Why do all digital cameras basically suck?

[SoftwareEng]

Excessive noise, red-eye, not weather-resistant, pathetic battery life, slow flash precharge, low-res LCDs, image stabilization only on some models, ugly-looking, to name a few.

Why can't someone just make a good digicam already?!

Canon A710 IS, Powershot A640, SD800 and many others suffer from at least a few of these problems.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Yeah they do, if you have a cheapo point-n-shoot. Good quality digital cameras don't have those problems, and don't tell me my digital SLR sucks because you've never used it and it doesn't have any of those problems

Red-eye happens with most any camera anyway, digital or film. At least with digital you can edit it out

 

[Krazy4Real]

I guess that's a matter of opinion. I'm curious if you've found a non digital camera in the same price range that has everything you're looking for. I own an Olympus, and I have nothing but great things to say about it. The Li-ion battery lasts me several days of actual use, The flash fires fast, I've never had a problem with pictures even though I don't have image stabilization, red-eye is a few clicks away from being fixed in any decent photo editor, it makes virtually no noise, and I think it looks pretty slick. If I use red eye reduction, I almost never have to actually edit the pictures.

 

[blackdogdeek]

we love ours. every member of my family who has one loves theirs. all my friends love theirs.

i rarely even see regular 35mm point and shoots anymore.

 

[FoBoT]

use a film camera then Mr. Complainer

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Being an old camera buff that grew up on 35mm I understand where your comming from, and your arguments would have been valid 5+ years ago but not anymore.

Digital photography is definately a different animal than film photography and takes some learning and quite a bit of adjustment for us old guys, but the equipment has gotten light years better just in the last 5yrs. Almost all the top camera makers have professional level DSLR's that don't have the problems that you describe and prices have gotten much more reasonable also

 

[randay]

sweeping generalizations, check
irrelevant points, check
question ending in "already", check

excellent rant thread. 8/10

 

[DivideBYZero]

Meh. I get good results from a paltry 4.1Mp Sony DSC L1. It even looks good.

 

[DrPizza]

slow flash precharge

And a 35 mm camera has faster flash precharge?? Wouldn't that be a function of the batteries, not the camera?

 

[DanTMWTMP]

I don't have a problem my camera's battery filled up TWO 1 gig flash cards, playing back the video, messing w/ the pictures, showing the pics to other people, multiple deletes, etc etc.... with one CHARGE.

Casio Exilim EX-Z850.

This sucker takes FAST pics. I push the button, and it takes the picture. There's no delay, unless I want there to be a delay to choose a specific focus area.

The latest firmware made this into a point-and-shoot+movie camera machine.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=dan725 <--- some vids I took w/ my camera.

http://www.glacian.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=2761 <--- close up pic i took w/ my camera.


I took my camera to korea for a bit over a week. One charge lasted the whole week, and then some afterwards. My friend who has the same camera didn't charge his for almost a month, and he filled up one 2gig card, and half of one 1 gig card.

 

[Aharami]

i like mine

 

[secretanchitman]

my nikon coolpix E7900 7.1MP does the job fine. i lowered it from 7.1MP to 3MP because i dont need that high of resolution (monitor limited obviously) and i dont usually print out pictures that big.

 

[waggy]

My A80 is great. i love it. a little old but it does exactly what i need it to do.

thouhgh been thinking of a digital SLR. not that i really need one but want one hehe

 

[keeleysam]

I like my XT, tell me this shot sucks. It's handheld too, by the way

 

[SolMiester]

The only thing I didnt like about my fujifilm (old 2001 model) was the slow delay between pressing the shot button and the shot being taken, was sometimes very hard to get the shot you wanted.

 

[JLGatsby]

All cameras don't suck, just the ones you can afford suck.

Buy a nice one and you won't have those problems.

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: keeleysam
I like my XT, tell me this shot sucks. It's handheld too, by the way

Well to be honest, it's not very sharp and lacks the punch in terms of clarity. A faster shutter speed would have solved this problem by either increasing the ISO or using a wider aperature on the lens.

To say all digital cameras suck is quite ignorant. Without proving your point or backing up your statement with hard facts, you cannot convince myself or any person who makes money shooting.

Buy yourself a hot-shoe flash - I use a Canon 580EX on my 300D and have had excellent results. Red-eye is never an issue due to the light not having to be directly on the person's face. When the light can't reflect off of the veins in the back of the eye, it's not picked up by the sensor since the angle of the lightsource isn't directly in-line with the object's eyes.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: SoftwareEng
Excessive noise, red-eye, not weather-resistant, pathetic battery life, slow flash precharge, low-res LCDs, image stabilization only on some models, ugly-looking, to name a few.

Why can't someone just make a good digicam already?!

Canon A710 IS, Powershot A640, SD800 and many others suffer from at least a few of these problems.

"WTFs" are italicized, knocks against my camera are bolded (hint, there are none).

not weather resistant: That's why waterproof enclosures exist. A very, very small percentage of people with cameras actually take them freakin rafting or something.
low-res LCDs: I'm sure Sony and Canon will include UXGA LCDs on their next cameras. The little LCD is for getting a preview of your picture; if your skillz are so 1337 that they surpass what the camera can do, then you shouldn't need a huge detailed preview for your perfect pictures.
ugly-looking: Sorry, but looks would be the last thing on my mind as far as the body of the camera is concerned. How the pictures look, however, is very important.

My Sony DSC-V1 is about 4 years old. I haven't noticed excessive noise on any of the 8x11 print-outs I've ever made, managed to easily get rid of the red-eye in the no more than 10 pictures I've ever had it show up in, get more than 100 min out of each of my two battery packs, take near instantaneous pictures (newer cameras stomp all over mine in that aspect), never needed IS, never got comments on how ugly it looked, but definitely heard enough praise for the pictures it takes, to name a few. Sony made a good digicam with the DSC-V1, the DSC-V3, and the DSC-R1. Then of course you have all the awesome cameras Canon, Nikon, and all the others have been pumping out.

 

[RagingBITCH]

OP hasn't come back to post yet. pwned is the word that comes to mind.

 

[SWScorch]

The only beef I have with non-DSLR cameras is the shutter delay. I was upset at how laggy my Fuji camera is and was informed that pretty much any digital camera under 1000 bucks has shutter lag. But I've seen expensive digitals that shoot so fast I didn't even know they weren't film.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: SoftwareEng
Excessive noise, red-eye, not weather-resistant, pathetic battery life, slow flash precharge, low-res LCDs, image stabilization only on some models, ugly-looking, to name a few.

Why can't someone just make a good digicam already?!

Canon A710 IS, Powershot A640, SD800 and many others suffer from at least a few of these problems.

You named amateur cameras. Go figure. Bump up a notch with Canon's S80 or something. At least that line has an improvement in lenses. Go another notch with the G-series and you'll know what a good lens is.

If you're ready, take a DSLR. Do your words have any validity at this point?

 

[Literati]

Here's a small Canon A620 gallery.

Total suckage.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation?presentation_id=317651

 

[HardcoreRobot]

have fun in the good ole days

 

[swtethan]

they dont, you just buy the wrong ones


I have 2 point and shoots, one olympus with a 2.5 screen and a pentax optio s. My brother otoh has a Canon 30D, its 10000x better but it costs 5x more. You get what you pay for.

 

[clickynext]

Hey, as long as it takes good pictures. I've got an old Canon A60 and though it's got some drawbacks, it's capable of producing some very very nice pictures with the help of digital editing. It's all in the photographer...