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

[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.

[rickm]

A70 or A80 are really nice, I have an A80. Price shop if you need to but use caution - someone on Amazon was selling the A80s for US$190.00. Lots of folks purchased and *never* received their camera. You've been warned. Adorama, B&H video are all good places. I picked up my A80 for $300.00

PMA (Photo Marketing Association) 2004 starts on February 9th and a lot of the manufacturers will be releasing their new lines. Many won't be available immediately but you could see some price drops.

If you get something that uses AA batteries you'll want to get a recharger. Maha are nice, RipVan100 has a 4000N that's pretty sweet, you can get the charger and 8 2300mAh batteries for $49 and change (a highly rated charger).

dpreview.com has lots of reviews and user forums (along with Steve's as listed above).

[DueyT]

I concur with Rick, not because I'm an A40 owner, was the common-sense, decent baby brother to the current A70/A80 pair, but because Canon makes very nice camers, with good optics, and well though out user interfaces.

Then again, thank gosh my buddy is the one with enough bucks to own a Nikon D1 and a Fuji FinePix 6000...both very nice monster-pixel units...but more to the point, a high performance, high quality digital SLR camera.

I just plunk along happily with my Canon.

You can't go wrong with either the A70 or A80.

Cheers,
Duey

[bimmer253]

Bought a Canon PhotoShot S400, went to best buy, played with it, loved it, then came home bought it online, and a 128mb card, thank you very much for all your help!!

[warton]

Bought a Canon PhotoShot S400, went to best buy, played with it, loved it, then came home bought it online, and a 128mb card, thank you very much for all your help!!

That's my other camera. ;-) Awesome take-anywhere digital! The 3 middle shots on this page were taken with my S400...

http://www.warton.org/Slideshows/Snow/index.html

Regards,
Peter

[John D]

Best camera choice depends on what you will be using camera for.

Optical magnification is always better than digital by far. Who cares if it is 100x zoom, if 50x of it is digital - it will be grainy...... For me, I just bought the Olympus C-740 w/ 10x Optical zoom ($340 Refurb w/ 3 yr Warranty). Its a 3.2 MP and can be used in Auto (point and shoot) or get creative/ advanced and choose your own settings.... Olympus Media is cheap - 128 MB xD for about $45 on the bay. No problems so far. Sister has the C-750 and they love it.


John D

[BMW-F1-FAN]

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

[ilya]

just thought id give you some of my input, even though you already bought a camera..
i work at bestbuy Digital Imaging department so i have to sell these things all the time

out of all those, i would have probably recommended the g3 or the A80. i like the s50 as well, but the arrow-pad on it is very uncomfortable.
i dont like kodak that much, they seem too cheap too me.. fuji is decent, but their optics arent the best.
nikon and canon are by far the best.

the s400 that you bought is an EXCELLENT camera, but i hate its design. its way too "square" for me. i mean, the camera is like a small box. its good for traveling, but i dont like the way it feels in my hands. however, that's a personal thing. it has great features, and VERY easy to use.

[epp]

this site might help.

http://www.dpreview.com/

rgds,
ed
90/535i