Good Digital Camera for $100-200

[JackOfHearts]

The topic says it all... I have heard that the cannon A60 is a good camera and I am leaning towards that one. Does any have any suggestions?
Thanks.
-JoH

 

[Mem]

2MP range the Canon A60 is an excellent camera and would be my choice.

 

[JackOfHearts]

Also, I was wondering what should I look for in a digital camera? I know Mega pixels are a part of the rating and fairly important? I would assume optical zoom is Thanks

-JoH

 

[JackOfHearts]

BTW, Thanks Mem... Nice site

 

[oldfart]

Yup. A60 for that price range.

 

[JackOfHearts]

So I have 2 for A60 and 0 for anything else
-JoH

 

[oldfart]

I am kind of a Canon zealot when it comes to digital cameras. So are a lot of other people for good reason. If you dont need an optical zoom, and want a 3.2 MP camera, there is also the Canon A300 in that price range.

What features are you looking for? What is the maximum print size you will need? How much zoom? Auto vs manual controls? etc...

 

[JackOfHearts]

This is going to be used mostly for talking pictures of things of interest... I will use it most on things out in nature. As, I love hiking it will be used to take pictures of various animals, trees and things. So I guess zoom would be rather important. Also, do all Canon's use CF memory? If so can all of their camera's accept the 2 GB cards?

 

[JackOfHearts]

Another quick question... Is the Canon A70 worth another 80 dollars. It is a 1.2 mega pixel jump, is it worth it in terms of image quality? Thanks.

-JoH

 

[Mem]

It really depends on how big you want your images if you print them,the A70 will be better long term since you probably won`t outgrow the camera as quick as you would if you had the A60.

I would say if you can stretch your budget to the A70 then yes buy the A70,both the A60,A70 take CF cards type 1.

I`ve seen type 1 CF cards with 2GB capacity on the net,they should be compatible as long as they are type 1.

Canon A60/70 homepage .

 

[oldfart]

The A60/70/80 all use CF I memory. Some of the ELPH cameras use the smaller SD memory. For what you need, a zoom is important. The A70 would be an improvement with 3.2 MP. This would come in handy in a outdoor nature shot where you could not get close enough with the optical zoom. Since you have more pixels to work with, you could use the digital zoom or zoom and crop afterwords with an editing program and not lose as much quality as you would with a 2 MP camera. 2 GB CF card is HUGE! You can get away with a heck of a lot less storage than that!

Are you planing on doing prints? What size? This is a key factor when deciding on a camera.

 

[JackOfHearts]

I guess another question would be can you do any fast action shots, like sporting events, with the A60/A70?

 

[aka1nas]

Well they aren't reallly really high end cameras, so I guess the question is a little subjective. the A60/70/80 have full manual control, so you could play around with the shutter speed and aperture, which are very handy for doing action shots. However, pretty much all consumer digital cameras are slower than a nice 35mm SLR so if you are coming from something like a Canon Rebel or better than it will be much less responsive in comparison. In other words, you can do some action shots with these cameras, but you will probably need to to practice and get used to the way the camera handles before you will be able to consistently get a usable action shot from it. The same will hold true for other digicams as well. The bright side is that the manual capabilties of these Canon's is awesome considering their price point and that makes a big deal of difference for action shots.