$200 3MP Digital Camera

[jaydee]

I've gone through all the recent DC threads as well as google and haven't found the information I'm looking for, for this buy.

I'm looking for a digital camera for my mom and possibly for myself. Budget: approx $200 shipped (sorry, Canon A70 is just too much, unless you can find me a good deal). I'm looking at 3 MP and 3x optical zoom.

Newegg has the Fuji FinePix A210 for $172 and the Olympus D-560 for $194 (after $20 MIR). I've seen the reviews on Steve's site and DC Recources. The both have 3 MP and 3x OZ.

I'm leaning towards the Olympus because my mom has an Olympus conventional camera and likes it. She wants this to take a ton of pictures on her trip to Alaska next year. With the Olympus, it has seamless zoom instead of the 5 distince zoom levels on the Fuji (is this a big deal?). You can also do long exposure shots (2 seconds) on the D-560, but not on the A210 (1/2 second). The Fuji also looks a little bulky (in width).

If you think you can convince me the Canon A60 (with 2MP) for $189, give it a shot (do I really need 3 MP?). Any other camera's I should consider? I guess this is my biggest question right here.

Also, is there a big difference between HQ and SHQ modes at 2048 x 1536? SHQ takes up 3 times more space than HQ, is the quality discrepency that great? The sites I've seen suggest no.

Thanks in advance.

Jim

 

[Danman]

WTF is with all of the funky characters?

 

[Eli]

The hell is wrong with your post? :Q

I say get the Olympus.

I would recommend the A60 if the user was going to get into photography and wanted the extra features(manual modes etc).

I'm going to look up some reviews though. MP isn't everything, the A60 very well may be as good as or better than the D560.

 

[jaydee]

Sorry, I wrote it in Word first, lemme see if I can fix it...

 

[DaWhim]

try sale/trade

 

[jaydee]

Originally posted by: DaWhim
try sale/trade

I'm looking to buy new.



Eli,

I'll look into the manual features to see if it's worth the sacrifice in MP. Do you have a short description as to what it's worth?

 

[Lvis]

I've been happy with my fuji 3800. I bought it ten months ago for 300, no doubt the price has dropped since then. Many people don't like the fact that you can't stick it in a pocket. That didn't matter to me, and its worked out well.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: jaydee

Originally posted by: DaWhim
try sale/trade

I'm looking to buy new.



Eli,

I'll look into the manual features to see if it's worth the sacrifice in MP. Do you have a short description as to what it's worth?

It probably isn't going to be worth it to someone like your mom, unless she already knows a lot about photography and can compose her shots quickly.

Otherwise, she will just use the auto mode(s), and (at least you would hope) the 3MP cam will take better pics.

I would look at sample pics of both and decide which you like the best. I am trying not to be biased, since I have an A60.

 

[RossMAN]

Olympus

 

What about the $200 Olympus 4 mp camera in "Hot Deals". Good luck finding one, but you never know?

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: MisterJackson
What about the $200 Olympus 4 mp camera in "Hot Deals". Good luck finding one, but you never know?

It's been in my sig for almost a week, you'd think he would have noticed by now

 

[OZEE]

That Olympus C4000 deal from OM is awesome! Great camera at an even greater price!

 

[DaWhim]

Originally posted by: jaydee

Originally posted by: DaWhim
try sale/trade

I'm looking to buy new.

I bought a new camera from there

 

[jaydee]

I'll check out the Rochester Office Max locations tomarrow. From what I saw from the thread though, I'm not getting my hopes up...

 

[Jeff7181]

I love my Olympus C-3020... I got it for $300 over a year ago, factory recertified. I see them on eBay now for about $250 as refurbished. That's a tad out of your price range, but it's well worth it in my opinion... gimme a minute and I'll post some links to pics to show you what it can do.

These are 2048x1536 pictures, so dial-up users beware =)

Yellow Flower closeup
Purple and Yellow Flower closeup
Bird in a Bush
(this is the smallest bill I could find in my wallet )
Money 1 (7.5X digital + optical)
Money 2 (3x optical)
Money 3 (no zoom)
My XP2500

By the way... all those were taken at High Quality and are compressed JPG's. It can take uncompressed TIFF's or Super High Quality jpg's which increases the file size to about 4 times the size of these, and I can't tell any difference in quality until I move down to low quality, which takes 1600x1200 pictures and compresses them more I believe.

 

[bleeb]

Nice, I like my Canon S230

 

[Kenny]

Originally posted by: bleeb
Nice, I like my Canon S230

I also like mine, but it goes for almost $300 new, maybe $250 refurbished.

Since the price is strictly under $200, I would look into getting the Olympus. My roommate has a Fuji, and it looks small, but it's quite bulky to hold all day.

I assume your mom wants to have good quality pictures; 3MP should suffice for viewing and printing most of the pictures.

 

[CTrain]

Thank me later.....perfect camera for $199 to be exact.

LINK
Minolta E323.
3x zoom
3 megapixel
Lightweight(weight 145g as oppose to the A70 215g)
Unlimited movie mode
Uses 2aa batteries.

 

[jaydee]

The Minolta looks like a good camera. I'll definitly give it consideration.

Down to Minolta and Olympus. Maybe I'll buy both, let mom choose and keep the other. Wish they both used the same media...

Anymore thoughts?