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What is a good digital camera for $250.00+ or-

Shaz.

I use a Fuji Finepix S7000 for my work camera. I love it. I love it because it is not too small because I have adult sized hands and on many consumer items I see around me I would press about 4 controls at once. I love it because it has a good zoom range and takes great pictures if only the fool behind the lens points it the right way. It has a proper viewfinder as well as the LCD so I can frame a picture properly even in bright sunlight. It takes 4AA batteries so they are easy to find and it has enough power to cycle in a reasonable time. It takes Compact Flash cards, which is my favourite format because anything that contains something as important as photographs should not be as small as a fingernail and frighteningly easy to lose. (It also takes xD cards but I use compact flash) It has an automatic point and shoot setting that just works every time but can also do clever stuff like automatically bracketting the exposure (takes three pictures per shutter click. One exposed normally, one slightly underexposed, one slightly overexposed). This is great for product shots that I take because I get to choose late which looks best.

The money you are looking at won't take you to an SLR but in truth SLR-alikes like the S7000 do pretty much the same job and should be around your price bracket.

I alos use a Fuji Finepix E900 as a point and shoot for home. Again it is not a teeny tiny ultra slim thing which suits me fine but it is very well made and takes excellent pics. The only thing that I would change about it is that it is xD card memory only which is too small for my tastes but other than that I would buy it again tomorrow.

The only downside is that nobody ever wrote a great song about a Fujifilm camera.:D
 
Vaughn McMillan said:
Were there any PC programs using a mouse before Windows?
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Absolutely! I remember several DOS programs that could use a mouse, including WordPerfect 5.0, Borland programming IDEs, some graphics programs and games, etc...


Back to your question, Shaz ... here are a few features I would recommend:
* Threaded hole on the bottom of the camera. (You mentioned wanting to be able to use a tripod. I almost never shoot photos in my basement shop without one.)

* Custom white balance setting (in addition to the usual tungsten/fluorescent/daylight/auto settings).Why settle for indoor pics with a blue or yellow (or mixed) tinge when you can TELL the camera what white looks like in the available light and then get true colors in your shots?

* Both a 2-sec and a 10-second timer. I can't stand waiting a full 10 seconds for my low-light or tripod shots to fire, but 2 seconds isn't long enough to let me get into a self portrait or group photo.

* Macro mode. I'm not sure you can find a digital without this feature these days, but a lot of folks get fuzzy closeups because they aren't aware of what it can do for them.​
 
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Doh! You're right Kerry. I was using WP 5.0 back then, but doing it without a mouse. Now that I think about it, I was using an earthwork cost estimating program that also used a mouse (and a digitizing tablet, even). And there was a desktop publishing program my sister had that I believe used a mouse back then...I think it was called "Publish It!". Total lapse of brain waves. (I have a gap in my PC history, too. I used them running MS-DOS from about 1986 to 1990, then was away from them from 1991 to about 1993 and working in the VAX/VMS world.) By the time I got on a Windows machine, it was at V3.1, so I missed some of the real early Windows days...thank goodness.)

Shaz, I'd also second each of Kerry's recommended features. I use all of the ones he mentions very regularly.
 
Everybody seems to like Kodak digi cams. They may be OK but I hate the software. My first, and second digi cams were Kodak and the software that come with them was invasive on the computer and automatically defaulted itself on many applications. After uninstalling and going to Picassa or PhotoShop, things were back to normal.
My current digi cam is a mid-level Sony DSC-H2. Very fine camera in the under $400.00 price range. Big downside, it uses a proprietary flash card, not the SD.
Do check out the DP review site.
Major considerations are: pixels, card type, battery type (some use very expensive proprietary ones) and shutter lag time.
One of my gripes is that digi cams, other than pro SLRs, do not have cable release capabilities.
 
Frank Fusco said:
Everybody seems to like Kodak digi cams. They may be OK but I hate the software. My first, and second digi cams were Kodak and the software that come with them was invasive on the computer and automatically defaulted itself on many applications. After uninstalling and going to Picassa or PhotoShop, things were back to normal.
My current digi cam is a mid-level Sony DSC-H2. Very fine camera in the under $400.00 price range. Big downside, it uses a proprietary flash card, not the SD.
Do check out the DP review site.
Major considerations are: pixels, card type, battery type (some use very expensive proprietary ones) and shutter lag time.
One of my gripes is that digi cams, other than pro SLRs, do not have cable release capabilities.
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That's a very good point about the Kodak software, Frank. I never used that software so I forgot to mention it. But I absolutely agree with you and your recommendation - if you buy a Kodak camera don't use the software. Just use the software that's built into the operating system.

Mike
 
Mike Henderson said:
That's a very good point about the Kodak software, Frank. I never used that software so I forgot to mention it. But I absolutely agree with you and your recommendation - if you buy a Kodak camera don't use the software. Just use the software that's built into the operating system.

Mike
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What Mike and Frank said. Not only dont use their software, but dont buy their equally quirky docking station unless you just want it for recharging. You're much better off pulling the SD card out of the camera and popping into a card slot on the PC even if you have to pick up a cheap USB card reader.
 
Ditto on the software that comes with the camera. So far, I've gotten by just fine without the software from HP, Nikon, and Casio. I've got card reader slots on my printer, so I pop the camera card in there, and it shows up as a new disk in Windows Explorer.

For cropping and resizing, Irfanview works great, and it's free. (You can also do other tweaks like contrast, brighteness and sharpening to the image, but since I have Photoshop I use it for tweaking instead.)
 
Shaz,

For any camera you think about, pop over to http://www.dpreview.com/ And see what they say about it. A lot of their comments are over my head, but I still can get a pretty good impression of a camera.

I've got a Canon A95 from a couple years back, which I think is okay. If I were shopping today for myself, I would buy a Canon PowerShot S5. It's got a 12x zoom, it's got image stabilization (to help correct when your hand jiggles) and it's got all the other great canon features. Retails around here for about $500 I think. It's a touch on the larger size for pocket.

My 8 yr old son has been saving and wants to buy a camera. I don't want him to get junk, so I plan to help him buy a Canon A460 which is simple, pocket sized, and cheap. Can be had for $140 around here, list. Cheaper probably in the States. This one I don't know a lot about, I'd just buy it based on the name. I've handled it in the store, and it looks like it'll do the basics just fine.
 
Art Mulder said:
Shaz,

For any camera you think about, pop over to http://www.dpreview.com/ And see what they say about it. A lot of their comments are over my head, but I still can get a pretty good impression of a camera.

I've got a Canon A95 from a couple years back, which I think is okay. If I were shopping today for myself, I would buy a Canon PowerShot S5. It's got a 12x zoom, it's got image stabilization (to help correct when your hand jiggles) and it's got all the other great canon features. Retails around here for about $500 I think. It's a touch on the larger size for pocket.

My 8 yr old son has been saving and wants to buy a camera. I don't want him to get junk, so I plan to help him buy a Canon A460 which is simple, pocket sized, and cheap. Can be had for $140 around here, list. Cheaper probably in the States. This one I don't know a lot about, I'd just buy it based on the name. I've handled it in the store, and it looks like it'll do the basics just fine.
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Art/ Shaz
That seems to be the newest and greatest version of what I have and was suggesting. Mine is the S21S which a a couple of generations back but the same form factor. Great camera and I see the S51S is 150.00 cheaper than my S21S was.
Garry
 
Thank you for all your help. I just spent about 1 1/2 hours typing responses to each of you kind enough to share your thoughts. The response was to large and would not submit. I used the back button and lost every thing I had posted to you . Sorry. The jist, I will go to the review web sites when I have a minute, but for now the input, advise, personal experiences, and features to consider that you fellows have shared has been the greatest help. I trust each of you with your post, and right now that is as valuable if not more so than technical jargon I am too tired to read.
Thanks alot,
Shaz
 
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Robert Schaubhut said:
I just spent about 1 1/2 hours typing responses [...] I used the back button and lost every thing I had posted to you.
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Don't you just hate it when that happens? Thanks for giving us the "jist" version, at least. :thumb:

Looking forward to seeing the very first pictures from your new camera. (Besides the fact that your old one stopped working, the new camera IS mostly for the benefit of your pals at familywoodworking.com ... right? :wave:)

PS: When a post starts getting longer than a paragraph or two, I make sure to do a Ctrl-A (select All) and a Ctrl-C (Copy) before I hit the "Submit Reply" button or even the "Preview Post" button. That way, if it disappears :eek: I can always restore the text with a Ctrl-V (Paste).
 
Kerry Burton said:
Don't you just hate it when that happens? Thanks for giving us the "jist" version, at least. :thumb: Thank you Kerry, I appreciate your mentioning that.:type:

Looking forward to seeing the very first pictures from your new camera. (Besides the fact that your old one stopped working, the new camera IS mostly for the benefit of your pals at familywoodworking.com ... right? :wave:) You could be no more on target,..... well,..... I like pictures too:rolleyes:.:D.

PS: When a post starts getting longer than a paragraph or two, I make sure to do a Ctrl-A (select All) and a Ctrl-C (Copy) before I hit the "Submit Reply" button or even the "Preview Post" button. That way, if it disappears :eek: I can always restore the text with a Ctrl-V (Paste).
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Hi Kerry :wave:, This is great advice. :doh: I can hardly imagining that happening to you!
As I said (which disappeared), Thank you for the very easy to follow guidelines in looking for features of real value. Your input as was that of the other fellows very helpful. Thank goodness your original statements did not go "poof" .:thumb:.
All in all It is the original posting of you gentlemen that is most important,and will available for viewing by my daughter and her kids and their's too. :eek::rofl: Thanks.....
Shaz :)
 
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