digital camera

[gangster]

What digital camera do I buy with a $250 (US) limit?

I have no set parameters other than money.

Thanks in advance!

[agallag]

There's no one answer, but try to go with a camera company (Canon, Nikon, etc) over a computer company (HP, Epson, etc.). Sony is actually very good too (excellent lenses), but may be out of your price range.

My two brothers and I all have Canons, and we're all happy with them. I have the S50, brothers have a G2 and an A80.

Optical zoom is important. Don't bother looking at digital zoom. Also look at the memory type. Compact flash or SD are both good. Widely available and fairly cheap. Memory stick and xD are a little too proprietary for my taste, but aren't bad. Avoid anything with built in (non-upgradeable) memory.

Check out reviews at http://www.dpreview.com or elsewhere before buying anything. Hope this helped.

[Wombat]

Fine, you know price.

First thing you do is go to Best Buy and Circuit City and play with them.

It matters tons with cameras. Do you need something that fits in a pocket? Maybe the buttons are stupid for you on brand X or Y. Go play, then ask us about the ones you liked.

[az]

Excellent advice from agallag and Wombat there. Bear in mind that you will need more than just the camera:
- Batteries and charger(if the cam uses AA, there are most likely none included, and you want high capacity NiMH rechargeables AND a good charger, if the cam uses LiIon, which it likely won't in your price range, one battery and charger are included, additional batteries cost lots).

- Memory (There will likely be a 8 or 16 MB card included. I haven't even used my bundled 16 MB card yet.)

Some more general advice: It's a little hard to find a good new digicam at your price range, a used one-year-old model will likely give you much better bang for the buck. Megapixels don't matter much. A cheapo 5 MP cam with a plastic lens will have a by far worse picture than a quality 3 MP cam. 3 MP is the lowest you should go though, but there is no real need to get any higher. While dpreview is a good site, the guy's the incarnation of nit-pickiness. He will point out any and all issues with a camera, you must decide what of that is important to you. If in doubt, ask here. Stick with brand names (Canon, Nikon, Minolta, Olympus, Sony, HP, Konica, Pentax...), image quality is generally good enough among them. What really matters is, as Wombat said, if you like the feel of a cam. Optional manual controls are a plus if you intend to advance as a photographer. This will let you take the first steps into "real" photography (as opposed to just pointing and shooting) without having to invest into a new camera just yet. But maybe you don't want that, so you wouldn't need it

AZ

[Gurm]

Oh also bear in mind Smart Media is good too - it's the cheapest memory card format right now. I picked Julie up a 128MB smartmedia by Samsung for like $22 on NewEgg.

- Gurm

[Brian R.]

http://www.slickdeals.net/

Today, Dell Home has a one day Software & Peripheral $25 off $350 coupon code 4A43293552BA which can be stacked with their 10% off site wide promotion. Free shipping shows up near the last step of check out. No tax for most states.

With these you can get a Canon PowerShot S50 5MP Digital Camera for $399 - 10% off - $25 coupon = $334 w/ free shipping.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0089355

Might be a good deal. (A little more than you wanted to spend though...)

Also, Walmart has the Pentax 3.2 MP Optio S Digital Camera for $246 after $30 rebate.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2128232&sourceid=31306542832723344241

[gangster]

I appreciate all the help and will head to the stores to get a feel for them tomorrow!

From what I see online I may want/have to go up to $300.

I saw the Dell discount@ www.rage3d.com/deals

Thanks again

[Kurt]

Originally posted by agallag
(...)Sony is actually very good too (excellent lenses), but may be out of your price range(...)

If you're refering to Karl Zeiss lens, you're SOL. Sony bought the name, otherwise they're just cr*p compared to Nikon or Olympus.

Now they've changed it back to Sony Lens on some models.

As a general rule of thumb, if you want to do justice to your art, stay away from Sony cameras. Stick to the classics like Nikon, Canon and Olympus (Fuji are good in the high-end, they're basically Nikons - avoid the low-end though).

For 250$ however, quality is probably last in the list... olympus does nice compact cameras, Nikon also has some interesting models...

[Paulr]

Hope you don't mind me jumping into this thread, however there seems to be some knowledgeable people on the subject here

I have a very old Digital Camera, an old Fuji 1.3mp camera and it's time for an upgrade.
I don't have lots and lots of cash to spend.
Also I really don't need "the best" - the camera will be used as a family item, pictures on holiday, pictures around the house, you know..."general use".

I've come accross the following camera at a very reasonable price:

Kodak Easyshare CX6330

This is a 3.1mp, 3x Optical, 3x Digital Zoom camera.

I would post a link to the Kodak site, however their site doesn't allow me to easily post a URL.
There is also a nice review on the said unit here:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/CX6330/C633A.HTM

For me this camera looks good, seems to have some nice features and I can get it for £129inc vat.
Just looking for some opinions - if anybody has any