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OT Getting A New Digital Camera!!


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Recently a few people here got new camera's and I'd like to know if you are really happy with them and is so, what kind they are.

 

I did already do a search on here, because I was looking for threads on this topic but couldn't find a certain thread I was looking for that was posted a couple months ago on this very topic.

 

So anyhow I hope this post is ok then.

 

I want a camera primarily to take pics of our kids and pups. I want 5 or 6 mp. I'd like one that records also. But I don't need anything too fnacy. Just one that takes nice clear shots. Maybe with a zoom on it would be nice.

 

Hope someone can help me. I hear Canon is good but beyond that I am camera ignorent...lol.

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I like the Canon Powershot IS cameras. They vary in price and features, I have the smallest one (S1 IS) that I really like. It's easy to use, takes some pretty nice portraits and is decent for action shots if you focus beforehand. Mine also has a video feature (how much video it can record depends on the card. I have a 1gb memory card for mine that can record about 15 minutes of video at medium resolution. It's nothing professional, but the quality is okay. Mine aren't an example of that unfortunately, photobucket really messes them up.

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I have a Kodak camera and love it. My mother bought me a real nice one a couple of years ago, and it takes great picutres. I liked it so much when we bought a camera for my MIL as a gift and I went with Kodak. And she really likes it. I picked up a small Kodak with 3 optical zoom at a pawn shop for my daughter. It was too cheap to pass up. It has been a really good camera for her. And I find myself using it a lot. It is smaller than mine, and so fits in my pocket easier. My SIL bought a HP camera several months ago, and it was not very good. It took a long time to take the picture. I forget the term for it, but the time from puching the button to taking the pictures was long. Hope this helps, Sherry

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I have a Canon Powershot S2 IS (Image Stabilizer) that I really like. It is 5 megapixels and has a 12x optical zoom and a 4x digital zoom. It has Image Stabilizer feature so you don't blur the picture by moving the camera. This is very important for telephoto shots. Here are two sample pictures. The wild rabbit lives in our back yard area. The picture was taken at full zoom (optical + digital) so it is 48x zoom.

 

rabbit.jpg

 

The airplane is a supersonic Concorde passenger plane, now retired from service. It is on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. This plane flew from New York to London in just over 3 hours at a speed of 1200 mph.

 

concorde.jpg

 

Canon replaced the S2 camera with the S3. I am sure that the S3 is better, but you may be able to get a good buy on an S2 since they are now discontinued.

 

Here is a link to a Review of the Canon S2.

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Here's the official Canon Powershot site. Under the High End camera, you will see the IS that was mentioned before. Also, you might want to give S80 a look, as well. It's the most curent version of what I have (S50) and is compact, 8 mp, has a record feature, takes pretty good action shots (in action mode) and has decent zoom.

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I have the Canon S2 (and that same shot from the Museum of Flight :rolleyes:). I am very happy with it - and I LOVE the 12x optical zoom! Best thing in the world!

 

However, I am upgrading because this camera really doesn't like low light situations. Great for outdoor shots though.

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My Mom bought a Pentax Optio M20 camera with 7 mp and it's great. That's the one I take all the pictures of Black Jack with. It has a great "pet" setting, and a 3x optical zoom. It can also shoot video. It has to have an SD memory card to hold more then about five pictures though. It's a really nice camera, easy to hold or stick in your pocket.

 

Tell us when you get one!

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I love my Canon Rebel, now I just need a longer lens. It talked to my Mac without me having to do a thing, I plug in one cord to swap everything over to my computer or my printer, it takes great pics, the battery lasts a long time and is rechargable.

 

I absolutely loath the lag time on the less expensive end of the digital camera scale. I have had a bunch of other cameras (that's a long story) and this Rebel is the cream of the crop for me. :rolleyes:

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My new Canon Rebel XT is the best camera I've ever owned, worth every penny. The attached pic was taken with the standard lens it came with, not sure how much detail you can see on the board, but when enlarged on the computer, you can see every detail down to the sparkle she seems to have in her fur and the intensity in her eyes (if you haven't guessed, I'm holding her ball behind me!)

 

IMG_0309.jpg

 

I also purchased a longer lens with image stabilizer, which takes fantastic action shots. I'm still learning with it, but it's very easy to use.

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I have a Canon Powershot S3 IS and I'm happy with it. It has a lot of features including video capability, but the photo quality (especially at distance) is not the best.

 

I posted a bit about it along with some pics here (page 2 and scroll down to post 28...I couldn't figure out the post link thing). In some of the pics, I showed the original image reduced in size versus cropping the image and keeping the subject at the full original image size. I also posted a few other pics in this thread.

 

I would suggest clicking on those black bars at the top of the pics to view the image full size. I think the quality of the reduced images isn't as good when viewing directly in the message board.

 

IMO the original video quality (.avi file) is pretty good and is very watchable at "full screen" size. I've only done one video so far, and when I converted it to .wmv (I think) to add titles, the image quality was seriously compromised.

 

Hope this helps. :rolleyes:

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Here is a link to some of my pictures. I had to reduce the file size to get them uploaded. We have slow dial-up out here.

 

http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i308/slthoeny/ :rolleyes:

 

The pictures of the hiking and scenery were all done with my daughters 3x optical zoom Kodak. Most of the others were done with my 10x optical zoom Kodak. I would reccomend going to a store were you can hold the different models you are interested in. See how they feel to you. Do they fit your hands? Are the controls laid out logically to you? What kind of betteries do they use/ Some come with rechargable, some use AA or other disposable types. Don't forget digital zoom is really not zoom. When you use it you loose quality. Pay more attention to optical zoom. If you are able to test a coupl out at the store see what kind of lag time there is between pushing the button and actually taking the picture? Some digitals have a lot of lag time. Ask yourself if you want a camera to easily carry in your pocket or purse, or one that is bigger? When my Mom was camera shopping she had to choose between size and zoom. She wanted one with a good optical zoom, but small. She could not find that. She ultimately choose the zoom. Also personally I would avoid a package that came with other stuff. I don't mean a dock. But I have seen digital cameras packaged with stuff that is not needed. I think you want all your money going to the camera, not the fluff. Just my opinion, though.

 

Wal-mart has a very good return policy on cameras. you can return them if you are not satisfied for a refund or exchange. I cannot remember the time you have, but I think it is 30 days. I would definately suggest purchasing somewhere with that type policy. That way you know you will end up with the one that is perfect for you.

 

Sorry for the long ramble. More information than you asked for :D Hope you get the one you need, and enjoy it. We love ours, and use them all the time. Sherry

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Thanks guys and don't worry about any long posts. The more info the better. It helps me out in the long run. I just found out outt I am getting my first child support check for my 15 yr old. So I want to try and get a nice camera.

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I have a Canon S2 IS as well and while I was really excited about it when I first got it I have to admit that I wish I saved up for a digital SLR. I purchased it mainly because it fell into my price range and I wanted to take action pics of my dogs.

 

I have never been able to take decent indoor pictures of the dogs, no matter what setting I'm playing with, I've deleted more pics than I have kept. The red eye function doesn't work very well, my ancient powershot A20 takes better pics indoors for the dogs than the S2. I'm really disappointed in the focusing functions, indoor and outdoors. Even with prefocusing and using a tripod I get fuzzy pics. I have gone on a few canon forums and a lot of people do have issues with the focusing part.

 

Quite frankly I'm ready to punt the thing out the front window. My next P&S purchase will be a Pentax optio w20 because I am going on vacation and I want to take a camera into the water, on the beach, etc and not worry about it.

 

Save up for an SLR, you'll be much much happier in the end.

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I used to own a Sony Cybershot and I thought I really liked it. Then I broke it and had to get a new camera. I very recently bought a Panasonic Lumix. I realize now that I didn't really like the Sony that much. The pics came out a lot darker then they showed on the screen and the videos too. With the Panasonic, the pictures turn out like they look on the screen. It also takes really good videos. On the Sony, you can't zoom in and out when taking a video and on the Panasonic you can. The sound quality is also really good on the Panasonic. It has a fantasitic zoom on it as well. It's pretty user friendly, and has a ton of preloaded settings. I'm really happy with it and would highly recommend it. It was very reasonably priced as well. I got it as a Best Buy somewhere in NH.

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I have an Olympus C-5500, which is 5mp. I've had it for over a year and half now, and I love it. Before then, I had a Canon Powershot A60 (2mp) which I loved too, but suspected wasn't giving me what I really wanted, lol (it had softer images and didn't focus very well, but I didn't realize how badly until I got the Olympus). I think the Olympus takes clearer pics, but occationally it gives me trouble that the Canon never did (sometimes when I start up the Olympus, a screen will come up saying "Power Off" and "Format", but when I press the off-button again and start it up again, the camera behaves normally. Right now it's doing it constantly, I haven't been able to actually take a picture in a few months now. I suspect it's the batteries, since I've been using the same rechargable batteries since halfway through my year with the Canon, lol)

 

A couple of my better shots with the Canon:

IMG_7850.jpg

IMG_0154.jpg

Jake-1.jpg

 

A couple of my better shots with the Olympus:

IMG012.jpg

IMG173.jpg

IMG111.jpg

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General rule of thumb when buying a digicam: Buy a camera made by a camera company.

 

I have a Canon Digital Rebel XT (nice to see I'm not the only one). It is the best camera ever. :rolleyes: I love it. I have the 35mm version as well and didn't have to buy any new lenses when I upgraded. For a DSLR, it's pretty inexpensive. I paid just under $500 for it (body only). If you want a DSLR, I'd highly recommend it.

 

GotIt--2-10-07.jpg

AdoreMe--2-9-07.jpg

Eagles--1-20-07.jpg

Sweetie--1-20-07.jpg

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Last year, I bought a Kodak Z730 5MP camera. I used conventional 35mm cameras before, but wanted something where I could generate low-cost albums of my grandsons and my pets. I love the camera; it was my first digital camera, and provides me with a full range of capabilities from "point and shoot" to sophisticated set-ups. My only regret is that I didn't get one sooner.

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I have to be the lone ranger I guess and vote for Olympus :rolleyes: I have 2 SLR's and this pic was taken this morning (I need to post her in the puppy pic section) with the Olympus 100rs. It's an older camera, and only 1.7 mp, but it takes great shots, plus it'll take 15 FPS, that's smokin'! they just came out with a new one, the 550 I believe, just as fast, more mp's plus it has an 18x lens. I think I'm going to have to get that one too LOL. Here is little Stella looking less than noble :D and here is another shot with the same camera, showing you pretty good detail I think. That's Spree cooling off after working sheep.

 

P2190012.jpg

 

 

 

PC290050.jpg

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