ramone_kalsaw Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Is this forum an appropriate place to ask for recommendations for a brand /price range of a digital camera ? I want to get a camera exclusively for taking pictures for posting to the web. Any suggestions? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Personally I like the Nikon CoolPix series but they may be a bit pricey for what you are looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoonFaery Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 There are a lot of good digital cams out there. I personally love the Kodak cameras and will always have one around. If you just want to post pictures on the net, I'd think you wouldn't need something too fancy. Nothing more than a 3 megapixel at the most, but that is just me. Try going to an electronics store and looking around also if you are unsure of a few types Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Dick Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 For once I agree with Rob, I prefer Nikon and have a CoolPix 4300 . They range in price from $150 - $750. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Nikon/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borfast Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 I love the Coolpix 4500 - you can't imagine just how cool the rotating body is... Naughty Other than that, I still prefer SLR cameras. Nikon has some pretty good coolpix ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Bruce Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Guess I am odd man out. I am partial to the Sony line of digital cameras. The new DSC-W1 5.1 MP is $399 as is the DSC-P100. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Don Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 We have the sony dsc-50 and love it. But I have seen the Kodak and it looks good too. You really have to visit a store and see what feel right to you. here is a link to camera reviews Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matman Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 If it's for posting photos on the web, resolution and high-end picture quality are not the keys -- any decent camera will do. I'm a Kodak man. Convenience is key for me, and the deciding factor there (I think) is the batteries. A camera with dead batteries is not good. Whatever you get, make sure it uses regular AA batteries. You can use rechargeables, or just go to WalMart and get the mega-pack of Duracells. Power for your camera will be available at any 7-11. The replacement batteries for the cameras that use special rechargeable batteries cost upward of $100. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Bruce Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 If it's for posting photos on the web, resolution and high-end picture quality are not the keys -- any decent camera will do. But if you are buying a digital camera why not go for the high resolution. The images can always be resized and cropped. And I know you are going to want to print a photo occasionally. I agree, AA batteries are the way to go. I can get 300 shots out of the DSC-W1 with the rechargables that came with the camera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borfast Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Also check Digital Photography Review, one of the best sites of its genre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeJ Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 (edited) They aren't the cheapest, but I bought a Canon PowerShot S40 (not made anymore, but newer models exist) camera for pretty much the same purpose 2 years ago. I love the camera and the quality for an all-around easy carry camera. It's fairly small and has a retractable covered lens, so you can close it and throw it in a pocket, purse, bag, etc.... pretty easily. It uses rechargable Li-on batteries, but they do last for awhile (I actually don't like using AA's). When I bought it I bought a second extended life battery, and between the two have never run completely out of battery life, including carrying this camera with me stuffed in my camelbak for 6 days on my bicycle sleeping in a tent at nights with no place to plug in. It uses compact flash media which is quite common, so when I was in Italy last year and took over 400 pictures, I was able to find more media easily at any camera shop. It also takes 4 megapixal images which is good enough for print photos, so you can have a choice if you get that really good shot. It even includes the ability to take 15 second videos. I like it enough that I recommended an S30 to my parents and bought an S230 for a friend. The next camera I will probably buy will be a Digital SLR for those serious photographs, but my S40 will still be the camera I use for everyday shots for some time to come. Edited August 11, 2004 by TCH-MikeJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youneverknow Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 A good resource for digital cameras can be found here http://www.dpreview.com/ Just click on the manufacturer or the review section and you can get in depth reviews and customers comments and pricing...a handy place to go before you spend your money. youneverknow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prel Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 I use to Vivitar. http://www.vivitar.com It has good quality and low cost. Naughty Have models of 1 up to 6 mb pixels. Paulo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torvan Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 I myself use an Olympus D300 3 megapixel camera I got a couple of years ago from Costco. It is a great (and tough-it has been dropped a couple of times) camera that does everything I have ever wanted a camera to do, including some functions I did not know I needed until I went on vacation (Quicktime movies, Midnight setting to take photos in near dark environments, Portrait mode). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoonFaery Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 I love my Kodak EasyShare CX7430 for all those features, I have the options for portrait, sport, night, landscape, closeups and videos Now these days there are so many options you have to choose from and there are quite a few out there that are great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deverill Posted August 20, 2004 Share Posted August 20, 2004 Please take this for what it's worth - some of it is heresay. I had a Kodak camera early on. It died 1 week after the warranty ran out (on a, at the time, $400 camera). They wanted $90 just to look at it - fixing it may cost more. The thing wouldn't clear up when you turned it on so I'm guessing one of the lense moving motors broke... and this was without dropping it. I went to a camera store and asked the guys there about cameras. I asked specifically what they thought about Kodak. The sales guy (the other was a hang-back lurker type) that I talked to said "It's Kodak" about 3 times. I pulled him aside and finally got from him that Kodak makes great paper and film but their digital cameras are lousy and you couldn't give him one... which meets with my experiences. Now, remember that the camera I had was about 6 years ago and my camera store conversation was about 3 years ago. I now have an Olympus C-2040Zoom 2.1 Megapixel, as a result of that camera store conversation, and love it. About batteries: My camera can use either 4 normal AA alkaline batteries or 2 "double barrel" lithium batteries. The AA's last about 200-300 pics like Bruce gets. The lithiums probably give me 2000 or more for $18.00 a set. I never counted them but I recently used the AA's in a jam and they lasted 2 weeks of normal use. My lithiums last 6-8 months usually. It's not scientific because I use it off and on, but they definitely pay for themselves as expensive as that many AAs gets and I'll not have another camera that can't use both. The "off-the-shelf" batteries are great when you're in a fix and the camera goes dim but for durability make sure you can use the lithiums - it's night and day on how long they last. The best advice I can give is to look around, read all you can on the internet about cameras (be careful of the sites that have paid advertisements - a 1-month subscription to Consumer Reports is under $5 and they are the most impartial I have seen), talk to the salesmen at different stores, ask them hard questions, wait, look some more, wait, ask some more, wait and then go to the guy you trust and ask about extended warranties. My camera has a warranty that for 5 years I can bring back a hunk of melted plastic filled with salt-water and covered in hammer marks and they'll replace it. The only thing it doesn't cover is theft. Dontcha know it, when I buy the awesome warranty I find an awesome camera and don't need it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarqFlare Posted August 20, 2004 Share Posted August 20, 2004 I have a Kodak and so does my fiancee. No problems at all... Jim's been monkeying around again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deverill Posted August 20, 2004 Share Posted August 20, 2004 Nah, no monkeying. Just bad luck. It's the same reason some people love Dell (or IBM or HP or Compaq) and others hate them. All it takes is one bad experience and you'll never buy from that company again - I just wish the corporate types all understood this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninepatch Posted August 23, 2004 Share Posted August 23, 2004 I have an Olympus D-460 Zoom 1.3 mpx, it's a few years old but it does a good job for me. I use it primarily for small image work - my garden, quilt blocks, the cat, stuff to put on eBay, stuff for my website. Over this spring I had the chance to use it to record a few political rallies I attended and it did a better job than I expected from a 1.3 - the images I got at medium resolution were fine for posting to the web. Don't know that I'd get much more than a 4X6 print out of them, though. I have 2 sets of 4 NiMH AA rechargeable batteries that I bought when I got the camera - probably about $35 in the whole setup there. Power is never an issue, these batteries perform long and well for me. The clamshell cover is also the power-on control. It fits into a blazer pocket and is light enough to hang comfortably from a lanyard around my neck. It has several flash setting alternatives which keep me from having to make the decision all the time. The zoom makes it equivalent to a 35-105 lens at about f5.6. It has arperture control at +/- half-stops which I like a lot. I'd like more mpx, but unless I have a real need to I won't replace this camera. The Olympus product has been durable and reliable for me, their online support is easy to use, and when I lost my manual I was able to download a free copy from their website - I like that. I was a Minolta user in SLRs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samrc Posted August 23, 2004 Share Posted August 23, 2004 I have a couple digitals of my own and use another for the office. At home I have an Aiptek pencam with no flash (green 2"tall, 1 inch wide, smaller than the giant packs of gum sticks!) that hangs around my neck on a lanyard. It is PERFECT for quilt shows, and places you can not use a flash, or need to be less obvious with a camera. Many shots on my site (quilting area) are closeups taken with it. Works wonderful for that purpose....and much easier to use than a bulky camera....point shoot. Uses 2 AAA batteries. I also have a Vivitar Vivicam. Uses 4 NiMH AA rechargeable batteries. It started out great, but after a year 1/2 with it, it does NOT accurately show color. It has warped somehow and every image that I take with it has to be run through adjustments to tweak tones. Am looking to replace it for a better model. I use a SONY at the office and though it is an old model (uses FLOPPY disks) the quality of the images is still good enough on it to be used in printed media for our office. I think based on my experience with the old Sony, I would consider a Sony for a personal model. Battery is $79. I use a Cannon AE-1 SLR film camera that is old, and still dependable and terrific. Does anyone know how thier digital cameras rate??? (For film cameras my favorite are Cannon and Nikon!) -Samantha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santolina Posted August 23, 2004 Share Posted August 23, 2004 Back in 1999 I started using a digital camera when AOL offered one at a ridiculously low price. For the money, it took an acceptable picture with pretty good color and clarity, had a view finder, and an LED. All I did was aim and push a button. Oh yes, and replace batteries frequently. Next, I tried a 3 megapixel Kodak (DC-215) with a 2x Zoom-better pictures, clarity, view-finder, LED, was light, comfortable to hold...but still had batteries AND the little catch which holds the battery tray in place-broke. Duct tape didn't work. Kodak sent a new tray, but that didn't work either. My birthday was approaching so I decided to go for it and after a little research opted for the Sony cyber-shot DSC F707. Besides having a view finder (hard to find in 2001) and an LED, it comes with lithium batteries and the famous 'memory stick'. Add 5.0 Megapixels and a 10x auto or manual Zeiss zoom lens, MPEG Movie, plus all sorts of menu choices and you have one heck of a camera. Now discontinued , one reviewer said it looks like a standard camera with a bazooka attached Pricey? Yes, back then it was 1K. Now you can probably get a refurbished one for 300 Mad!!! It is a bit awkward to hold, but it takes wonderful pictures-especially close-ups, although the Zoom has performed much better than I thought possible. The manual travels with me, and 'we' are continually finding new things for this camera to do. As long as Sony keeps supporting it, I will keep it. -------------------- Santolina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninepatch Posted August 23, 2004 Share Posted August 23, 2004 Oh yeah - my Olympus kicks butt on macro shots, which I love when I'm shooting stuff in the garden. If that's important to you, test the lens before buying. Not all macro lenses are born equal. The blooms below are about 1/2 the size of an American dime - this was almost full frame if I recall using the macro and doubler functions. It's a handheld shot. For $150 camera, it works for me. A Zeiss lens? Really? Very cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santolina Posted August 24, 2004 Share Posted August 24, 2004 Great picture! -------------------- Santolina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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