[Seamus]

But I'm not sure what to get. Here are my criteria:

1. Must work well with iPhoto/OS X.
2. Must have decent storage (something with flash memory).
3. Picture quality isn't high-priority, but I would prefer the photos look decent.

Any suggestions?

[zigzag]

There are dozens of cameras that fit your criteria. It mostly comes down to 3 things: how much can you spend, what do you want to do with the camera, and do you want a really compact camera? Tell us more and we can be of more help.

Since you're just beginning, you'd probably get a lot out of the following sites:

www.imaging-resource.com

www.cnet.com

www.pcworld.com (go to their top ten camera listing)

Also, the new Consumer Reports covers digital cameras.

[SplijinX]

I highly recommend the Minolta Dimage F100. I've had mine for a couple months now and it's a real pleasure to use. It's 4 Megapixels and uses Secure Digital memory (comes standard with 16MB, but recommend at least getting an additional 64MB so you can take alot more pics when you're out and about).

The camera casing is aluminum and is quite sleek and compact. The battery it came with was a one-time use lithium battery if I recall correctly, but also takes AA's. I've been able to take pictures and go through a 64MB card several times using the LCD before the batteries run out. Just buy at least 2 sets of rechargable AA's and you should be set.

I've had no problems what so ever using it with iPhoto2 and have had very good results. On a recent trip to Jamaica for a conference, I took my 12" PB with me and used it to dump the pictures I taken that day using iPhoto.

Given that I was only there 3 days and had taken over 700MB of pics, it's been a real joy using the pair. I got it around $350 US too so I've got no complaints. Just be cautious where you order from if its an online store that is not well known and do some research before hand.



http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/spec...dimagef100.asp

[jdhindes]

I have a Canon S-40 (4megapixel) camera and have had it about a year and 3 months. I really am pleased with it. (The new model is a Canon S-45) A great site for reviews of lots of digital cameras is: www.dpreview.com That site really helped me and they also have some great forums for owners of many makes of cameras.

Hope this helps.

Jim

[mathew_m]

Where are the harddrive based cameras? I would think that something with a 5 gig HD and 4 mp could sell for under $500. I don't want to dick around with memory cards.

[Commodus]

A camera with a hard disk would be cool, but mainly just for the higher-end cameras (as they're the ones that can generate sufficiently large images to justify the cost). Mid-range and lower cameras are better served by external cards with larger capacities.

Technicially, I believe you can already use a hard disk as part of a digital camera - with a Hitachi Microdrive. You can have 340 MB (or if you're really crazy, 1 GB) of photos! The only catch is that transferring those photos to your Mac may take a little while through USB 1.1. The most effective way to get the photos off would have to be through USB 2 or Firewire, and very few (if any) cameras have that option.

[dampeoples]

I wouldn't really worry too much about whether or not the camera works well with iPhoto/OS X. Most (i suppose) store images in either .tiff or .jpg format, and can be easily retrieved from a memory card reader. I think the Apple Store has one of the multi-format readers for about $30, good if you get a SD camera now, and your next camera happens to be CF or something.