Need a camera?

[moreyes]

I am looking to buy a digital camera, any suggestions? I would like a good one that is some what durable.

Thanks KLH

[vetspet(ind)]

yeh...we bought a 500 dollar one for my clinic and it was dropped on the first day!!!....we bought a cheapie until we decide what to do with the expensive one and it really takes poor pictures...steve

[Pherris]

I purchased a Kodak DX3700 3.1 Megapixel w/ Docking station for one touch picture transfering and battery charging. The quality of the pictures is great and am pretty happy with the camera. My only complaint would be the viewing screen is rather small. When you buy a digital camera one of the most important aspects for picture quality is Megapixel. We print our photos on photo paper and the quality because of 3.1 mexapixels is just as good as having pictures developed. I would not ever reccomend that anyone buy a camera with less than 3 megapixels unless the only purpose is to e-mail photos. Just my opinion. I got my camaera at a K-mart that was closing on sale with the docking station for $300 total. You can search on www.mysimon.com and it will search the internet and present you with the best price on digital cameras by maker i.e. Kodak DX3700. I bring mine in the boat all the time and days like yesterday on Millelacs with the big waves it bounced around pretty good as did we all and held up fine. I should get a case I suppose. Hope this helps.

[eyedoktr]

Moreyes, I own a number of digital cameras and my main question for you is, what do you intend to do with the pictures? If you just plan on e-mailing them or making only up to 4"x6" prints, then a 1-2MP camera is fine. if you want to make larger prints then you need more resolution (MP). With the prices so low ,and going lower, you can get a really good camera for less than $500. A suggestion for a good 2MP camera is the Kodak DC5000. It is water resistant and can really take a pounding as it is clad in rubber.You can probably find them on ebay but Kodak doesn't produce them anymore.If you have any questions feel free to ask. I don't know how much I'll be online this week as I have to shoot the LPGA tournament here in Rochester.

[work2fish]

moreyes,

I agree with eyedoktr, it is best to try to get an idea of what you will likely be using the camera for. As a general guide, adequate print resolutions are:

1 MP email, web pages only
2 MP 3X5 or 5X7 prints
3 MP 8X10 prints
>3 MP bigger prints, or 8X10 pictures from a cropped image

Photo paper makes all the difference in the quality of your prints.

Then you have to ask yourself if you want full manual controls (i.e. you can set the shutter and aperture manually, white balance, focus, etc.) and adequate zoom which, of course, gives you more control. Adding these features can bring the price up to around $400-500 and up.

There are many good digital photography sites, I would recommend that you check out www.dpreview.com It's a great site and there are many reviews and bulletin boards specific to camera brands that will give you more information and answer questions.

I can't tell you how much fun I've had with a digital camera shooting kids, scenery, photos from a telescope and boats :-)... It has made a huge difference both in the number of shots I've taken and the quality of the results. Of course, you'll need a bigger hard drive, too!

Good luck,
work2fish

[Candrzoo]

I bought a cheap one @Meyers $30 for the boat takes good boat picture the once on land I have a nice Sony $300. The boat camera I don't worry about getting wet and ruining an expensive camera. Before Digital I did the same thing with film camera, Ceap on boat better cameron shore!

[iamwalleye1]

I went with the Kodak DX3600. Water proof. 2.2 megapixels and very easy to use!

[Tom]

i have a cannon powershot A-20 -2.1 MP ( $400.00 ) back when i bought it along with that a HP 1315 printer ( $400.00 ) great camera and awsome printer, the printer accepts all digital memory cards and has a built in screen so you can view and do a limited amount of changing the photo, when you add what you can do with your computer its unlimited, the real key is the paper you use and the printer, you can spend a $1000.00 on a camera and if you use the wrong paper and printer your going to get lousy photos, as for camera durability i take mine on the boat and everywhere else i go and i,m not the most easy person but so far the camera is holding up fine though i would get a camera bag so you can carry the extras ( spare memory cards, spare batterys or battery pack, and a few other small items ) costs under $20.00 hope this helps some.




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[Tahoe]

If it does not need to be waterproof, I would get the Toshiba PDR-M25. This is $249.00 from the Toshiba web site. Camera won tons of awards for this beauty of a 2.2 mega pixel camera.

I have one and have their latest as well. ##### fine camera's.....

[Chris]

Go to www.dpreview.com for lots of great information.

I recently purchased a Nikon Coolpix 885, 3.2mp and love it.

885's and 995's are being phased out and can be picked up for half of what they were selling for around Christmastime. They're both rated at the top of the review charts by the pros and they both can be found for $300-$500 pretty easily.

[IaTag]

I recently purchased a 4 MegaPixel Minolta S404 which retails for around $499. I've seen them go as low as $389 on E-bay. It is rated by DPREVIEW as the best value for the money in the 4 MegaPixel class. It also has an aluminum body (as opposed to plastic) and a 4x telephoto lens (most are 3x) which might come in handy out in the water.

I've found the camera very easy to use and the picture quality is excellent. It does have some manual overrides if you like to play around, but works very well in point-and-shoot mode.

Whatever camera you choose, be advised that alot of the photo shops here in DesMoines will develop your pictures just like film for as low as 25 cents per 4x6 print. All you have to do is either take in the CompactFlash card or off-load the images onto a CD-Rom. I think you will find that the quality of these prints will be better than the best home printer, and at 25 cents per print will be cheaper than do-it-yourself.

I purchased the 4 MegaPixel because I like to occasionally do blow-ups and this will give me the flexibility to go past 8x10 if a picture strikes my fancy.

Digital photography is a lot of fun. I think you'll be happy with whatever you choose.

[msuron]

Concur! Own a DX3600 by Kodak and am happy with its performance!

[Tom]

i had ritz camera make a few photos for me while i was there playing with cameras and all i can say is they turned out like crap, whatever kind of equipment they use to make there photos isn,t doing the job and i can say with all honesty that the ones i make at home are 10 times better, like you said what ever camera you get you,ll have fun with it, its a blast.




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[moreyes]

Thanks for the replys.

KLH

[IaTag]

Try either University Photo or Christian Photography. I have owned a fairly nice InkJet (Hewlett Packard DeskJet 970cse)for several years which is designed for photo quality printing. Even with top quality paper, I could not do as well as University Photo, and they use permanent dyes which will not fade over time like InkJet photos will.
I still print shots at home for fun too, but for volume printing like snapshots of my kids or fish pictures, I think the professional shop is the place to go. Do you really think a home printer costing $300 will print as nicely as a professional setup costing thousands of dollars?
One advantage of at home printing is the ease at which you can crop your image before you print. To get the low prices at the shops you have to let them pretty much print all of your images as they were taken, which for me is no big deal because I try to fill up the frame with most of my shots, anyway. You also need 100 pictures printed at a time to get the lower prices. This is also not a problem because I just store them on my hard drive till I get enough shots, then burn a CD and take it in for processing.
I would recommend talking to a reputable salesman and processor before making your camera purchase.