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PowerMatt · Nov 2, 2002, 11:53 PM

I am finally getting a digital camera for myself and I thought people from this forum could lend me some advice. I wan't to keep the total bill under $400. I would maybe bend a little on that if I got a good deal or needed some extra accessories. So my questions are: what is your recomendation for a camera and why? Also, what are the advantages of the different memory types? I currently have a pocketpc that uses CompactFlash memory so it seem that it might be beneficial to get a camera that used the same. And finally, what are the must-have accessories you have found for your digital camera? Thanks guys.

starman · Nov 3, 2002, 12:03 AM

For that price, I'd recommend the last camera I had - the Kodak DC4800. Very nice camera, excellent pictures. I recently upgraded to the Sony DSC-F707.

Mike

Weezer · Nov 3, 2002, 01:50 AM

I would get a Fuji 4800Z off of ebay, the things are amazing. They take great pictures, decent quality 80 second movies, and can do 30 minutes of audio. I love mine.

DaKiwi2788 · Nov 3, 2002, 02:10 AM

Get the CanonS200....it's $299 and excellent, in my opinion. The S230 is $399. The difference is the mexapixels. They are small, compact, and VERY easy to use with iPhoto.

They sell them at the Apple store I went to today, and had it hooked up to a TiBook. Some guy was giving a presentation on what they could do. It was awesome.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Nov 3, 2002, 04:01 AM

Originally posted by Weezer:
I would get a Fuji 4800Z off of ebay, the things are amazing. They take great pictures, decent quality 80 second movies, and can do 30 minutes of audio. I love mine.

From what I have seen fuji's have really bad white count.

Justin W. Williams · Nov 3, 2002, 10:31 AM

Originally posted by DaKiwi2788:
Get the CanonS200....it's $299 and excellent, in my opinion. The S230 is $399. The difference is the mexapixels. They are small, compact, and VERY easy to use with iPhoto.

They sell them at the Apple store I went to today, and had it hooked up to a TiBook. Some guy was giving a presentation on what they could do. It was awesome.

Yep. I got a Canon s200 or my birthday, and I love it!

Only complaints

* Turning it on is a bit of a pain. You have to really push the little power button in.

* Battery life. Mind you, I shot a good 60 photos this weekend, but I didnt expect my battery to die after that.

scottiB · Nov 3, 2002, 10:47 AM

Sites for research:

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

Check out these sites' forums, buyer reviews, and glossaries if your unfamiliar with the terminology. Some also provide galleries of cameras' sample photos.

I recommend Canon (which uses Compact Flash). I own two (S230 and Pro 90IS) and am extremely satisified with the quality manuals, software (which is OS X native--though I use ImageCapture for importing), and the cameras' fit and finish. In your range are the A40 and S30.

Accessories:

Extra media cards: Most cameras ship with the minimum to get you going. Depending on how you shoot, at least one additional 64MB.
Addtional battery/rechargeable batteries: To me, a must have. Some cameras have propietary batteries (like the Canon S30--and my S230), and some use AA-size (the A40).

Some prefer AA because you can purchase inexpensive rechargeable ones and use regular Duracells if they happen to die at a crucial moment. My previous digicam was a Ricoh which used AA-size, and I found that the rechargeables would never last as long as Duracells, and I was going broke buying 15-packs of Duracells at Costco. While an addtional proprietary battery is more expensive initially, I think it's preferable. I always have an additional one (or 2) ready to go.
Flash media reader: Not really needed, but a convenience and pretty inexpensive for a USB one. I prefer popping out the card from the camera to reader then finagling with the camera's USB cable. If you need speed, FireWire CF ones are available.
Tripod: Even the cheapest one can really help in lowlight situations when you don't want to use a flash.

kdixey · Nov 3, 2002, 10:51 AM

You need to think about what you'll use the camera for. At the $400 there are a lot of very nice options.

Generally speaking if you are printing your photos a 2 megapixel camera will produce images that can make a 6x8 print that looks as good or better than a coventional print. As you go up in resolution you gain the ability to print larger images that look good. A 3 megapixel can produce a nice 8x10 and so on...

Smartmedia, Compact Flash and Memory Stick all give you similar performance and durability. Compact Flash comes in larger sizes sizes typically. Smartmedia tends to have slightly better performance and Memory Stick is only used in Sony cameras. If you find a camera you like don't let it's memory card format stop you.

In general I recommend people go to the local digital camera store and handle the different models. Cameras are very individual and you may like the way a particular model feels and handles better than another.

At the $400 price I would recommend you look at the Fuji 2800/3800 cameras, the Canon S200/S300 cameras and the Olympus 2040. Of that group the Fuji's are arguably the best picture takers (but everyone has their own favorites), I find the Fujis to be fast, with decent optics and beautiful color. They also tend to produce very nice sharp photos in their full auto modes which is good when your just getting started.

Good luck.

godzookie2k · Nov 3, 2002, 12:11 PM

Justin W. Williams · Nov 3, 2002, 12:30 PM

That coolpix has a funky ass design. I dont like how you have to fold that thing out to get to the lens. It was a pain.

Corys · Nov 3, 2002, 02:02 PM

Originally posted by starman:
For that price, I'd recommend the last camera I had - the Kodak DC4800. Very nice camera, excellent pictures. I recently upgraded to the Sony DSC-F707.

Mike

I too have a DC4800. Have been very impressed with it.
lots of manual controls if you want them, or the point a shoot feature works well.

Only complaint is it get's grainy in low light situations. which from what I understand is common among all cameras. but from what I have read, the DC4800 is less forgiving than others.