I need to buy a new digital camera... but I'm not really up on the "lingo" and I dont know what to look for. I did notice with my old digital camera that when I would send my digital photos off to be printed, they always came out "digital looking"... not very clear at all... How do I know which camera has a higher quality (other than price)? Id really love to have a camera that I can have the photos printed and they look like they came from regually 35mm film. I'm not too worried about size, I just want to be able to toss it into my purse for certain occasions, so nothing HUGE, but I dont need a camera the size of a deck of cards. Also, I would like to have a decent zoom function. My last digital camera only had "regular" and "X2"... Whats your budget?
For under $200 I would recommend a Canon Powershot A570 IS - it's simple to operate under automatic mode, yet it also have manual setting if you want go crazy. Takes OK picture and quite compact in design.
For something more, you might want to take a look at a Canon Powershot G7 - it's something more advanced than the basic A series and somewhat more expensive. It's also quite compact for its class.
If you don't mind about the camera's size, take a look at Canon Powershot S5 IS - the camera is geared more for enthusiast and it has SLR-like operation (except lens operation, that is). It takes better picture in automatic mode, and even better on manual mode if you know how to use it.
Finally if you're up to the budget, size and challenge of learning photography, an SLR camera would be the ultimate thing for most photographer and enthusiast. Basically an SLR is a camera with interchangeable lenses. The benefit of an SLR camera is that it takes faster picture, significantly better image quality and configurability. The downside is of course the size and weight - although I don't mind with those at all. Price is also quite high starting from about $500 for the Nikon D40 excluding accessories. You would also need to learn a little bit about photography but I wouldn't worry about that since the manual will provide basic information about it.
For an SLR camera I would recommend the Nikon D80 or the Canon Digital Rebel XTi. They're both takes great picture.
Well, I hope this will not confuse you even more and actually helps. Get at least 3 MegaPixels, its not really neccessary to go higher than that, unless you want to print large posters. Many cameras will come with at least 3 or higher. Megapixels alone will not tell you what the quality of the picture will be. I had a 6 megapixel camera that couldn't get it right, I returned it and went back to my 2 megapixel which took consistently good pictures.
The best way to decide which camera you want is to check out sample pictures. amazon.com has them, as well as some other sites.
I've tried about 6 different digital cameras, brands with consistent great pictures are Canon and Sony. I'm more 35mm SLR camera kind of gal.....
but if you want a digital i would strongly suggest CANON SD800
because it has a movement feature that even if your hand is moving the picture comes out sharp and focus...
I have that digital camera too..... I love it.....
If you don't decide to go with that one at least always stay with CANON
Hope this can help you!
Evey Reviews of cameras:
http://www.dcresource.com/
http://www.dpreview.com/
Recommend for your case:
Min 3 megapixels, ideal 4-6 megapixels
3-5x zoom
Good lens with a nice low F-Stop. (The lower the F-stop, the better the low light performance.)
Read the review pages, and learn a few of the terms. If you do not understand what megapixels means, the sales guy at Circuit City is probably not your best source of unbiased information. Terms I recommend you learn are listed on the sources area of my answer. Hello,
Make sure it has at least 6mp
You will want a min. of 3x optical zoom
dont worry about digital, get that out of your mind..
The higher the mp
The higher the optical the better.
Panasonic has some really good cameras as well as casio..
For less than 150 dollars you should be able to get a nice camera but the slimer, the higher the optical, the more mp you want the price goes up..
If you are low on cash try price matching all major stores do it.. find the camera you like research it go to your local sears, best buy, show them the print out of the camera and the price and they will price match it and give you the difference..
You can price watch with hhgregg, best buy, sears, frys, sams, walmart, etc. as long as it is not ebay and places like that..You can easily get a camera 50 dollars off...I have done that. |
