[omegahack]

Well i am going on a trip in march and i was looking into getting a new digital camera, knowing that my other one crapped out on me.

I was looking into the Canon S400 as a sub $400 camera.

I was wondering if anyone has any other input as to which other cameras are good. I would be mainly using it for taking pictures of random stuff while i am not out on vacation, such as cars, family and so on. Nothing too professional needed here. I would still like to keep the resolution fairly high.

Thanks for all the help and guideance on my quest of a new digital camera!

-OmegaHack

[Ambassadeur]

have a look at this thread, there might be some info for you in there:
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=199025

[Rev-O]

Sorry, no specific recommendations, just a few things I've looked for when guiding my co workers through the maze of their first digital camera purchase.

Keep in mind the obvious stuff. Optical zoom good, digital zoom bad. Look for something that uses cheap, easy replaced batteries. Being on vaca and having your spiffy rechargables die blows. It's nice to swing into the closest Stop 'N' Rob and get some batteries. Media type for storage. Prices vary from format to format. Etc etc etc. Buy more storage crds instead of bigger storage cards. Yup, a 256 is cool, but you lose it, you lose everything. Use two 128s instead.

Someone once told me told buy digital cameras from actual camera manufacturers (like nikon, pentax, olympus, canon) instead of film, electronic, and computer companies (Hp, fuji, kodak, etc.) because anyone can throw a CCD in a small plastic case, not anyone can develop good lenses and optics to go with it. Of course, he was a camera guy, not an electronics guy, so I'm bettin' he was biased.

[G4ME]

if I had the cash right now i would get the S400, a great camera whicked small great features super fast, great battery life, i haven't heard any major complaints.

[Ambassadeur]

Originally posted by Rev-O:
Keep in mind the obvious stuff. Optical zoom good, digital zoom bad. Look for something that uses cheap, easy replaced batteries. Being on vaca and having your spiffy rechargables die blows. It's nice to swing into the closest Stop 'N' Rob and get some batteries. Media type for storage. Prices vary from format to format. Etc etc etc. Buy more storage crds instead of bigger storage cards. Yup, a 256 is cool, but you lose it, you lose everything. Use two 128s instead.

- True, forget digital zoom. Don't get a digital camera without optical zoom. never ever!
- resolution: 3 megapixels minimum, you shouldn't go below today.
- Media: type does not matter so much, you buy it once and you're fine. And for size, I'd go with one big one (at least 256) instead of several smaller ones and you never take it out, so no chance to lose it. and no hassle for changing the card all the time. unless it's stolen, but then your whole camera bag gets stolen, with the other cards in it as well. (in the end, it's up to you, different people will always have different opnions)

Originally posted by Rev-O:
Someone once told me told buy digital cameras from actual camera manufacturers (like nikon, pentax, olympus, canon) instead of film, electronic, and computer companies (Hp, fuji, kodak, etc.) because anyone can throw a CCD in a small plastic case, not anyone can develop good lenses and optics to go with it. Of course, he was a camera guy, not an electronics guy, so I'm bettin' he was biased.

- Your friend is right, it doesn't take much to put together a halfway decent camera, but to develop a lens system that goes with your ccd and the software inside the camera (which actually translates the ccd data into the picture data (e.g. JPEG) is a whole different set of requirements. so definitely go with the guys with camera and optics experience (canon, opympus, nikon etc.). electronics is the easy part to manage in a good camera. (why should canon and nikon be leading the digital camera market otherwise, both consumer and pro?)