What Digital Camera to get

[Czar]

I´m most concerned about the storage media, I want something that most cameras use and thats easy to add to and is easy to find in stores.

Next is image quality, want good quality but nothing super.

Help me out people, GO

Ok changed, price is an object, but its not my biggest concern

 

[Czar]

^bump

 

[NicColt]

If price is no object then you don't need our help.
Just get a Kodak DCS 660 6-megapixel CCD for $15,495 you can't go wrong.

 

[Eug]

Nah, if price is truly no object, what you really want is probably the Mamiya RZ67 Pro II with Kodak Professional DCS Pro Back. It's a whopping 16.6 :Q Megapixels and would be fine for portrait photography and humungous blowups.

But seriously, you really should give a price range and shooting type, because I suspect that price IS important to you. The top of the line consumer point and shoot cameras are usually in the US$700 to US$1000 range.

If ease of use is your thing, I suggest you look at the Canon S10 or S20, or the Kodak DC3800 or DC4800. I find the upper Olympus and Nikon cameras a little too gadget driven, but they are nice too.

 

[Kyle]

If your looking for good storage media, you could always consider the Sony CD1000. Sticks all the pics on a little CDR =).

 

[Czar]

Ok ok, price does matter

I'm willing to spend alot of money on a good camera, hardly more than $1000. Its just that I dont want some crap camera.

 

[hans007]

get a fuji finepix 2400. $400, 2megapixel, 3x OPTICAL zoom, fuji image is real good, uses smart media, has usb, uses regular batteries. I'm thinking about getting this if i can raise that much money.

 

[Czar]

http://www.reviewfinder.com/reviews/olyc2100/index.asp

This a good camera?

$839 on pricewatch

 

[Eug]

Well, the specs look good, but it's only a 2 Megapixel. 2 MP is OK, but if you ever want to crop your pictures or make an 8x10, go for 3 Megapixel. Whatever you do, do not go for any camera below 1.9 Megapixel. Quality truly suffers after that. Do you really need a 10X zoom? Or do you want a smaller camera with a 2.5-3X zoom and a higher resolution (that will cost less)? It's up to you. Personally I like a smaller simpler camera, like the Kodak DC4800 which I own, but the somewhat more complicated Olympus 3030 seems good if you're into fiddling.

EDIT: WELL THAT'S WEIRD. IT REFUSED TO ACCEPT MY LINK AND KEPT CUTTING OFF THE LAST "]", BUT FOR SOME REASON IT NOW WORKS.

For media, that should be lower down on your list, but it's reasonable to stick with something based either on CompactFlash or SmartMedia. And make sure the camera has USB.

Also, don't forget to factor in accessories. Many of the cameras use rechargeable Lithium batteries. These are expensive, as are the extra rapid chargers. Budget an extra $150 or something, because you will need the extra battery. Most of the cameras come with about 16 MB of memory. 16 MB will hold 20 pictures or less at 3 MP (JPEG). Note that if you get stuff on sale, SmartMedia be as cheap as CompactFlash, but I find that often SmartMedia is a bit more expensive even online. This is an issue if you ever want to take your camera on vacation without a laptop or something... I have 224 MB of CompactFlash, the last two 64 MB sticks of which I bought at US$115 each. Adds up quickly. Also, I note that several of the cameras out there that use SmartMedia don't support 64 MB cards without a firmware update. Check into that.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Price no object? Check out the new Canon D30 for around $3,000. The sample shots are simply breathtaking!

Case in point: D30 Pic

Here is the best Digital Photography site around: Digital Photography Review.

I personally own a Canon PowerShot S10, and I love it. Got it for $250!

 

[thermite88]

<< I´m most concerned about the storage media, >>

You will find the information that you are looking for here.

 

[Czar]

GTaudiophile

WOW, that picture is just wow, cant put words on it. Looks soo good that it could be 3d rendered. Wow.



One other question. I went to a store few weeks ago and I was looking at some olimupus whatnot camera, and the flashcard that it used was very different. It was sortof like a credit card except it was thinner. What type was that?

 

[Eug]

That picture is very good, but the file on the net is fairly useless with which to compare cameras. Virtually any 3 MP camera these days could produce that picture (with a good photographer). That picture has been resized to 1080x720 (only 0.8 MP), and it is of note that at that resolution one can only expect to print good quality at 4x6. Even by 5x7 you'd start noticing image degradation.

This picture is a demo pic from Kodak of the $700 Kodak DC4800. I've resized it to the same 1080x720 for comparison. The Kodak is not as good a camera by any means, but I think this picture is superior in almost every way.

Now here is my not-so-good picture on a day when the light outside was not as good as that D30 picture (and with not as good a photographer I'm sure), but it ain't that bad either. My picture has been cropped and resized to 800x640.

Don't be wowwed by online pix too much.

 

[Czar]

Eug

The demo picture for the kodak does not have the same clarity as the d30 pic, though I must say that the kodak shows very good color variation, a big plus.

And comparing the second picture you linked to the d30 pic then you can see that the sky is much more grainer on your picture. Still extremely good quality.

 

[Eug]

That second picture I linked is definitely not as good. However, it was the only I had that wasn't friends or somebody's apt. etc. Unfortunately it was a bit underexposed, with no tripod, and there was essentially no proper lighting on the trees - colours are washed out. Lighting is key, because with the digital cameras it's a killer.

Don't get me wrong... I think the D30 is an awesome camera, but I think for your purposes, that camera is waaaaaay overkill. With the proper setup and lighting something like a Coolpix 990 and Olympus 3030 could have come at least extremely close at this resolution. You probably won't really start noticing the difference until you start printing the pictures, when you need the full 2160x1440 (or 2048x1536) image size. Basically, what I'm saying is the small pictures you see on the net don't do the D30 justice.

For my camera, my 3 MP image gives me a resolution of 180 ppi for 8x12 prints. My local shop recommends 200 to 400 ppi for top notch quality. Most people on the net seem to think that quality maxes out around 250-300 ppi for most purposes, though. At 250 ppi for an 8x12 print, that is 2000x3000, or 6 Megapixels. :Q

It sounds like image quality IS more important to you than I originally thought. So, I'd advise against the Olympus you were talking about, and stick with 3 MP, unless you really, really want that 10X zoom.

Edit for message below:

CF does not have pins. It has a female connector. The male end is in the camera.

One pic below that IS extremely telling is #4. Many consumer level cameras have trouble with the low light shots. Get a starry sky effect from noise.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Digital cameras store pictures on three types of media: SmartMedia (Fuji uses this), CompactFlash media (Canon uses this), and diskette (old Sonys use this). Stay away from any camera that stores pictures on diskette; I think Sony now uses their proprietary memory stick for digital cameras, but I am not sure.

Example: SmartMedia

Example: CompactFlash media (actual size)

Some don't like CompactFlash media because they have little pins on one end, sort of like a very small, thin version of the Nintendo GameBoy game cartridges. CompactFlash media and SmartMedia cards are similar in price. The biggest advantage CompactFlash media has over SmartMedia is that IBM makes the Microdrive, designed for cameras that support Type-II CompactFlash media. For $250, I think you can buy a 340MB Microdrive that holds 500-600 super-fine photos at 1600x1200 resolution! IBM recently even introduced the 1GB Microdrive!

More pics from the D30 to feast your eyes on:

Pic #1

Pic #2

Pic #3

Pic #4

Pic #5