OT: Digital Camera Suggestions..help narrowing down my list please.

[bimmer253]

Hey Guys, i need help narrowing down my list of digital cameras. These are ones that i have researched, seens, played with at stores and have so far liked what i have seen. This is mainly for my dad, he is looking for a digital camera that takes nice pictures, easy to use, small, light weight, long battery life. Also, he plans on buying a couple for work, so cheap is good too, also he and his employees are kinda techinicaly challenged. Well, here is my list, if you guys could help me get rid of the real bad ones, or if you have a different suggestions from these that would be awesome too, thanks in advance-
Canon PowerShot A70
Canon PowerShot SD100
Fuji Finepix 3800
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC33
Olympus Camedia Stylus 300
Kodak EasyShare DX6340
Canon PowerShot S400
Kodak Easyshare LS443
Olympus Camedia C-5050
Canon Powershot G3
Olympus Camedia C-50
Olympus camedia C-4000
Canon Powershot S50
Canon PowerShot A80
Olympus Stylus 400
Olympus D-565

Thanks Again!
Ryan
1992 525i

[robert]

I have a finepix 5000..and its pictures are pretty impressive.. pretty good camera not expensive..long battery life.. so many out their hard choice..

[bahnstormer]

what about the nikons? i have a cool pix 900, served me well the last 3 years or so.

and jonk is the resident camera expert, he'll tell u the G5 is the best =]
or maybe his D1

[bimmer253]

i had a nikon coolpix775 and absolutely hated it, never had so much problems with an electronic before, and that experience has made me stay away from nikons, but i guess that was one of the first coolpix and they stoped selling it after a year, so maybe there better now...

[Alan_525i]

Heh, thats funny, I have a 775 and still use it for quick snapshots (I have a Digital Rebel now).

If you are looking for ease of use and the best picture with a minimum of effort I would say the Kodak 6340 is an excellent choice. If you want to fiddler with it and learn a bit about photography a Canon G3 or G5 is an awesome choice (had one for a week before deciding I really wanted the Rebel). I wouldn't really recommend any of the olympuses you've chosen. Not that they are bad in anyway, just there are better choices (and the memory for them is pricy). A friend has an S400 and for the size and price it takes great pics. SD100 isn't worthwhile. The Panasonics are very new and while reviews have been decent, I would wait longer to see what problems might crop up. A great resource for camera info is www.dpreview.com

Hope this helps you narrow it down a bit.

[bimmer253]

I checked out that site(it is a real good site) and after reading it this is what i narrowed my list down to-
Canon Powershot A70
Olympus Camedia Stylus 300
Kodak Easyshare DX6340
Canon Powershot S400
Kodak Easyshare LS443
Olympus Camedia C-4000
Canon Powershot A80
Olympus Stylus 400
Olympus D-565

[MikeV]

http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html

In-depth reviews, and I've found them to be right on the money.

You have to decide what are the most important features to you... size & weight? # pixels? Optical zoom range? re-cycle time & battery life? Optical quality? Price? Degree of exposure control?

I own a Canon G2 - it's awesome for a 4-mp camera, great optics, great battery life, cheap CF memory... I can't say enough good about it. But these days I most often find myself borrowing my wife's Minolta Dimage Xt - it's only 3mp and has far less control, but it is tiny and lightweight and very good optics - it's just easier to bring it along. (wanna buy my G2, cheap? ;) )

For Christmas we bought my Dad a Kodak 6340, and I have to say, for the money it is a surprisingly good camera, with much better optics than I would have expected. I've recently seen the Sony V1 priced in the low $400's, it's a steal - you would expect to pay more than that just for the 4x Zeiss lens alone.

Truth is, though, you can't really go wrong with any of the cameras on your list...

[bahnstormer]

i know that the G5 goes for like 700 bucks, but from what i've read, its a really good camera.

ask yourself this -
what will i be using this camera for most?

[Joestancampiano]

Canon powershot A70 or A80 best of the bunch so far for features vs value

Joe

[Brian C.]

....and so far I'm quite pleased with the results that I get. For a 4mpx camera, the price of around $350 was very competitive. I'm a Forensic Photographer, but I've been using 35mm and up for so long that I've hesitated the change to digital. I found that I've been neglecting to bring a camera to "family" events and on quickie-vacations lately, mostly since my Nikon F4 plus flash plus battery packs plus lenses....yadday-yadda.....were just too damn much to carry unless I was getting paid to do it. I wanted a "point-and-shoot" to cover all the assorted "candid" type photos that I didn't need for either work stuff or enlargements. The Coolpix 4300 has been great, with many more features on it than I'll ever need or use. I can focus down to about 2" for close up artie-crap that I like to do, but it still takes great "snapshots" with good resolution.

I've always told people that as long as you know HOW to take good photos, the actual camera doesn't make a whole lot of difference. What will make a difference is the lens on the camera. Nikon, Canon, Olympus....are all superior lens manufacturers. Make sure that the lenses have one of those names on them along with Zeiss, Schneider, Rodenstock....these are all well known lens manufacturers that will be only on top quality products to begin with.
Good Luck.

Brian C.

[rickm]

A70 or A80 are really nice, I have an A80. Price shop if you need to but use caution - someone on Amazon was selling the A80s for US$190.00. Lots of folks purchased and *never* received their camera. You've been warned. :) Adorama, B&H video are all good places. I picked up my A80 for $300.00

PMA (Photo Marketing Association) 2004 starts on February 9th and a lot of the manufacturers will be releasing their new lines. Many won't be available immediately but you could see some price drops.

If you get something that uses AA batteries you'll want to get a recharger. Maha are nice, RipVan100 has a 4000N that's pretty sweet, you can get the charger and 8 2300mAh batteries for $49 and change (a highly rated charger).

dpreview.com has lots of reviews and user forums (along with Steve's as listed above).

[DueyT]

I concur with Rick, not because I'm an A40 owner, was the common-sense, decent baby brother to the current A70/A80 pair, but because Canon makes very nice camers, with good optics, and well though out user interfaces.

Then again, thank gosh my buddy is the one with enough bucks to own a Nikon D1 and a Fuji FinePix 6000...both very nice monster-pixel units...but more to the point, a high performance, high quality digital SLR camera.

I just plunk along happily with my Canon.

You can't go wrong with either the A70 or A80.

Cheers,
Duey

[bimmer253]

Bought a Canon PhotoShot S400, went to best buy, played with it, loved it, then came home bought it online, and a 128mb card, thank you very much for all your help!!

[John D]

Best camera choice depends on what you will be using camera for.

Optical magnification is always better than digital by far. Who cares if it is 100x zoom, if 50x of it is digital - it will be grainy...... For me, I just bought the Olympus C-740 w/ 10x Optical zoom ($340 Refurb w/ 3 yr Warranty). Its a 3.2 MP and can be used in Auto (point and shoot) or get creative/ advanced and choose your own settings.... Olympus Media is cheap - 128 MB xD for about $45 on the bay. No problems so far. Sister has the C-750 and they love it.


John D

[BMW-F1-FAN]

Hey Guys, i need help narrowing down my list of digital cameras. These are ones that i have researched, seens, played with at stores and have so far liked what i have seen. This is mainly for my dad, he is looking for a digital camera that takes nice pictures, easy to use, small, light weight, long battery life. Also, he plans on buying a couple for work, so cheap is good too, also he and his employees are kinda techinicaly challenged. Well, here is my list, if you guys could help me get rid of the real bad ones, or if you have a different suggestions from these that would be awesome too, thanks in advance-
Canon PowerShot A70
Canon PowerShot SD100
Fuji Finepix 3800
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC33
Olympus Camedia Stylus 300
Kodak EasyShare DX6340
Canon PowerShot S400
Kodak Easyshare LS443
Olympus Camedia C-5050
Canon Powershot G3
Olympus Camedia C-50
Olympus camedia C-4000
Canon Powershot S50
Canon PowerShot A80
Olympus Stylus 400
Olympus D-565

Thanks Again!
Ryan
1992 525i

[Alan_525i]

I checked out that site(it is a real good site) and after reading it this is what i narrowed my list down to-
Canon Powershot A70
Olympus Camedia Stylus 300
Kodak Easyshare DX6340
Canon Powershot S400
Kodak Easyshare LS443
Olympus Camedia C-4000
Canon Powershot A80
Olympus Stylus 400
Olympus D-565

Of the ones listed I would suggest the Canon A80 (in addition to the extra MP of resolution over the A70, you also get a fold out and swivel screen), the Kodak 6340 (like was said above, its a great camera for the money and real easy to use) and the Canon S400 (perfect size, great control and pics). I do have a bias towards Canon (and Nikon) products and as stated earlier I really don't like olympus products.

By the way, in addition to my own personal interest in digital photography I also sell them at work so I get to look at MANY different low to midrange cameras. If you have any questions, feel free to pm or email me.

EDIT: just realized you got the S400. Congrats, you should be very happy with it.

[ilya]

just thought id give you some of my input, even though you already bought a camera..
i work at bestbuy Digital Imaging department so i have to sell these things all the time

out of all those, i would have probably recommended the g3 or the A80. i like the s50 as well, but the arrow-pad on it is very uncomfortable.
i dont like kodak that much, they seem too cheap too me.. fuji is decent, but their optics arent the best.
nikon and canon are by far the best.

the s400 that you bought is an EXCELLENT camera, but i hate its design. its way too "square" for me. i mean, the camera is like a small box. its good for traveling, but i dont like the way it feels in my hands. however, that's a personal thing. it has great features, and VERY easy to use.

[epp]

this site might help.

http://www.dpreview.com/

rgds,
ed
90/535i

[warton]

Bought a Canon PhotoShot S400, went to best buy, played with it, loved it, then came home bought it online, and a 128mb card, thank you very much for all your help!!

That's my other camera. ;-) Awesome take-anywhere digital! The 3 middle shots on this page were taken with my S400...

http://www.warton.org/Slideshows/Snow/index.html

Regards,
Peter

[shragon]

along with dpreview.com, these are also good sites:

www.dcresource.com
www.imaging-resource.com

[Bimmer Nut Ed]

Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. I've owned a Fuji Finepix 4900 for many years now. Paid like a grand for it back when, and don't regret it one bit. Wifey's been through a couple digital camera's since I bought mine and she's seen what kind of pictures mine produced. She just now got rid of her most recent digital camera (poor shots, out of focus for no good reason) and she broke down and bought a Finepix. She loves it, and I think we're completely done camera shopping, for a long, long time. She bought a Fuji Finepix S5000. The things I like better about her camera than mine; her's takes faster "quick snaps". Focuses faster, takes the shot faster. Hers has a 10x optical zoom (the only kind that counts), and mine is only 6x. Her's is physically smaller than mine. But that's about it, otherwise, we think they are both fantastic cameras. Good luck, you'll love anything you buy after hearing all the advise in these threads, for sure.

[TimGinCentralNJ]

...and would love to hear what the 'experts' think about it.

Tim G.


Hey Guys, i need help narrowing down my list of digital cameras. These are ones that i have researched, seens, played with at stores and have so far liked what i have seen. This is mainly for my dad, he is looking for a digital camera that takes nice pictures, easy to use, small, light weight, long battery life. Also, he plans on buying a couple for work, so cheap is good too, also he and his employees are kinda techinicaly challenged. Well, here is my list, if you guys could help me get rid of the real bad ones, or if you have a different suggestions from these that would be awesome too, thanks in advance-
Canon PowerShot A70
Canon PowerShot SD100
Fuji Finepix 3800
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC33
Olympus Camedia Stylus 300
Kodak EasyShare DX6340
Canon PowerShot S400
Kodak Easyshare LS443
Olympus Camedia C-5050
Canon Powershot G3
Olympus Camedia C-50
Olympus camedia C-4000
Canon Powershot S50
Canon PowerShot A80
Olympus Stylus 400
Olympus D-565

Thanks Again!
Ryan
1992 525i

[sbcncsu]

I got a great deal on my G3 from Wal-Mart.com. The price was averge but they threw in a 256MB Viking Compact Flash Card for free. (Viking is fast, 12x or so and works great in this camera!) The G3 has many many great features, many that I don't have a reason to use though. I have had it for 9 months and have really grown to love this camera. The speed, quality and feel is awesome. The controls are intuitive and it has great connectivity to TV's, PC's and Printers.

Look at the replacement for the G3, the G5. It is what they call "pro-sumer" digital camera...

www.pricegrabber.com

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=866753/ut=18d3edd21228c18d

HTH

[DrewZ]

...and would love to hear what the 'experts' think about it.

Tim G.

[Unregistered]

Reasonably priced and fairly easy to use. My wife is about to swear off her film camera (finally).

[BennyM]

new Cannons are so small you need a toothpick to operate them.

[Trevor]

Hi Ryan.
You forgot to mention price!
The Olympus Stylus 300 (& 400) would have to be the best value for money for a small flexible use digital camera. Good for technically challenged but also o0k if you know what you are doing. It is weather proof and fits in your jeans pocket.
A good friend uses nothing but a Stylus 300 for many shots
Check out www.pbase.com/tjmartin to see what he can do with an Olympus Stylus 300.

Enjoy!

[ron525]

Do you worry about getting used (or opened box) merchandise? How can you guarantee that you will get a brand new factory sealed package? I'm also curious on what stores do with merchandise that is returned to them. Do they re-sell it? Or is it returned to the manufacturer?

[Javier]

Of the ones listed I would suggest the Canon A80 (in addition to the extra MP of resolution over the A70, you also get a fold out and swivel screen), the Kodak 6340 (like was said above, its a great camera for the money and real easy to use) and the Canon S400 (perfect size, great control and pics). I do have a bias towards Canon (and Nikon) products and as stated earlier I really don't like olympus products.

By the way, in addition to my own personal interest in digital photography I also sell them at work so I get to look at MANY different low to midrange cameras. If you have any questions, feel free to pm or email me.

EDIT: just realized you got the S400. Congrats, you should be very happy with it.

[Tiger]

Order it from reputable dealer... use CC for payment... check ratings... and not all of them are crooks.

[JustinM]

I have a Canon S400 and i love it compact , Stainless Steel housing, 4.0 megapixel,Takes suberb photos inside and outside ..i really believe in Canon Products..Look at the review sites
http://www.steves-digicams.com
http://www.dcresource.com
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/

[rickm]

Order it from reputable dealer... use CC for payment... check ratings... and not all of them are crooks.

Yes. If you look on Amazon you'll see people selling A80s for 199.00. What a deal, about 100.00 cheaper than anywhere online. Send your money...and wait...and wait...and wait...then wait another month for Amazon to refund you. There was a site with scam forums, one thread about the A80 scammer logged a ton of hits, finally Amazon pulled the seller. His excuse? "Too busy to send the cameras out".

I bought my camera from Adorama in NY. The price wasn't the cheapest, but they had a good rating and shipped it to me for free. Got a discount on the Mack warranty also.

My wife, who thinks anything buy film is a joke, is starting to like my Canon A80.

[Johnny B]

I'm Very happy with my Nikon Cool Pix 885. Before I bought it I read all the reviews and decided Nikon was what I wanted. It has outstanding in close up (Macro) and distance pictures.
One place you may want to check out is http://www.dpreview.com/ they have very good reviews.
Johnny B