camera suggestions

[surrocruiser]

I'm cruising in September and need to find a reasonably priced camera. I'm looking for one that is capable of taking decent pictures and has a zoom that won't make everything come out blurry. I really don't want to spend alot b/c I tend to lose them frequently. Anyone know of a good brand or place to find one?

[sillylizzie]

I said this in another thread and I'll repeat it here:

"Personally, I’m a huge fan of Canon. I love the quality of the photos taken with them, and when I broke the LCD screen on mine – they replaced it. I didn’t realize that most, if not all of the parts in the camera are replaceable for free for the first year. Great & fast customer service.

 

I had the Powershot SD400 and loved it. It is what I took all my cruise photos [http://cruise2004.fotopic.net/] with last year. Since then I’ve really gotten interested in photography and got a Canon Digital SLR."

 

Of course it all depends on what you idea of reasonably priced is. That can mean different things for different people. I recently bought my nephew the Canon A75 (I think...) and it's great. It was $115 on sale. I think it generally sells for a bit more than that.

If size is something you're worried about - the powershots are all fairly small & easy to carry.

[mountainhouse]

There are fans of every brand. The digital camera market is highly competitive. If anyone wasn't making good cameras, they'd be out of business pretty quick. I really like Steve's Digicams for camera info. They have a list of best cameras based on their reviews. You won't go wrong with any of them.

 

The few requirements you listed may be in conflict. One reason your pictures are blurry is camera shake. Be sure to "squeeze" the shutter - like you're slowly squeezing the whole camera. Don't "push" the shutter. Image stablization will help with this type of thing, but I think the Canon S2 and Panasonic FZ-20 are about the cheapest with that feature at about $500.

 

By the way, a lot of folks store their photos at pbase.com. You can search by the type of camera they used for their photos, if you want to see real examples of shots from a camera you're considering.

http://www.pbase.com/cameras

[yuyi64]

I second the recommendation for Canon digital cameras. The Powershot line (any of the models) can't be beat in terms of picture quality for the price. Even the lowest-priced 2 and 3-megapixel models produce pictures that put to shame those from cameras from other manufacturers that cost hundreds of dollars more.

[mountainhouse]

Even the lowest-priced 2 and 3-megapixel models produce pictures that put to shame those from cameras from other manufacturers that cost hundreds of dollars more.

 

I don't think any camera stands that far above the others. I've been reading lots of independent reviews on dpreview.com and Steve's, and they don't support that. What do you base this on?

 

For example, the Canon Powershot Pro1 got a 'recommended' rating in the dpreview.com review, as opposed to 'highly recommended'. They didn't seem that impressed with the camera. Best bet in the 8MP class is the Olympus.

[yuyi64]

I don't think any camera stands that far above the others. I've been reading lots of independent reviews on dpreview.com and Steve's, and they don't support that. What do you base this on?

 

For example, the Canon Powershot Pro1 got a 'recommended' rating in the dpreview.com review, as opposed to 'highly recommended'. They didn't seem that impressed with the camera. Best bet in the 8MP class is the Olympus.

 

I don't base my opinion on magazine or website reviews but rather on my own real life experience with my own cameras and those of family members and friends. I have tried digital cameras from Sony, Fuji, Minolta, Olympus, and Kodak that were loaned to me by family and friends (some costing several hundred dollars more than I've ever spent on a camera) and even on their highest-resolution settings the pictures never came close to the clarity and color reproduction of even my oldest Canon digital (a 2-megapixel A20). I've compared photos from my Canons to those from these other cameras and even their owners agree that mine were superior. This is simply my opinion based on visual comparisons and not based on any "technical" categories.

[mountainhouse]

I usually sight online reviews here because I think dpreview and Steve's are pretty unbiased. Also, these sites have large numbers of sample pictures taken with the camera under consistent conditions. It's a great way to compare models. It gives folks the means to do their own comparisons. For example, the A20 samples are here:

http://www.dpreview.com/gallery/?gallery=canona20_samples/