Digital cameras. Yes or No

[nimbex1970]

just an update, ours was bought on line at beachcamera... do a search for great prices. Our power shot is the top of the line before you get into professional grade which give you learning room. This has 10X's optical zoom, not digital zoom with the image stabalizer. Plus 32x's digital zoom. This also comes with all the software.

 

so you can use this for basic point and shoot and work your way up the features to manually adjusting the shutter speed and basically everything. We paid only $300 plus change.

 

good luck searching hope it helps.

 

the husband gave the technical info.

[nimbex1970]

oh, hubby is adding that for a starter camera, you don't need the settings and options that ours has. Know that within a few years, you will out grow a basic camera and want to upgrade as we did... so choose carefully based on this... he recommended a basic camera to start.... I say buy ours at $300 and use the basic settings until comfortable and learn the advanced settings as you go. it only depends upon your budget.

[bUU]

One question I asked is " are the pictures better than a regular camera" and he said NO which surprised me.

Better is a matter of opinion, and even then, "better for what" may make a difference.

 

Low-end digital cameras simply don't have the same resolution as the analog technology of film cameras. However, even though film seems analog, in the end, everything is digital. Indeed, one significantly limiting factor on the quality of photographs is the limit of our eyes' ability to see. Yup, even our eyes aren't really analog. We have a specific number of "rods" and "cones".

 

What I've read is that a 3.5 megapixel digital camera, taking photos at full resolution, results in photos with comparable quality to film (as long as both cameras have comparable optics). It's still mumbo-jumbo to you Carrie, I'm sure, but unfortunately, eyesight is a very complicated topic. I'll try to boil it down for you from my standpoint:

 

The reality is that many folks with 3.5 and 4.0 megapixel cameras actually don't take photos at full resolution. They deliberately rachet down the resolution so they can fit more photos on each memory chip. That gives some indication of how these experienced digital camera folks view the relative quality of the photos they get from their digital cameras: They're so good that they deliberately reduce the quality so they can have more quantity.

 

Also, keep in mind that very few of us are good-enough at composition (pointing the camera and taking a "good" picture) to call the result of our picture-taking "professional." Composition is actually far, far more important IMHO, with respect to the overall quality of a picture, than marginal amounts of image quality.

 

I have a 2.8 megapixel camera, and my wife has a 4.0 megapixel camera. We both take photos at full resolution, and between the two cameras have all our needs fully met, to the extent that we'd never concern ourselves with film ever again. (I've got a professional-quality Nikon that has sat in the closet for 8 years.)

 

"Needs fully met" -- goes back to what I said before about "better for what." What many people want from their camera is the ability to take photos to remember their life experiences -- photos that are good enough to do so. Digital cameras, with resolution at least 3.5 megapixels, does that without a doubt, and unlike film, digital photos come ready-to-email, and are very easy to crop at home (to improve your composition!)

 

I would be looking at a 4megapixel/ 3-4x optical .. Not interested in 8x10's..

And that's key. However, even with a 4 mega-pixel, you can probably get great quality 8 x 10s from your photos (as long as you keep the camera set at the highest resolution.

[Carrie P]

Hey Bicker, how about coming along with us and you can take all the pictures?????????? Sounds like you really have it down with digitals... My next question (gosh I feel stupid) is ........ When you talk about resoloution.... Can you explain that more in detail to me. thanks

Better is a matter of opinion, and even then, "better for what" may make a difference.

 

Low-end digital cameras simply don't have the same resolution as the analog technology of film cameras. However, even though film seems analog, in the end, everything is digital. Indeed, one significantly limiting factor on the quality of photographs is the limit of our eyes' ability to see. Yup, even our eyes aren't really analog. We have a specific number of "rods" and "cones".

 

What I've read is that a 3.5 megapixel digital camera, taking photos at full resolution, results in photos with comparable quality to film (as long as both cameras have comparable optics). It's still mumbo-jumbo to you Carrie, I'm sure, but unfortunately, eyesight is a very complicated topic. I'll try to boil it down for you from my standpoint:

 

The reality is that many folks with 3.5 and 4.0 megapixel cameras actually don't take photos at full resolution. They deliberately rachet down the resolution so they can fit more photos on each memory chip. That gives some indication of how these experienced digital camera folks view the relative quality of the photos they get from their digital cameras: They're so good that they deliberately reduce the quality so they can have more quantity.

 

Also, keep in mind that very few of us are good-enough at composition (pointing the camera and taking a "good" picture) to call the result of our picture-taking "professional." Composition is actually far, far more important IMHO, with respect to the overall quality of a picture, than marginal amounts of image quality.

 

I have a 2.8 megapixel camera, and my wife has a 4.0 megapixel camera. We both take photos at full resolution, and between the two cameras have all our needs fully met, to the extent that we'd never concern ourselves with film ever again. (I've got a professional-quality Nikon that has sat in the closet for 8 years.)

 

"Needs fully met" -- goes back to what I said before about "better for what." What many people want from their camera is the ability to take photos to remember their life experiences -- photos that are good enough to do so. Digital cameras, with resolution at least 3.5 megapixels, does that without a doubt, and unlike film, digital photos come ready-to-email, and are very easy to crop at home (to improve your composition!)

 

And that's key. However, even with a 4 mega-pixel, you can probably get great quality 8 x 10s from your photos (as long as you keep the camera set at the highest resolution.

[Frequentfloater]

A 3.2 MP camera will take and make prints up to 8 X 10 at full resolution. Actually they are a little larger, which allows a tiny bit of cropping. The difference in quality will vary from brand to brand, but the size issue is a constant.

 

Anything you get above and beyond 3.2 MP will increase your ability to still be able to crop a full resolution 8 X 10 or larger, from the actual picture you took. This gives you the ability to re-frame the shot "just right", before printing, or whatever.

 

I only take pictures at full size, and at the highest resolution, because I never know which ones I will want to make an 8 X 10 from. I can always size them down, however.

 

www.pricegrabber.com is a great pricing engine, as are others. For example - A Canon Powershot A85 (4 MP) is currently $199.00 online.

 

This particular line of cameras can act as a "point & shoot" style, easy to use.... or a much more in depth, manual controlled camera as well. I plan to buy a Rebel XT and a few select lenses in the near future. But for now, I still haven't used all the features on my Canon Powershot series camera.

 

Check out the pictures at my website: www.kenandschley.com to see what a Canon 3.2 MP camera can do.

[Dean-Brown]

I am not a Photo-guru but I did some resent research to get the biggest bang for my buck on a digital camera. What I found is that the biggest difference I found was the number of gadgets on a given camera and the number of pics to a set of batteries. I to don't care about a photo being any bigger than 4X6 but I still wanted a 5MP or better camera to allow me to zoom a pic and keep a clean looking final product.

 

I used consumerreports.com to find out most of the info I wanted and then after I narrowed my search I Googled (www.google.com) those cameras to find reviews to see what the pros thought of them.

 

The camera I got was the Fuji E-550 it is a newer camera on the market and has alot of settings that I can play with and a good point and click function. It only had a 4X equivalent zoom but the batery life I was impressed with and it has an attachment ring to add an extra lens to double that. Got it for 325 on newegg.com.

 

 

Resolution is referring to the number of dots per square inch that a camera can pick up and record.

[jstducky]

Jstducky--- Which Fuji finepix model did you get?

 

Sailor Moon:

 

I first digital camera is a Fuji A205, which is the 2MP, 3.2x optical zoom

My new camera is the Fuji S5100, which is the 4MP, 10x opitcal zoom

[zackiedawg]

When you talk about resoloution.... Can you explain that more in detail to me. thanks

 

Hey Carrie. I bumped into this thread while looking for info for my next cruise I'm trying to book. There is lots of info in this thread...must be hard to sort through it all! I am a camera addict...and love shooting both film and digital. Like others here, I can get going on all the inside terms of digital cameras without really thinking that someone I am talking to might not know what those terms actually mean, or how the cameras work.

 

So I'll try to throw some explanations in here for you, and others, who may not know these things. BTW, I am not a technician, so I may miss a key detail here or there which an engineer can cite, but I'm trying to keep it in simple descriptive terms.

 

Resolution - 3MP, 4MP, 5MP, etc. Lots of numbers. Essentially, this is the number of pixels that make up your photo. A pixel is a tiny square of color. When you take a digital picture, these little squares are assigned colors representing their location on the sensor which corresponds to the scene you are shooting. Your blue shirt, the yellow sun, white sand, etc are all made up of colored pixels. Resolution is a way of rating how many of these pixels make up your picture...generally, the more pixels you have, the larger the resulting image will be without zooming in to make the pixels larger. if you ever see a picture on your computer 'zoomed in' or enlarged, eventually you can see great jagged squares making up the shot. If you shoot with a 2MP camera, it will be comprised of a grid of roughly 1662x1224 pixels. That translates pretty well into a 4x6 print. But try printing it at 8x10, and those pixels are enlarged too much, and can be seen as jagged lines and edges. However, shoot with a 5MP camera, and now that grid is roughly 2560x1920 pixels. When printing 4x6, you won't notice too much of a difference, but blown up to 8x10, all those extra lines of resolution allow the pixels to remain nice and small, and result in a film quality print.

 

One thing to understand is that the big Megapixel numbers are not the end-all-be-all for photo quality. The quality and size of the lens, the size of the sensor on which the photograph is captured, and the adjustability of the camera's aperature and shutter speed will all have an effect on the shot. A 7MP compact camera with a 1/2.5" sensor and a tiny lens the size of your fingertip cannot compete in detail, contrast, and color with a 5MP digital SLR camera with an excellent 2" diameter lens and a bigger 2/3" sensor. But for standard 4x6 printing, and vacation shots by a non-professinal, most 4 and 5MP compacts on the market should suit you wonderfully...let the price and the features decide for you.

 

Zoom: Optical versus digital...what's the difference? First of all, a lens is comprised of glass elements...an optical zoom lens has curved elements which magnify or reduce the scene by pulling apart or getting closer together. When you 'zoom in', you are still maintaining the camera's full resolution capabilities, and the lens is doing all the work in bringing the subject closer to you. A digital zoom, on the other hand, is 'cropping' part of the existing scene, and blowing it up to the size of the original. it is the digital sensor and a computer chip doing the zooming, not your lens which remains fixed. The lens and original resolution of the camera is still focused on the larger wide scene, but you have asked the camera to take a bite-sized bit out of that large scene, and blow it up for you. It can work to a degree, as long as you understand that you are losing resolution and quality, and if you go too far, you'll get those ugly jagged pixels showing up again! You are essentially turning a 5MP camera into a 4, 3, or 2MP camera when you zoom in...so those shots you took while 'digitally zoomed' won't print as nicely at 8x10 as the other shots.

 

Also note that camera manufacturers often quote a camera's 'overall' zoom - sometimes a camera may have a 3x optical zoom, and also include 4x digital zoom...since the digital zoom cropping can be done while optically zoomed in, you can essentially do a 4x digital crop of a 3x photo...for a total of 12x zoom. But only the 3x optical zoom maintains the camera's full resolution capability.

 

Other Features: Some other things to consider in digital photography...many people have mentioned the great ability to see your photo right after you snap it, and retake if necessary. But even better is a digital camera's 'live preview' capability. You can see your photo BEFORE you take it! When you look through an optical viewfinder, you are seeing what you'll be framing, but not what the photo will look like when printed. With digital, the LCD screen is showing you exactly what your photo will look like, even before you snap the shutter. Move around the scene, and move from a dark to a light area, and watch the camera adjut aperature and shutter speeds, see shadow detail suddenly brighten, or bright sunny skies go from blown-out whites to nice rich blues, as the camera makes its adjustments. You can get more brave, and exercise some of the manual controls of the camera like shutter speed, white balance, aperature, and more...and actually LEARN how these things affect a shot, because you'll see the change live on screen.

 

Batteries: As mentioned, AA and AAA rechargeable batteries are easy to find and can be convenient. And often cameras designed to work with these can also function with standard alkaline batteries too, in a pinch. But the AAA and AA rechargeables don't last very long, and alkalines even shorter. The downside to proprietary batteries is they are more expensive, but they tend to last much longer than AAs, charge very quickly, and can even give you more information about their durability. For example, Sony's batteries actually give you a 'minutes remaining' readout right on screen letting you know precisely how much battery you've got left. Most cams and all that use AAA and AAs just give you a 2 or 3 position bar graph, or worse yet, no indicator at all, making running out of batteries a very spontaneous and unplanned event.

 

Memory Cards: Know that you'll always have to include a memory card with the purchase of a digital camera. No digital camera comes with enough memory cards or internal memory for more than a petty handful of photos. And don't listen to any salesperson who tells you about lowering resolution to fit more photos on a card...you'll only hate yourself later when you see the tiny resolution and realize you can't get good prints or blowups. Plus, if you shoot in maximum resolution, you can go home on computer and crop a photo to trim out that ugly guy standing off to the left, or the truck off to the right (essentially, digital zoom! You're just choosing the crop after you snap instead of before). So with a 4 or 5MP camera, count on a 256MB card at the smallest, which will fit between 100-120 highest res shots (each shot can be a slightly different size, as black pixels have no color value and therefore take up less space...the more black in your photo, the smaller the photo size). A few 256MB cards, a 512MB card, or even a 1GIG card will give you plenty of room. Some people prefer to get multiple smaller cards to break up your shots, in case one ever failed or got lost...that way you only lose some of your vacation! ;)

 

A few other things to look for which can be useful: A camera with some manual controls, or lots of scene modes, to help you take pictures in low light conditions, fast moving conditions, bright sunlight, etc. A manual-control capable cam is best, but you would have to have or learn a bit about the relationship between shutter and aperature. If you don't want to go through that, the scene modes are pre-set aperature and shutter combinations programmed by the camera maker to best deal with varying conditions...you just switch to the icon for 'night', 'sports', 'beach', 'snow', etc and the camera will do the rest.

 

A spot meter can be a wonderful tool. Most cameras use a multiple-point metering system, whereby the automatic modes judge the overall light and shadow values of a scene based on 5-9 points around the shot. A spot meter allows you to bring up a little cross-hair in the center of your LCD, which instructs the camera to pay attention to only what is lined up in those crosshairs. If you are shooting a person standing in front of a big bright sun, the camera usually meters off of the big bright sun, and the person ends up looking like a silhouette. With the spot meter pointed at the person's face, the camera will ignore that sun, and set lighting for the face!

[zackiedawg]

That was a darned book, wasn't it!??! Hopefully it can be helpful in understanding what you need. I personally have 3 digital cameras...a 2MP Canon S100 which is an older beat-around that has served me well, and makes decent 4x6 prints / a 4MP Sony L1 which is a wonderful super-compact pocket cam with a 3x optical zoom and some fairly advanced features for a little camera (spot metering, live histogram, and a good movie mode) for only $230...plus I bought Sony's nice $80 Sport Jacket which is a shock, dust, and waterproof shell for the camera, allowing it to be used down to 10-feet of water) / and 5MP Sony 717, which is a more serious, manually-capable, excellent optical-quality barrel-lens camera with a swivel body. It is bigger, heavier, and for when I really want the good shots. Feel free to peruse my gallery at http://www.funtigo.com/zackiedawg , and go to the Cruise Album gallery. All shots in there from the Coral Princess and Celebrity Summit were taken with my 717. The other galleries have shots from the other cameras as well. Feel free to ask any questions too. Good luck!

[cpizzull]

I highly recommend the Canon S1 IS. As others have said, the important thing is the optical zoom, and this one has 10X. The 3.2 will get you your 8X10 should you ever need it. You get all the fun tools and controls, including a very cool Stitch mode, which not only let's you do 360 degree panoramics, but do neat stuff like this>

 

http://groups.msn.com/ThePizzulloHomePage/familyphotos.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=637

(yes, they are all my son in that pic....note pic size reduced)

 

The best feature about digital, especially if you have a spouse like mine, is that oodles and oodles of pics can be taken without wasting film and money! ha!!

 

And to think you can now get this camera for less than $350 probably! I even had bought the zoom for it, which now gives me the equivalent of a 600mm zoom!

 

 

And digital made my first attempt at fireworks quite successful as well>

http://groups.msn.com/ThePizzulloHomePage/castle.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=728

 

Anyway, good luck!!

[Carvone]

I was looking a couple months ago too and did a massive amount of research and reading. I was sold on the Canon S1 IS and was ready to buy when I stumbled upon the Panasonic DMC-FZ3. Comparable in price and gadgets but the FZ3 has a 12X Optical zoom with Image stabilization and 4X Digital. Also I was sold on quality of the Leica lens. http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/fz3.html Here is a good link to read about it.

BTW - I got mine at Circuit city with a 512mb card out the door under $400.

Read alot of reviews of the online electronic stores out of Brooklyn.

Good Luck

[Carrie P]

WOW is all I can say... Thankyou so much for taking all that time to help me figure things out... I now understand the resolution in the digital camera.. Cool... At least when I go back to the store I'll feel much more confident about what I'm looking for. I'll have to post again once I buy this thing.. Thanks to all who helped out with this... Carrie

 

That was a darned book, wasn't it!??! Hopefully it can be helpful in understanding what you need. I personally have 3 digital cameras...a 2MP Canon S100 which is an older beat-around that has served me well, and makes decent 4x6 prints / a 4MP Sony L1 which is a wonderful super-compact pocket cam with a 3x optical zoom and some fairly advanced features for a little camera (spot metering, live histogram, and a good movie mode) for only $230...plus I bought Sony's nice $80 Sport Jacket which is a shock, dust, and waterproof shell for the camera, allowing it to be used down to 10-feet of water) / and 5MP Sony 717, which is a more serious, manually-capable, excellent optical-quality barrel-lens camera with a swivel body. It is bigger, heavier, and for when I really want the good shots. Feel free to peruse my gallery at www.funtigo.com/zackiedawg , and go to the Cruise Album gallery. All shots in there from the Coral Princess and Celebrity Summit were taken with my 717. The other galleries have shots from the other cameras as well. Feel free to ask any questions too. Good luck!

[MrsPete]

Good Morning to all! I'm very confused on whether or not to get a digital camera for our cruise.

 

I teach photography, and I LOVE digital! These are the best points:

 

1. It's less expensive than 35MM photography. You'll instantly see your pictures, and you'll delete the so-so stuff; thus, you'll only pay to develop the really great pictures. I used to pay over $100 to have a week's worth of vacation pictures developed (and I get a discount because of my job), and I'd throw away 75% of the pictures because they were not perfect, or because I'd taken duplicates of the same thing. Now I pay .29/picture, which tends to be about $25-30 for a one-week's vacation, and I only take home what I really wanted. If you're a picture person, the savings will be substantial; if you only take pictures on vacation, it might not be worth the digital leap.

 

2. You don't have to carry or change film. I used to take 15-20 rolls of film for a week-long vacation. I always paid attention to when my roll was about to run out, and often I'd shoot the last few of "junk" just to finish off my roll so I wouldn't run out at an inconvenient time. A large digital media card can hold well over 300 pictures (and remember -- you're only keeping the good pictures).

 

3. You can save your digital pictures to disks, which allows you to have multiple copies. If something happens to your 35 MM negatives, you're up the creek; they can't be replaced. You can keep an extra copy of your disk at work, or give a copy to a friend so that if your house were to burn, you wouldn't lose those memories. The images on disk are also easier to view and take less space. Additionally, it's very easy to pop the digital pictures into an email, onto a Power Point, or onto a website.

 

4. If you learn PhotoShop, you can become "artsy" and change your pictures. You can print out your formal night pictures in B&W or sepia tones, you can remove unwanted clutter or people in the background, or -- best of all -- you can give yourself a quick tummy tuck!

 

Now the negatives:

 

1. A digital camera is more expensive than a similar quality film camera. You'll also need to buy a digital media card; buy the largest you can afford. However, the price difference is quickly "made up" through film savings.

 

2. Digital cameras go through batteries at an ungodly rate. I suggest you choose a camera that takes rechargable AAs -- otherwise, you'll be buying batteries constantly.

 

The man at the photography place told you the truth: the quality of your pictures won't be better than a good 35 MM camera; however, you'll have more control over your pictures.

 

For regular family pictures, the camera you described in your OP (4 megapixels, and a medium-sized optical zoom) will be adequate. You can get decent 8x10s with this type camera, and you'll have great 4x6s.

 

One word of warning: There's a learning curve with digital pictures. I strongly suggest that you purchase your digital camera at least a month before your cruise, practice with it, learn to save your pictures, and have a few pictures developed. The worst thing you could do would be to open your brand-new digital camera on the drive to the port.

[sailor moon]

How can I make a decision when everyone loves their camera? :) I had narrowed it down to 3 and then I read about someone elses model and I am back to square one! I need to quit reading this thread..... :)

[Carrie P]

Hi Mrs Pete,

 

I can't believe how many people have responded to my thread. Thankyou for your input at well... I'm taking all the bits and pieces and putting it in the storage tank... Keep it coming people.. Knowledge is power , what a powerful digital I shall have...

 

I teach photography, and I LOVE digital! These are the best points:

 

1. It's less expensive than 35MM photography. You'll instantly see your pictures, and you'll delete the so-so stuff; thus, you'll only pay to develop the really great pictures. I used to pay over $100 to have a week's worth of vacation pictures developed (and I get a discount because of my job), and I'd throw away 75% of the pictures because they were not perfect, or because I'd taken duplicates of the same thing. Now I pay .29/picture, which tends to be about $25-30 for a one-week's vacation, and I only take home what I really wanted. If you're a picture person, the savings will be substantial; if you only take pictures on vacation, it might not be worth the digital leap.

 

2. You don't have to carry or change film. I used to take 15-20 rolls of film for a week-long vacation. I always paid attention to when my roll was about to run out, and often I'd shoot the last few of "junk" just to finish off my roll so I wouldn't run out at an inconvenient time. A large digital media card can hold well over 300 pictures (and remember -- you're only keeping the good pictures).

 

3. You can save your digital pictures to disks, which allows you to have multiple copies. If something happens to your 35 MM negatives, you're up the creek; they can't be replaced. You can keep an extra copy of your disk at work, or give a copy to a friend so that if your house were to burn, you wouldn't lose those memories. The images on disk are also easier to view and take less space. Additionally, it's very easy to pop the digital pictures into an email, onto a Power Point, or onto a website.

 

4. If you learn PhotoShop, you can become "artsy" and change your pictures. You can print out your formal night pictures in B&W or sepia tones, you can remove unwanted clutter or people in the background, or -- best of all -- you can give yourself a quick tummy tuck!

 

Now the negatives:

 

1. A digital camera is more expensive than a similar quality film camera. You'll also need to buy a digital media card; buy the largest you can afford. However, the price difference is quickly "made up" through film savings.

 

2. Digital cameras go through batteries at an ungodly rate. I suggest you choose a camera that takes rechargable AAs -- otherwise, you'll be buying batteries constantly.

 

The man at the photography place told you the truth: the quality of your pictures won't be better than a good 35 MM camera; however, you'll have more control over your pictures.

 

For regular family pictures, the camera you described in your OP (4 megapixels, and a medium-sized optical zoom) will be adequate. You can get decent 8x10s with this type camera, and you'll have great 4x6s.

 

One word of warning: There's a learning curve with digital pictures. I strongly suggest that you purchase your digital camera at least a month before your cruise, practice with it, learn to save your pictures, and have a few pictures developed. The worst thing you could do would be to open your brand-new digital camera on the drive to the port.

[tipster42]

How can I make a decision when everyone loves their camera? :) I had narrowed it down to 3 and then I read about someone elses model and I am back to square one! I need to quit reading this thread..... :)

You won't find a better site than this for in-depth reviews.

http://www.dpreview.com/

 

I have 3 digital cameras (all Sonys), but I wouldn't presume to tell you what to buy. All people's needs are different. Your choice should depend on your needs.

 

Do you want a simple point and shoot?

Are you interested in growing into a serious photographer?

Do you think that Photoshop is a chore, or the ideal tool for enhancing your photos?

Do you plan to make large prints, or crop sections of your photos?

Do you have extensive experience with film, and are considering moving to digital.

Do you want a go-anywhere camera, or are you willing to "schlep" a heavier machine?

How much are you willing to spend?

How is your vision? You may require a larger LCD screen.

Finally how does the camera feel in your hand? Ergonomics is a key factor.

 

The answers to these and other questions will lead you to a different type of camera. From there you have choices of manufacturer and features within each type. To go on someone else's recommendation without addressing these questions would be a mistake IMHO.

[dremel]

Hi,

I have a Canon A95 (digital camera) and I am very happy with it. Excellent pictures for printing and viewing on the computer. It is a 5 mega pixel camera. You can read plenty of reviews about it at Amazon.

[Carrie P]

I bought casio 5 mp 3xoptical 4x digital. Rechargable... Good price and it's a perfect little size, didn't want anything big.. Bought the memory card which holds 160 pictures... We fly to miami this coming friday 7/22- cruise on 7/24 and I think I'm finally set.....

 

Thanks for all your advice on this topic....

[CruisinInAugust]

I just recently purchased a Fuji FinePix F10 6MP camera. While I'm still learning how best to use it, I already absolutely adore it! I can't wait to take it to Bermuda! The battery in this thing just won't die. According to the literature, you can take 500 shots on one charge which is pretty impressive for such a small camera and battery. I haven't quite gotten to 500 shots yet, but the battery icon is still showing a full charge, and I'm still on my initial charge. It's supposed to be a very good "24 hour" camera which means it takes great daytime as well as nighttime pictures.

 

You can't go wrong with a Canon either. My old camera was a 2MP PowerShot A40 which I just sold on eBay. It was a wonderful camera and it really seemed to take pictures that appeared to be of higher resolution that it was capable of.

[sherry7]

Have a great time on your cruise Carrie, and have fun using your new camera.

 

Just a tip, when you get home and download your pictures, always burn a backup copy to a CD. Alot of people only save their pictures to their computer's hard drive. Unfortunately, hard drives can fail (it happened to me once), which erases the whole drive.

 

Also, if you run out of room on your card during the week, most of the ships have a service in the Photo Center where they will burn your memory card to a CD for about $17 or $18. A few people have returned home with blank CD's though, so be sure to test the CD and make sure it's good before erasing your memory card. However, with the inexpensive price of memory cards nowadays, it's almost as cheap to just buy a second memory card before you leave for the cruise...plus you'll have it for future cruises/vacations.

[Carrie P]

Hi Sherry - Thanks so much for the great tips... I am such a newbie to digital... I had my 35mm down pat... By the time I get used to this something else will be invented..

 

One more week now and counting,... Still counting I should say!

 

Have a great time on your cruise Carrie, and have fun using your new camera.

 

Just a tip, when you get home and download your pictures, always burn a backup copy to a CD. Alot of people only save their pictures to their computer's hard drive. Unfortunately, hard drives can fail (it happened to me once), which erases the whole drive.

 

Also, if you run out of room on your card during the week, most of the ships have a service in the Photo Center where they will burn your memory card to a CD for about $17 or $18. A few people have returned home with blank CD's though, so be sure to test the CD and make sure it's good before erasing your memory card. However, with the inexpensive price of memory cards nowadays, it's almost as cheap to just buy a second memory card before you leave for the cruise...plus you'll have it for future cruises/vacations.

[cougfan]

Carrie,

 

I took a Canon A85 on our Med. cruise last year. I took 700 pictures while on the cruise. When I got home I transferred them to a CD and also a DVD for backup. I have been printing them out at home and they turned out beautiful. I feel that they are just as good as our vacation pictures taken with a 35 mm. I really liked having the digital. You could take so many more pictures and than delete the ones you didn't really like when you got back to your room in the evening.

 

Julie

[DanNJ]

There is a website http://www.stevesdigicams.com that is an excellent resource for purchase of digital camers. The site is easy to navigate and loaded with info for all types of cameras. Also has links to reputable dealers and best price comparisons. One important note...make sure you get a USA warranty and that it is listed as such on any site you are planning to buy from. "Grey market" goods are usually less expensive but a hassle to return or fix if you have a problem. Get a big memory card and have fun!

[medalian1]

I would get a Canon, I've been very happy with the ones I've owned. I had an older Sony which was great, but my parents have a Sony DSC*** (can't remember model). It's not really that good, just otay.

 

Canon +

Minolta +

Nikon +

Sony ok

HP ok

Kodak -

Off brand -

[SoPreppyPinky]

Just have to say...I have the Canon Elph SD300 (I think, it's 4 MP) and it's FABULOUS! It also has a waterproof case you can buy for it. It has a huge screen, good zoom and it's really little. I think it's 10x optical. If you're looking to spend a little more, my parents have the Rebel and they love it.