OT: Digital Camera Suggestions..help narrowing down my list please.

[bimmer253]

Hey Guys, i need help narrowing down my list of digital cameras. These are ones that i have researched, seens, played with at stores and have so far liked what i have seen. This is mainly for my dad, he is looking for a digital camera that takes nice pictures, easy to use, small, light weight, long battery life. Also, he plans on buying a couple for work, so cheap is good too, also he and his employees are kinda techinicaly challenged. Well, here is my list, if you guys could help me get rid of the real bad ones, or if you have a different suggestions from these that would be awesome too, thanks in advance-
Canon PowerShot A70
Canon PowerShot SD100
Fuji Finepix 3800
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC33
Olympus Camedia Stylus 300
Kodak EasyShare DX6340
Canon PowerShot S400
Kodak Easyshare LS443
Olympus Camedia C-5050
Canon Powershot G3
Olympus Camedia C-50
Olympus camedia C-4000
Canon Powershot S50
Canon PowerShot A80
Olympus Stylus 400
Olympus D-565

Thanks Again!
Ryan
1992 525i

[robert]

I have a finepix 5000..and its pictures are pretty impressive.. pretty good camera not expensive..long battery life.. so many out their hard choice..

[bahnstormer]

what about the nikons? i have a cool pix 900, served me well the last 3 years or so.

and jonk is the resident camera expert, he'll tell u the G5 is the best =]
or maybe his D1

[bimmer253]

i had a nikon coolpix775 and absolutely hated it, never had so much problems with an electronic before, and that experience has made me stay away from nikons, but i guess that was one of the first coolpix and they stoped selling it after a year, so maybe there better now...

[Alan_525i]

Heh, thats funny, I have a 775 and still use it for quick snapshots (I have a Digital Rebel now).

If you are looking for ease of use and the best picture with a minimum of effort I would say the Kodak 6340 is an excellent choice. If you want to fiddler with it and learn a bit about photography a Canon G3 or G5 is an awesome choice (had one for a week before deciding I really wanted the Rebel). I wouldn't really recommend any of the olympuses you've chosen. Not that they are bad in anyway, just there are better choices (and the memory for them is pricy). A friend has an S400 and for the size and price it takes great pics. SD100 isn't worthwhile. The Panasonics are very new and while reviews have been decent, I would wait longer to see what problems might crop up. A great resource for camera info is www.dpreview.com

Hope this helps you narrow it down a bit.

[bimmer253]

I checked out that site(it is a real good site) and after reading it this is what i narrowed my list down to-
Canon Powershot A70
Olympus Camedia Stylus 300
Kodak Easyshare DX6340
Canon Powershot S400
Kodak Easyshare LS443
Olympus Camedia C-4000
Canon Powershot A80
Olympus Stylus 400
Olympus D-565

[MikeV]

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

In-depth reviews, and I've found them to be right on the money.

You have to decide what are the most important features to you... size & weight? # pixels? Optical zoom range? re-cycle time & battery life? Optical quality? Price? Degree of exposure control?

I own a Canon G2 - it's awesome for a 4-mp camera, great optics, great battery life, cheap CF memory... I can't say enough good about it. But these days I most often find myself borrowing my wife's Minolta Dimage Xt - it's only 3mp and has far less control, but it is tiny and lightweight and very good optics - it's just easier to bring it along. (wanna buy my G2, cheap? )

For Christmas we bought my Dad a Kodak 6340, and I have to say, for the money it is a surprisingly good camera, with much better optics than I would have expected. I've recently seen the Sony V1 priced in the low $400's, it's a steal - you would expect to pay more than that just for the 4x Zeiss lens alone.

Truth is, though, you can't really go wrong with any of the cameras on your list...

[bahnstormer]

i know that the G5 goes for like 700 bucks, but from what i've read, its a really good camera.

ask yourself this -
what will i be using this camera for most?

[Joestancampiano]

Canon powershot A70 or A80 best of the bunch so far for features vs value

Joe

[Brian C.]

....and so far I'm quite pleased with the results that I get. For a 4mpx camera, the price of around $350 was very competitive. I'm a Forensic Photographer, but I've been using 35mm and up for so long that I've hesitated the change to digital. I found that I've been neglecting to bring a camera to "family" events and on quickie-vacations lately, mostly since my Nikon F4 plus flash plus battery packs plus lenses....yadday-yadda.....were just too damn much to carry unless I was getting paid to do it. I wanted a "point-and-shoot" to cover all the assorted "candid" type photos that I didn't need for either work stuff or enlargements. The Coolpix 4300 has been great, with many more features on it than I'll ever need or use. I can focus down to about 2" for close up artie-crap that I like to do, but it still takes great "snapshots" with good resolution.

I've always told people that as long as you know HOW to take good photos, the actual camera doesn't make a whole lot of difference. What will make a difference is the lens on the camera. Nikon, Canon, Olympus....are all superior lens manufacturers. Make sure that the lenses have one of those names on them along with Zeiss, Schneider, Rodenstock....these are all well known lens manufacturers that will be only on top quality products to begin with.
Good Luck.

Brian C.