Digital camera help!

[I'mHis]

I am looking into buying a digital camera. I was looking at a few today, and I had a few questions I was hoping someone could help me with. Basically, I kind of want some general info. What is the best kind to get, and what are the media card things for? I have absolutely no idea of anything to do with digitals, so any information would help a lot. I have always used a 35mm one, and I kind of wanted a digital one as well. What exactly should I look for in a good camera? I don't need a really fancy one.

 

[yugin]

Basically. it all depends what type of shooting you're going to do i.e portraits, landscape, macro..Probably one of the things to look for is resolution. I would go for 4 Mp and up. Next thing is zoom (optical one that would provide you good range. Don't bother with digital zoom)

You can go to wwwDOTdpreviewDOTcom (replace "DOT' with real dots can't post links). It has great reviews of all kinds of digital cameras as well as buying guide.
Personally, I put my eye on Canon Digital Rebel. Will be buying in the next couple of weeks

 

[I'mHis]

Thanks for your help. I don't want to do anything real fancy. Nothing professional or anything like that. I am a poor college student, so I can't afford a whole lot!! lol

 

[Deamiter]

check out http://www.dpreview.com You can search by price, and get reviews of the more popular cameras there.

 

[Ataradrac]

We bought a digital camera last spring. My husband is a photography buff, so he wanted something really good (as in, one that we could take and have "real" pictures developed from the images). We both had a list of "wants" for the camera - I wanted it to be able to do super-duper closeups for flowers. (All of these pics were taking with the macrozoom). He wanted no fringing (purple highlights between light and dark areas of the picture) and some other things that I didn't understand.

We went with a 5.1 megapixel Olympus 5060 wide-zoom. We've been VERY happy with it and the range of features it has.

 

[The_White]

I just got an Olympus C-760 ($600 aus so fairly expensive but it is good)

Thing you want to look for in a digital
Pixles - tells you the quality (mine is 3.2 megapixles which is plenty for non-profesional stuff)
Optical Zoom - How far you can zoom the camera without lowering quality (same kind of zoom as the 35mm cameras) (mine is 10X which is HEAPS)
Digital zoom - How far beyond the optical zoom you can go, this tends to lower quality however (mine is 3X which give this camera a total of 30x zoom )

The media card things are what stores your photos, they are just like the harddrive in your computer or CD a 16MB (megabyte) card can store 42 or so pictures at good quality at 1280 by 960 resolution which is almost portrait size.

http://the-white.deviantart.com/ is some examples of what the one I have can do just for comparing with others that have been put up.

The one Atadrac could be to good and expensive for what you are looking at but it IS a good camera

 

[I'mHis]

Wow, I know I cannot afford $600!!!! That sounds like an awesome camera though.

 

[The_White]

Remember thats $600 Aussie = more like $350-$400 US
It was an 18th b-day press from the whole family and it rocks but as far as I can see you don't want too much less in a digital cam.

 

[I'mHis]

lol I didn't think about the conversion.

 

[Jerome M.]

Basically, I kind of want some general info. What is the best kind to get, and what are the media card things for?.

There are many good digi cam brands available in the market today. It depends on where you will use it and your purpose. Be careful when buying one. I have my old NikonF3 35mm format film camera and 2 digi cams right now. My newly acquired baby, a Nikon Coolpix8800 8.0MP and my first digi cam, Kodak 3.2MP. But I prefer using the Nikon now, it has an audio recording capability and many features too. Some digi cams doesn't have audio recording, so it's up to you which one you would prefer. The higher the MP (mega pixels) the more expensive. Since you are new to digi cams, buy at least with a 3.2MP, you'll never be sorry. Some brands includes in the package: charger and rechargeable batteries.

It is better to use rechargeable batteries the one specified in the owner's manual. It is more economical in the long run rather than using alkaline, lithuim batteries and cheaper to use while learning and getting to know your cam. Use your alkaline, lithuim as back up batteries. Digi cam will not operate on ordinary batteries. Don't buy NiCad rechargeable batteries, it drains fast.

MMC (multi media card), SD, Microdrive, Compact Flash cards are use to store or save/delete your pictures and videos, they are just like USB flash memory or the memory card in your PlayStation. You can easily put and remove it from the camera's expansion slot. Some digi cams if not all has an internal or built-in memory of 14-16MB.(check this feature before buying). You can buy an additional external memory card in 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB capacity. Bigger MB are more expensive, but the advantage - it will keep you shooting longer. For me, it is advisable to have one. When the time you need a quality hard copy, it is more convenient and handy to carry rather than bringing the whole camera to the photo developing shop. It will also save you time copying or transfering the images into CDs or diskettes. I have my own purpose, so I bought an additional 512MB memory card for my cam. The memory card is a multi-purpose, you can also use it on your cellphone if your phone has an expansion slot. I do use the card on my phone-video from time to time.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[Antari]

I'd look for one with at least 3 Mpixels. The media cards are like your film, but you can use them over and over (I have two 128mb SDs, I can take about 306 pics before running out of memory).

Pixels=the quality of the picture. Every digital pic is made up of small dots, called "pixels." The more there are, the better the pic. A megapixel means 1 million pixels.

BTW, depending on the quality of the pics your camera takes, you may be able to take more or less pics on a card. For example: My camera is 3.2 megapixels, and takes pics at 2000 x 1800 resolution (something like that), and my 128mb cards can hold 152 pics each, while someone with smaller, lower pixeled pics could hold around 200-240. Most cameras have adjustments you can make to raise or lower the quality, though.

 

[Psalm31]

Hi,

I always enjoy going to CNET.com. It's a really good website to price and compare electronics. It's just too bad I didn't find it before I bought my digital.

I wouldn't suggest the Fuji FinePix S3000. That's what I had. I bought it cause it was "cute". What a girl thing to do! It takes nice pictures but the shutter lag is anoying. By the time it takes the picture it seems like whatever image you were trying to capture is gone.

My grandparents just bought and HP (can't remember the name). It was expensive but it's really nice.

I suggest you do a lot of research first. Price and compare the cameras as well as get as much hands on with them as you can. It may look nice but you might not like the way it feels in your hand or how the buttons are placed and so on.

Happy Shopping!!!

 

[utdbear]

I would look into the Canon A75, S410, and the S230. Probably well within a college student's budget for something to haul around and get pictures of your friends.

<- Digital Rebel user

 

[Psalm31]

Ooooo utdbear! I am so jealous! I want one of those so bad. I have the SLR Rebel G. Wanna let me borrow it? vbmenu_register("postmenu_10056975", true);

 

[Philled-one]

I have a Kodak DX6340 which is adequte for simple photography.

 

[Sir Donkey of Punchington]

Canon makes amazing cameras. They really stand head and shoulders above the rest-- I had a Sony DSC-p5 that's acceptable, but my next one's going to be a Canon for certain.

 

[ukok]

this is my most recent camera purchase...

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0402/PMA/Olympus/d580zfrontback.jpg

 

[Sir Donkey of Punchington]

How's it work, Ukok?

 

[ukok]

How's it work, Ukok?

i press a button

 

[Sir Donkey of Punchington]

Well, quit pressing mine and answer the question.

How's the picture quality come out?