What digi cam to buy?

[yeller]

This has been asked before, but the models keep changing, so here we go again.

I need to enter the 21st century and get a digital camera. After months of hummin' and hawwin' I was about to pull the trigger on a Canon A710IS, when they came out with the A720IS. While waiting for reviews on the 720 to appear, Canon released the SX100 and Sony unvieled the DSC-H3.
The Canon's can be viewed at:
www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ProductCatIndexAct&fcategoryid=113
The Sony can be viewed at:
www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=819855292166519998

Anyone have any thoughts on these....or other ones I should look at. I'm a novice with cameras, but I'd like to get something that I can grow into.

[fegettes]

Glen, you're right, what was top of the line last week has been replaced this week. I am in the same dilema looking for a digital camcorder and am literally lost as to what to get. I hate to think of the learning experience of buying some thing and then discover there is some thing better out there for my needs. I bought a Kodak a couple of years ago and have been pleased with it, however, there are so many better ones out there. When we were at the Hometown Rally there was some one, sorry I did not remember all of the names that weekend, with an Olympus on Sunday out on the water with us. We were conscious of getting it wet, and he imediately corrected us and said it was water proof to about 30 feet and to prove it, just dropped it in the water. It was small and thin, less than an inch, and almost the whole back side was a screen viewer. I was impressed with it.

Steve

[rustnrot]

I just pulled the trigger on this one from Costco....720p video.

$199.99 After $40 Off Kodak V1233 12.1MP 2.5" 3x Optical 15x Total & Bonus ATP 2GB SD Card

[yeller]

Steve, I believe I looked at the camera you're talking about. Waterproof is definately an asset, but as with the one rustnrot mentioned, it is 3x optical zoom. I was hoping to get one with more and still stay small enough to carry in my coat pocket.

Which brings up another question. What is peoples opinion on the zoom feature. Am I putting too much emphasis on the optical zoom? Should I be more concerned with optical + digital zoom?

[Patti]

We just got a brand new Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ3
I researched for a long time and it got top notch reviews from just about everywhere I looked and read.
We paid just over $350 for it and we really are super pleased with it. it has a 10x Optical, and scene modes, so you can choose from multiple scenes, like Portrait, candelight, fireworks, beach, landscape, scenery, babies, animals, night shots, etc and it automatically adjusts the settings for those types of photos..
Here is a site with more stats on it.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonictz3/
Good luck with whatever one you get!

[yeller]

Hi Patti. I've spent hours on that site. Originally I was very interested in the Panasonic, but it was because of the review on that site that I decided against it. Their complaint (about pretty much all Panasonics) was that the noise reduction caused the pics to be a bit grainy compared to others. How do they look to you? Have you printed any at 8x10 size to see how they come out?
I admit I may be overly concerned with what dpreview has to say. They are photo professionals and much more critical than the average consumer.

[Formula Jr]

My favorite site for camera reviews

http://www.steves-digicams.com/

You gotta be real careful these days. I'm seeing all over the web people that are having problems with their expensive cameras right after the warranty is up: The Famous Canon E18 error and all that, there a class action suit underway. . So its a good idea to google the camera for known problems before you buy it. If you buy new then you are going to be the tester.

Digital zoom means pretty much nothing. And a combined zoom over 10x is useless with out a tripod or image stablization.

I'm still using an HP 635 2.1 meg pix camera and have never seen the need for a higher resolution. An 8 by 11 print out looks just fine to me....

I had a 2 gig sd card and came back from Italy this summer with 1280 hi-rez photos to look through and then resize for the web.

My next camera will be a Kodak Z 740 or 760. Just because it is more light sensitive then the HP 635. The Kodak Z740 is an f/2.88.

Some more interesting reading

http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedetail/eye-resolution.html

[Patti]

Honestly, the photos are not grainy at all. I'll post a few i've taken..so far i've loved it..no issues at all. If there is a noise problem either i've not come across it or i've not noticed it :)

And yes, I know the photos are big..they have to be in order to see the quality, so if your connection is slow..don't open them lol :)

[yeller]

FJ, I've been all over steves site as well. I agree with you that the cramming of extra pixels isn't necessarily needed. Pixels was never on my list of things to look for on a camera. I am however stuck on getting one with 6 or more x's optical zoom. I've look at those Kodaks you mentioned, but they are just a bit larger than what I'd like.

Patti, that's an amazing sunset shot.
Another reason I originally dropped the Panasonic from my list was because I really wanted a camera with a viewfinder, but the new Sony and Canon I'm looking at don't have them either. I'll have to take another look at the Panasonic. Man....I just keep going in circles. :wink:

I'll save reading the Clarkvision site till this evening. Once again, this site has made me late for work. :biggrin.:

[Rootsy]

Hi Patti. I've spent hours on that site. Originally I was very interested in the Panasonic, but it was because of the review on that site that I decided against it. Their complaint (about pretty much all Panasonics) was that the noise reduction caused the pics to be a bit grainy compared to others. How do they look to you? Have you printed any at 8x10 size to see how they come out?
I admit I may be overly concerned with what dpreview has to say. They are photo professionals and much more critical than the average consumer.


the thing is awesome.... from macro mode (close up photos) that come out crystal clear to evening photos to what not... if you take photos at 3 MP or less you get 15X optical zoom above 3MP is 10X. As Patti said, the thing has a whole slew of presets for different conditions but it is also full manual if you so choose.

Only downside is that it DOES NOT come with a memory card. It does have some amount of built in memory though so you don't need a card if you only want to take a dozen photos at say 1600 x 1200 (3 MP).

here are a few photos she took at the fair a bit ago with the Panasonic. Notice they were in less than stellar light... early evening, etc. this was offhand... at high magnifications and low light you are going to want a steady rest such as a tripod, etc due to slow shutter speeds, etc.

right now the camera is set to take 3MP (1600 x 1200) photos, even though it is 7+ MP capable...

Also notice that photobucket has resized these photos and some of the crisp detail is missing due to it... but you get the idea of clarity...

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n27/jaroot13/Picture389456.jpg

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n27/jaroot13/Picture389446-1.jpg

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n27/jaroot13/Picture389395-1.jpg

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n27/jaroot13/Picture389352-1.jpg

[VetteLT193]

1) What type of photography do you do?
2) What is your level of expertise when it comes to cameras and digital equipment?

The 2 cameras you listed are what I call mid size cameras. They are far larger than a 'point and shoot' camera, but too small to change lenses or do any kind of excellent picture taking with. For day to day life, taking pictures on vacation etc. I can't say enough about size... smaller the better. For taking high quality pics, I can't say enough about size. Bigger the better (LOL)

-Optical zoom is great, but 10x optical zoom is going to need a tripod to utilize. You may find yourself over-zooming and causing blurred pictures.
-Digital zoom is literally BS. If you take a picture on a camera fully zoomed in optically, and another picture with some digital zoom you would see all digital zoom does is crop the picture for you... Digital zoom is turned off on my cameras because I can just do it myself later.

I have a couple of Sony cameras, and one thing I like about my newest one is the addition of 'Easy' mode. My wife is not computer/electronics savvy, so she can put the camera in easy mode and not worry about a screwed up setting... It takes the guess work out of other people using your stuff.

[Formula Jr]

These are just opinions and my real world experiences with Digital Cameras so far: 7 years and three cameras. First was an Apple QuickTake 200. Before that, I was using the CD rom services and scanning negatives into digital form.

I'm going to make some more basic statements than zoom or pixel density.

The fundamental advantage a digital camera has over a SLR 35 mm film camera, is expediency.


If the digital camera uses anything that is proprietary,... battery, memory, USB cable, special interface software, special video format, etc.... look elsewhere. Don't even think about buying it. These are built-in "Gotch Yas."
I have a friend, an enthusiastic photographer, that has over ten digital cameras. They all use different stuff. Different memory, different cables and special batteries. He just kept buying the latest greatest. And they are all worthless according to eBay now.

The camera should be automatically recognized by a computer as a removeable drive, just like any USB thumbdrive. The advantage to this is remote use-ability and ability to off load photos anywhere to anyone else's computer or to upload to your ftp site from a cyber cafe'.
Some cameras will show up as usb drives on the My Computer screen in XP, some will not. Mac's image capture seems to work with anything USB. But even cyber cafe's are now mostly bring your own laptop free WiFi sites. Maybe cameras will have that built into them soon also. So you could wait till this is a feature. There will always be a reason to wait.

Forget that your camera will be "cool." If its the top of the line, it will be cool for three months.

If you are left handed and left eyed, you are screwed. All digital cameras are right hand, right eye designs. I'm always pressing menu buttons with my nose when I use the optical view finder. I also have a bigger than normal nose.

I like my HP 635. But I have reasons for an upgrade.
It is a pig on batteries. For a day shoot, I have to carry three sets of extras.
It doesn't work well in low light.
It doesn't have manual focus - a huge pain if you are dealing with display cases.
It turns itself off too soon, which i can not over-ride and is too slow to deploy.
The video sound is near unusable.

The Z740 addresses most of those deficiencies. Like you said, its too big for you, but like Vettelt193 said, to get really good pics you sort of have to go to the larger lens sizes, larger cameras, for the light gathering and lack of distortion.

You may have dodged a bullet by not buying the Canon you were looking at.

That model is very much in the middle of the blog-o-world for its E18 error. And not just what is written on the Steve's Digicam site. Its everywhere, even on my local Graig's list.

[yeller]

Vettelt193, in answer to your questions:
1) None...that's why I need a camera. :wink::)
2) Pretty much zero.
I have tested 10x cameras (with IS) and was able to take good shots without a tripod, so I have to disagree with you on that one point. I have no doubt you'd need one if the camera didn't have IS.

Here's my thinking that's driving my (lack of?) decision making:
The reason I was originally leaning towards the A710/720IS was because it has 6x zoom, image stabilization, viewfinder, decent video capabilities, and decent manual capabilities. As far as size goes, it's not a super-compact, but it is easy to carry in a coat pocket and you can slip it in your pant pocket if need be. Personally, I don't like the super-compacts. I find them to hard to hold and use. On the other hand, I don't want a camera that I have to have a carry bag for. I don't know if I'll use the manual or not, but I'd like to have the option if I decide to experiment more with it. As for video; I don't expect the camera to replace a videocam, but I do want reasonable results when I want to snap a 20 sec. vid.
I just read a review from someone (that I missed earlier) that said the SX100 had horrible video...so that one is now off the list.

FormulaJr, I was unaware of the E18 problem. Although it should concern me, I still have decided to put the 720 back on the list.

At this moment, it's between the A720 and (thanks to Patti and Rootsy) the TZ3 and the H3. I like the extra zoom of the TZ3 and H3, but really like the viewfinder on the A720.
Tomorrow, my list may be different.....:boggled:

Thanks to everyone for your input. :yes: