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Digi Cams


nige
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Hey guys, i've finally saved up enough ($350) to go and buy myself a new digital camera. Now before I go out and drop it on one of those little Canon SD600's, I was wondering if any of you shutterbugs have gone with something other than a camera made by Canon. My younger brother bought an S3 IS for himself and I'm pretty impressed with the array of features on it, but I want something a little more portable than that. I've been trying to read up on these as much as I can, but I always prefer opinion of those who use these things every day rather than CNET who spends all of 1 day with them. I will be getting extra insururance on it for when I take it out on trips with me, so durablility isn't too important, but I would like it to hold up to small bumps and scratches without it falling apart. Here are some of the features I'd like it to have:

 

at least 4 megepixels

high quality images with minial noise and fringe

very portable (like shirt pocket size)

optical viewfinder (for when the battery gets low)

the ability to change ISO and shutter speeds

metal construction

at least 3x optical zoom

SD-card compatible (my father uses them for his large SLR digi, so i can snake extras from him)

a good flash

 

Here are a few other cameras I was looking at instead of the Canon SD series:

 

Olympus Stylus 710

Panasonic Lumix FX series

Fuji F-series

Nikon Coolpix (although i'm not sure how such small lenses will give good image results)

 

I despise SONY products and thier proprietary junk, and i'd probably never buy another product from them again with the exception of a large video camera or CRT TV. That brand has given me nothing but trouble with every other product they've made (even my walkman from 1991) so unless any of you have something outstanding to say about them, i'll probably leave them out of this buying decison. So there, in a nutshell, that's what i'm faced with right now, and i'm sure all the amature and pro-photographers on this site will come out of the woodwork for this post. Let me know if i'm making a bad move with the Canon!

 

Oh yeah, i'm driving down to Buffalo to pick it up beacuse for some reason, Canadians like charging 25-30% more for the same product i can get about an hour away from my house. So if you guys know of a camera shop around there with good prices and service, let me know!

Edited by skrillaguerilla
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Well, I am a Canon guy all the way. I am on my second AE1 (a film SLR) and just bought a PowerShot A540 6 MGP unit as a travel camera. It allows full control as well as just point 'n shot modes. Took it to Newfoundland last week and was very impressed.

 

The Source had it on sale a few weeks back for $349 CDN and it included 4 rechargeable batteries and charger.

 

 

Here is a review: Steves Digi Cams review

 

The summary:

 

Bottom line - The PowerShot A540 is yet another awesome digital model from Canon. They continue to offer great image quality, blazing fast performance, and loads of user friendly exposure modes, all at an affordable price. Let us not forget this model has some really cool features like a huge 2.5-inch LCD screen that works great whether you're indoors or out. A Light-guided zoom flash that changes its angle as the focal length increases, and a durable metal/polycarbonate body that will ensure that it will stand the test of time. The only annoyence which I found was the flash recharge time and the fact that the LCD goes blank while the flash is charging. With an MSRP of only $299 (US at time of testing), we feel it offers an outstanding value and will make any family, business, or tourist user very happy, whether you're just entering the digital age or upgrading to a newer model.

 

 

Some of my photos with it at the auto setting:

 

Dildo:

 

IMG_0020.jpg

 

 

Near Salvage:

 

IMG_0137.jpg

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I've got a digital rebel so its not really a "point and shoot" but I've got a friend who has a canon elph (not sure what model) that I really like for an easy portable point and shoot, I wish I had it at times, nice camera and takes good pix

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hey. well I have an olympus stylus..its alright but as other users have said go with the canon..

 

and I thought mabey you would like the results of what consumer reports put your cameras in for this month..

 

so

 

this chart is between 16-46...just the way the whole chart falls with compact and subcompact cameras.

 

Canon powershot SD630 (43)

Olympus stylus 710 (33)

panasonic lumix dmc-fx8 (27)

fujifil finepix v10 (25)

nikon coolpix L3 (44)

 

the lower the number the better.

 

for the subcomact cameras the casio exilim zoom ex-z750 got first(16)

and in second was canon powershot sd430

and in third was canon powershot sd500 digital elph

 

consumer report usually knows what they are talking about...but ya canon is marked up there in 2nd and 3rd..not the exact one you were looking at.

 

thats just some info for ya.

 

i can get all the number ratings they gave for like quality and such.

 

hope that helps at all lol...considering you asked for user review..

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at least 4 megepixels

high quality images with minial noise and fringe

very portable (like shirt pocket size)

optical viewfinder (for when the battery gets low)

the ability to change ISO and shutter speeds

metal construction

at least 3x optical zoom

SD-card compatible (my father uses them for his large SLR digi, so i can snake extras from him)

a good flash

 

Here are a few other cameras I was looking at instead of the Canon SD series:

 

Olympus Stylus 710

Panasonic Lumix FX series

Fuji F-series

Nikon Coolpix (although i'm not sure how such small lenses will give good image results)

 

I despise SONY products and thier proprietary junk, and i'd probably never buy another product from them again with the exception of a large video camera or CRT TV. That brand has given me nothing but trouble with every other product they've made (even my walkman from 1991) so unless any of you have something outstanding to say about them, i'll probably leave them out of this buying decison. So there, in a nutshell, that's what i'm faced with right now, and i'm sure all the amature and pro-photographers on this site will come out of the woodwork for this post. Let me know if i'm making a bad move with the Canon!

 

Oh yeah, i'm driving down to Buffalo to pick it up beacuse for some reason, Canadians like charging 25-30% more for the same product i can get about an hour away from my house. So if you guys know of a camera shop around there with good prices and service, let me know!

Memory cards are getting so cheap it's ridiculous. A Kingston 2 GB SD card is $40 at Fry's.

 

Mine's a Kodak DX-something series. 3.1 MP, 3x optical, etc. Works OK, but the settings button is getting wonky, sometimes it skips a setting(like, from Scenery to Action to Close-Up, sometimes it gets confused as to which setting it's on), but otherwise I like it. I have yet to buy a nice camera since most of the time I'm using it outdoors and handling it with dirty paws. Someday....

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yeah, i totally forgot about Kodak! DUH I went into best buy in buffalo today and they had some decent prices. 299 for the SD600 - that camera is TINY btw. It's seriously no bigger than a deck of cards. They didn't have any older models, just the brand new stuff. I was with my brother who got his replacement canon S3 there today (yeah it sucks he had to drive Waterloo to Buffalo twice for the same camera -it kinda made the great deal $379 not so great after 60 dollars in gas and the time.) I think i'm going to buy one here in canada to avoid that hassle. I tried out the Panasonic Lumix and I was really impressed with how it worked, but i found out I really want an optical viewfinder. It was so sunny that I couldn't see the lcd to frame the shot so an extra viewfinder would really have come in handy. I also tried out the olympus S 710 and it was pretty nice too. But it was missing the extra viewfinder as well so I think I'm going to get the little Canon afterall. I'm getting that 4 year service plan for it too, because like you Aaron, i'll probably always have my grimey mitts all over it too if I take it fishing! I saw it for sale at bestbuy here for $360cd and the 1 gig memory cards are decently priced too at $50 bucks or so. I just can't understand why they offer 16mb cards with some of these high-end cameras. Ian's canon s3 only fit 6 pictures on his with the highest setting :huh:

 

I will definitley check out that casio camera though. If it got such a good rating, I need to try it out. I'll come back and tell you guys about it.

 

Oh yeah, my brother's canon s3 is pretty nice too. Go and check one out if you're into having tonnes of settings availible like a pro. We're going to have some fun being creative with that. You can set the flash intervals on longer shots (3-15 secs shutter time) to make some cool night effects. I'll post any neat pictures we make here.

 

99.5 how do you like your s500?

Edited by skrillaguerilla
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I've got the Panasonic Lumix. Having been an only Canon guy for years, I am absolutely amazed at what this camera can do. It's got some 40 different shooting modes, and it takes absolutely brilliant pictures.

 

I used to have a Canon Powershot A70, and I liked it a lot, but years of abuse had taken it's toll and it was time to replace it. The battery life was piss poor, and it was very slow.

 

The Panasonic takes 2 AA batteries, either Alkaline or Oxyride (the Canon would only deal with Alkaline). 2 AA Oxyride batteries last 6x as long as 4AA Alkalines in the Canon. It takes pictures so much faster than the Canon, so I actually get the shots I'm after instead of getting it a half second after. It takes SD Cards. I think I paid $239 or so for it...

 

I definitely recommend it.

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