Need Digital Camera Help

[Ripsnort]

I spent $600 (when they were new) on the Canon G6. I soon realized that for what I was doing, I was under-camera'ed.  I was trying to be cost-conscious and now regret it. The G6 now sits on a shelf gathering dust, or the wife uses it because its pretty much point and shoot. I have a 3X screw- on zoom and wide angle for it. For 95% of people, a digital under $500 will suffice. For that 5% that will make it a hobby....spend the money.

[JB88]

i always have a digital camera in my pocket.  its great for taking shots of things that either inspire me or that i want to come back to for a better shot.

here's what i would keep in mind.

1.  ya can't go wrong with canon.
2.  unless you are trying to take pictures that are meant to be masterpeices, see number one and get one for under 300.  (picked up a pocket model canon for $128 a few weeks go to replace my last pocket model...i am hard on them...128 bucks.  takes good pictures.  5 megapixels.)
3.  GET ONE WITH A VIEWFINDER.  nothing worse than trying to take a picture in the sun and not being able to see what you are shooting because you only have an LCD.
4.  try to find one with a relatively quick shutter speed.  the one i am using for my carry around has a .1 sec delay, which isnt bad for the price.  it isn't instant, but it isnt such a shot killer either.  i am glad to see this getting better in the lower level models.
5.  learn to use the settings on your camera.  adjusting ISO and exposure times and help ween you off of the ever present flash setting that ruins so many great pictures.

hope this helps.  good luck.

88

[Airscrew]

Originally posted by Sandman
A DSLR for less than $200?
I think you're dreaming.
Going price nowadays is approximately $225. I got mine for $350 a few years ago.

Come on man, let me have my dreams, they're all I got left

that said - I appreciate all the suggestions for everybody.  It gives me a lot of place to look and get some ideas.  Mainly I want to use this camera for everyday sort of stuff, but if I replace my broken camera I want to do a little better research this time and get something better than what I had for the same or less money than what I paid the first time.  I bought that Fuji 3000 for about $259 at the BX at Randolph about 3 years ago.  Its was ok but I think I can do better this time.  

Halo - sure i can search the internet and do all kinds of research, but nothing beat asking your friends what they would buy.  Plus I know a bunch you guys here are shutterbugs..

what got me curious was this, an Olympus CAMEDIA E-10 i saw on ebay.
it sold for $227, and there are several others available.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=008&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=180122789263&rd=1&rd=1

Sandman - I'm checkin out the Fuji S5200 on ebay I have a couple I'm watching, one is at $100 with 9 hours left.  the S5200 seems to be a way better camera than my 3000,  what I like is the Aperture range: f3.2 to f8, the ability to manually focus and the Sensitivity ISO 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600.  


Eskimo - the Cannon A530 does fit my budget but by looking at the one pic you posted it compares pretty close to my fuji 3000

here are some shots from my Fuji that I dont like



both of those were shot at a car show (duh) large building, very bright inside, mixed lighting, large florescent and incadesent lights
and one I do like, its kinda big.



Outdoors, pictures great,  indoors, not so great.
I go to a lot a museums when I have the chance and most of them either dont allow flash or the displays are behind glass not good for flash (i get that flare from the flash on the glass).  my old fuji only has an aperture setting of F 2.8/F4.8/F8.2 and then they are automatically selected.  I can switch to manual but it doesnt get any better.  speed didnt help either ISO 100 (with flash off) and ISO 100-200 (with flash on).  

Chairboy and Eskimo - My daughter has a HP PhotoSmart E427 6MP we got her for last christmas, seems very close to the Canon Elphs , size wise anyway.   I need to do a little comparsion between them and see how close or different they are.  And shes going to let me use her's in case I dont find one I want before next weekend.

Rip - $600    $2000 .   My photography used to be my hobby about 20 years ago.  Used to go through about 3-4 rolls of film on weekends.  Just load up my cameras and go picture hunting.  Kinda lost touch with it even though I still have my books and my old Yashicas.   I do plan to get a DSLR someday soon, before next summer for sure.  My son took digital graphics and photography in high school last year and this year but they only used digital cameras and photoshop.  I insisted he use my regular film 35mms to learn how to shoot a picture so he could have a better understanding of how aperture and shutter speeds work.  After all that I've gotten bitten by the photo bug again so I'm just saving up my money.

and Xjass - I'm just not ready to spend much more than $200 right now, although the G7 sounds good.

[Ripsnort]

3-4 rolls, I have to laugh because on a typical "digital" day, I shoot the equivelent of 3-4 rolls in about 1 hour. That's the beauty of digital now that they've caught up with the quality of 35mm pictures.

I remember going on vacation and thinking that 10 rolls of film was "really alot!".

On football Sundays, I shoot about 1200 pics.

If you're an "old school photographer" then the transition to a full D-SLR is easy. I was shooting 35mm for 24 years before I entered the digital age (with an Canon S40 no less!)

I have approx $8,000 worth of Pentax 35mm lenses, bodies lying around collecting dust. They're worth about $500 today

[Airscrew]

Yea, airshows and car shows I would take 4-5 rolls of film.  Running around in the desert or go to the mountains, rafting trips, I'd take 3-4 rolls.   Started to get expensive.  I'd get the film cheap looking for sales or expired film and keep it in the refridgerator, black and white, color 60, 100, 200, 400 and 1000.  Used the 1000 at the stock car races in Meridian Idaho.  

I must have about 4 - 5 shoe boxes of pictures and negatives over 3 years that I was learning and shooting.  Played around with double exposures and was learning how to develop black and white and dark room tricks.  then kids started comin and it just got to expensive, $30-40 every couple of weeks on developing not good on a fix income of SSgt in 87.    

Thats what I like about digital now, I can shoot all I want and not a dime for developing.   Also it was a big pain to shoot a 24 or 36 roll and wait until they were developed to see how they came out.  I had my notebook so I knew what I shot and how but my subjects were almost always landscapes, clouds, animals and if you didnt get it the first time there was almost no way you could recreate that original shot

[BigGun]

Let me check what my cannon is at home that is on shelf. Is a great camera, I think was $600 or $700 few years back, might be willing to part for couple hundred. I went with DSLR while ago, and just don't use the older one. Will check tonight.

[Airscrew]

thanks gun, let me know if you can.  I'll probably just use my daughters 5megapixel Hp if I dont find anything...

Can one of you camera gurus look at this and tell me if this is good or not?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250122612989&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNA:US:12

it has issues but might be worth the trouble, at $77 right now

other question would be if my yashica lenses would fit this camera body.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/s1.html

Fuji Photo Film now makes it more affordable than ever to get into professional digital photography by merging Fujifilm's Super CCD image sensor technology with Nikon's N60 SLR camera to create the FinePix S1 Pro. This camera uses a Nikon F lens mount so photographers with a substantial investment in Nikkor lenses can make the move to digital as economically as possible.

The FinePix S1 Pro has a 1.1 inch Super CCD sensor that delivers ultra-high resolution 3042 x 2016-pixel images files. Other features include a 1.5 frames/second burst rate (up to five frames), adjustable ISO sensitivity of 320/400/800/1600, shutter speeds from 30 to 1/2000 seconds and both SmartMedia and CompactFlash Type II card slots.