Do digital video cameras take ok still shots?

[StageLeft]

I realize that a $350 camera won't take great stills, but how are they? Equivalent to a 1 megapixel camera in terms of quality, or a $45 kid's digital camera bought from toys r us?

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
I realize that a $350 camera won't take great stills, but how are they? Equivalent to a 1 megapixel camera in terms of quality, or a $45 kid's digital camera bought from toys r us?

they're fine for e-mailing but not much else.

 

[Czar]

http://www.dpreview.com/
find a $350 camera, look for it on that site and check out the sample gallery

 

[TheGameIs21]

It all really depends.... What are you wanting to take pics of? What are you going to use the pics for? You can find quality 350.00 cams for personal use that are going to cover mostly what you want it for. My only suggestion is that you don't go below 3 Mega pixel.

Nikon Coolpix 3100 3.0 Mega Pixel $296.95

Nikon Coolpix 4300 4.0 Mega Pixel $396.95

Both of the above take great shots but are limited on filters etc... Like I said, the first question is what do you want it for? I know a guy that bought a pen digi cam for $30 Looks like this. and it takes pics that are perfect for his needs and he'd be a fool to spend another dime on another cam. For someone else... a $2,400 cam will not have enough features . Here is an example of a $2,500 cam.


my bad... misread your title. I'll leave the info up for anyone that might be interested.

 

[jacob0401]

Originally posted by: TheGameIs21
It all really depends.... What are you wanting to take pics of? What are you going to use the pics for? You can find quality 350.00 cams for personal use that are going to cover mostly what you want it for. My only suggestion is that you don't go below 3 Mega pixel.

Nikon Coolpix 3100 3.0 Mega Pixel $296.95

Nikon Coolpix 4300 4.0 Mega Pixel $396.95

Both of the above take great shots but are limited on filters etc... Like I said, the first question is what do you want it for? I know a guy that bought a pen digi cam for $30 and it takes pics that are perfect for his needs and he'd be a fool to spend another dime on another cam. For someone else... a $2,000 cam will not have enough features.

i think he's talking about a DV cam not a still cam...

 

[LarryS]

DV Cameras take pretty crappy still pictures. I've found that Digital still cameras take pretty decent video, though. My Canon A80's video function doesn't look half bad when played on my television.

 

[StageLeft]

Thanks for info, including the post by TheGame - I'm thinking about both a DV camera and a D camera. i think the DV Camera probably will take inadequate pictures, but I do need some video functionality as well (more than what a regular camera sometimes offers in their short video bits).

 

[TheGameIs21]

Thare are a number of $500 + Digital Cams that have 3 - 6 FPS at very good quality. You might want to check out. It really does matter what you are wanting to use it for though. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

 

[AlienCraft]

I use my SONY DCR-TRV110 for stills for eBay , emails and some print. It depends on the subject and lighting, imo. I bought it in 1998, when Digital Still cameras were still sub video in quality.
NOW, the newer cameras can capture at a higher resolution. It took about 4 years for them to catch up, especially when you consider how many rolls of video I've shot since then.
Depends what you want to shoot, I think.