Job Discussion Forums

[Glen 2003]

I'm looking to buy a digital camera,but I have no knowledge of cameras.I want a camera that I can just "aim and shoot",but still get good quality pics.I hope to get one that's easy to carry and in the U.S. $300-400 price range.I appreciate any suggestions.

[Lanza-Armonia]

Give princeofzibo a PM. He was a professional camera guy thingy. I cannot be specific as the subject bores me to death, but he knows EVERYTHING about it!!!

Enjoy!

[been_there]

two main considerations: Pixels and memory.

The first thing you want to look at is how many mega pixels the photos it saves are. 1 million is low, 2 million is good, and 3 million is about as high as you need.

That being said, the more pixels, the more memory you will need on the camera. Removable memory cards are my suggestion, but will bump up the price. They come in 8 MB, 16, 32, 64, 128, 512 and Sony even has a 1 gigabyte memory card. Costs about $400. I have a Fiji FinePix that is pretty basic, costs $200, does either 1, 2, or 3 million pixels (user set), and even records movies (as .mpeg, but they EAT memory). It came with an 8mb card, and I bought a 64mb card for about $40 and can get somewhere around 130 pictures of the 2 megapixel variety on it.

My favourite digi cam is my Intel Coolpix, it was $20, has no display on the back, no removable media, can store about 100 crappy 1 megapixel pictures, and I take it everywhere because I dont care if it gets beeped up.

[foster]

http://www.dpreview.com/

Excellent page for all Digi Cams

I personally have a Canon IXY 400 (4 MPG with a 256K card) and love it. I paid 50,000Yen for it all.

Look for a camera with good MPGS. I would suggest no lower then 3.2 MPGs and a card of at least 256K to take many pictures should you go on vacation. I took mine to Russia and took 800+ pictures. My pictures print well and I have great resolutions.

Good luck!

[Aramas]

People talk about that 3.2 megapixel thing, but that only applies if you're printing the photos, and does anyone still do that? In practice I only ever use photos on my computer and in emails, and even with 1.2 MPixels I always end up scaling the pictures down.

I have a 1.2 megapixel Casio Exilim http://world.casio.com/exilim/en/ex_s1/style/, which was the smallest serious one made last I heard. It's the same size as a credit card, about a cm thick and is also a mp3 player. I'm happy with it. All I need now is one of those Philips E Ink EBook readers http://www.eink.com/news/releases/pr70.html when they come out and I'll be a happy camper. Carrying a few hundred of your favourite classics around in your pocket and reading them on a printed page quality display is an appealing idea for the travelling bibliophile.

If you want quality and don't mind a bit of bulk then the Canon Ixus/Elph is hard to beat and they seem to be getting cheaper all the time. Probably still more than you want to pay though.

Whichever camera you get, make sure it has a rechargable lithium battery. The last thing you need is to cart around a pocket full of $10 throwaway batteries. That sure would eat up a broke-ar$ed English teacher's salary fast.

[Kitegirl]

This is pretty useful stuff - these guys live for their Kodak Moments.

http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/categories.cfm?catid=34

[Stephen Jones]

Don't go under 3.2 megapixels. Even that will not allow you to print A4 without some pixelation (that is the dots showing up on the picture).

All digital cameras are easy to carry. In your price range you won't be dealing with SCR lenses so any camera you buy should fit in your shirt pocket.

With regard to memory you will need to buy additonal storage as the storage that comes with the camera will not allow many pictures in raw mode or low compression. Storage costs around 30-50 cents an MB and I would recommed you set aside near $100 for that. There are different types of storage (Sony uses a proprietory memory stick so for that reason alone I would avoid it) and there are slight differences in price between them. Smart Digital and Compact Flash appear to be the cheapest.

As fior what make, that is up to you, although Kodak appear to have a fairly bad reputation. Go to www.pcmag.com and you will be able to search for loads of reviews. Fuji, Nikon, Canon all have a good reputation, but you need to check out each model separately.

[ls650]