and use the clone tool and you will be able to take an almost unusable picture and make it look great.

I used cruise182's dinner photo in post #13 of this thread to demonstrate what you can do with a photo editing program. I turned this photo (which is excellent) into a studio looking photo in just a few minutes to get just a slightly different look.

I could have also made a portrait of just one couple in the phto by cropping the other people out.

We have owned different brands and have liked each of them for different reasons. Each have had different strengths and weaknesses.

We have owned an Olympus (old 1.3 megapixel) a Hewlet Packard 3.2 megapixel, A Nikon Coolpix 3200, a Cannon SL1 3.2 megapixel and a Kodak Easyshare Z740 5 megapixel.

While the Olympus is a very old, outdated camera by todays standards, it took great snapshots in all conditions and had a quick lens. Pics would be fuzzy if you attempted to print them though. The HP had a night setting that allowed it to take great pictures in enclosed rooms that had almost no light but it ate batteries like they were going out of style. The HP was also a very heavy camera to carry. The Nikon was light weight and fit in my pocket easily. It took great daytime snap shots or indoor flash pics but night time shots of lighted areas always came out blurry. If you didn't want to use the flash with the Nikon, the pic almost always was blurred. The Cannon takes the sharpest pics of any camera we've owned but, it has a very slow shutter speed when the button is pushed. Sometimes the subject matter has moved out of the frame by the time the shutter goes off. It takes great pictures but frustrates my wife to know end when she needs the shutter to go off quickly. The Koday has a quick shutter speed and generally takes good pictures in most situations but it's not as clean and crisp as the Cannon. I do get pics with the Kodak the my wife misses with the Cannon simply because the shutter snaps when I press the button. The Cannon has that delay.

I have pictures on my webshots page that have been taken with every camera we've owned. You could go to that page and look at the different pics from different time periods to look and see if you can tell any differences between the camera's. The oldest albums (Legend and Vision) are with the Olympus. Up through pics of Falls Village (a timeshare resort) were with the Nikon camera. The latest pics (Enchantment, Brilliance and Europens alblums) have been with the Cannon and Kodak Camera's. Farnsworth house pics are a combination of the Olympus, the HP, the Nikon and the Cannon camera's.

The link to the photo's page is in my signature.

IMO, get what feels right in your hands and has a good quality name you can trust. Cannon, Nikon, Olympus, Kodak, Fuji et... all produce qood quality camera's for general picture taking. I've only really heard significant complaints from a few people who own Pentax, Vivtar or any lessor brand names.

Get at least an 8 mega pixel camera and be sure to buy a good photo editing program such as Adobe Photoshop Elements.

 

Emphasis needs to be placed more on the editing software and how to use it rather than the brand of camera.

 

Learn how to control contrast, brightness, burn, dodge and use the clone tool and you will be able to take an almost unusable picture and make it look great.

 

I used cruise182's dinner photo in post #13 of this thread to demonstrate what you can do with a photo editing program. I turned this photo (which is excellent) into a studio looking photo in just a few minutes to get just a slightly different look.

 

I could have also made a portrait of just one couple in the phto by cropping the other people out.

 

Nice work titan!! The people in the picture were seated at the table next to us. Back row left are members of CC. I will not disclose who for privacy reasons.

Anyway i am looking into a good photo editor. I have the 10 day trial for Microsoft Digital Image Suite. seems pretty cool!!

We have owned different brands and have liked each of them for different reasons. Each have had different strengths and weaknesses.

 

We have owned an Olympus (old 1.3 megapixel) a Hewlet Packard 3.2 megapixel, A Nikon Coolpix 3200, a Cannon SL1 3.2 megapixel and a Kodak Easyshare Z740 5 megapixel.

 

While the Olympus is a very old, outdated camera by todays standards, it took great snapshots in all conditions and had a quick lens. Pics would be fuzzy if you attempted to print them though. The HP had a night setting that allowed it to take great pictures in enclosed rooms that had almost no light but it ate batteries like they were going out of style. The HP was also a very heavy camera to carry. The Nikon was light weight and fit in my pocket easily. It took great daytime snap shots or indoor flash pics but night time shots of lighted areas always came out blurry. If you didn't want to use the flash with the Nikon, the pic almost always was blurred. The Cannon takes the sharpest pics of any camera we've owned but, it has a very slow shutter speed when the button is pushed. Sometimes the subject matter has moved out of the frame by the time the shutter goes off. It takes great pictures but frustrates my wife to know end when she needs the shutter to go off quickly. The Koday has a quick shutter speed and generally takes good pictures in most situations but it's not as clean and crisp as the Cannon. I do get pics with the Kodak the my wife misses with the Cannon simply because the shutter snaps when I press the button. The Cannon has that delay.

 

I have pictures on my webshots page that have been taken with every camera we've owned. You could go to that page and look at the different pics from different time periods to look and see if you can tell any differences between the camera's. The oldest albums (Legend and Vision) are with the Olympus. Up through pics of Falls Village (a timeshare resort) were with the Nikon camera. The latest pics (Enchantment, Brilliance and Europens alblums) have been with the Cannon and Kodak Camera's. Farnsworth house pics are a combination of the Olympus, the HP, the Nikon and the Cannon camera's.

 

The link to the photo's page is in my signature.

 

IMO, get what feels right in your hands and has a good quality name you can trust. Cannon, Nikon, Olympus, Kodak, Fuji et... all produce qood quality camera's for general picture taking. I've only really heard significant complaints from a few people who own Pentax, Vivtar or any lessor brand names.

My only complaint with the Canon is the shutter being delayed.

See in this picture my daughter was looking at me but by the time the shutter clicked she looked away!

This is an excellent reference site

www.steves-digicams.com

I don't know how much you want to spend, but the Nikon D70 (digital SLR) is the best digital camera that I have owned. (I have owned 3) There is no shutter delay and you can switch the Nikon lenses out. Do a google search for the price. Mine is about a year old and prices have come down since then.

I agree....I have the 6490 Easy Share and love it. We have a beautiful album that looks like a pro took the pictures!! I even made shots for the entire group of all of us in one pic. Printed them myself when I arrived home!

Need to correct myself....it's a Kodak 6490 Easy Share!!!!! Dah!!!!

TPKeller,

I am like you but on the other side. I own Canon lenses and flashes so I stick with Canon. I have a Canon Powershot A610 - 5.2 Megapixel, Powershot A520 - 4.0 Megapixel, and the good stuff a Canon D60 - 6.3 Megapixel, Canon 20d - 8.2 Megapixel. For the higher end 20d I use a 2gb card. I am sold on the Canon 20d. I have tried the Nikon and found nothing wrong with it but it is not to my taste. For everyone else a good 4 Megapixel and up point and shoot is good for almost any ordinary 4x6 or 5x7 photos. Don't settle for less than 4 Megapixels. Good buys are Canon, Nikon, or Olympus for ease of use.

My only complaint with the Canon is the shutter being delayed.

 

See in this picture my daughter was looking at me but by the time the shutter clicked she looked away!

I agree. It drives my wife insane at times. During our Amalfi coast drive, I could get shots with the Kodak I was using but the shutter delay on the Cannon meant that my wife got a picture of a building wall or street sign.

On the plus side, the Cannon can often get a sharper image than the Kodak. It's just getting the picture when you don't have time for a delay between pressing the button and the shutter snapping.