Which Digital Camera To Purchase?
Yogi @ Sun May 24, 2009 10:13 am
I'm looking for your input and advice on this one. I'm going into the city today and have been asked by a friend to "pick me up a simple digital camera". She is not a technical person at all, and this will be her first foray into the digital world. I'm thinking at least 10 megapixels, point and shoot, extra battery and extra memory.
When I bought my cameras 6 mp was the top. For what I use them they are sufficient.
I have a Sony Cyber-shot with Carl Zeiss lens. I find that the shutter only opens 1/2 way quite often and i have to manually open it all the way and as well the batteries don't last long under use and neither do they hold a charge when not being used. usually dead after a couple of weeks just sitting on my desk.
My other camera is a 6.0 Cannon Digital Elph. I found this one lying on the side of the highway a couple of years ago. Since then it has been dropped, banged around, been on several dusty jobsites, unwittingly left on a simmering stove burner for a couple of hours with only minor shading on the screen as a result!
Of course with better technology and competition cameras have changed a lot in the last couple of years. So what are your recommendations for a novice? She has no intentions of 'serious photography', but rather like most of us just the family pics and " oh look at that beutiful sunset" kind of pics. Budget of around $300.00.
stemmer @ Sun May 24, 2009 2:10 pm
Check out the the camera reviews in camera database option at DPReview.com
http://www.dpreview.com/
I have a 8 mp dslr Olympus and I'm very pleased with it...
hurley_108 @ Sun May 24, 2009 2:55 pm
Yogi Yogi:
I'm looking for your input and advice on this one. I'm going into the city today and have been asked by a friend to "pick me up a simple digital camera". She is not a technical person at all, and this will be her first foray into the digital world. I'm thinking at least 10 megapixels, point and shoot, extra battery and extra memory.
When I bought my cameras 6 mp was the top. For what I use them they are sufficient.
I have a Sony Cyber-shot with Carl Zeiss lens. I find that the shutter only opens 1/2 way quite often and i have to manually open it all the way and as well the batteries don't last long under use and neither do they hold a charge when not being used. usually dead after a couple of weeks just sitting on my desk.
My other camera is a 6.0 Cannon Digital Elph. I found this one lying on the side of the highway a couple of years ago. Since then it has been dropped, banged around, been on several dusty jobsites, unwittingly left on a simmering stove burner for a couple of hours with only minor shading on the screen as a result!
Of course with better technology and competition cameras have changed a lot in the last couple of years. So what are your recommendations for a novice? She has no intentions of 'serious photography', but rather like most of us just the family pics and " oh look at that beutiful sunset" kind of pics. Budget of around $300.00.
When I bought my cameras 6 mp was the top. For what I use them they are sufficient.
I have a Sony Cyber-shot with Carl Zeiss lens. I find that the shutter only opens 1/2 way quite often and i have to manually open it all the way and as well the batteries don't last long under use and neither do they hold a charge when not being used. usually dead after a couple of weeks just sitting on my desk.
My other camera is a 6.0 Cannon Digital Elph. I found this one lying on the side of the highway a couple of years ago. Since then it has been dropped, banged around, been on several dusty jobsites, unwittingly left on a simmering stove burner for a couple of hours with only minor shading on the screen as a result!
Of course with better technology and competition cameras have changed a lot in the last couple of years. So what are your recommendations for a novice? She has no intentions of 'serious photography', but rather like most of us just the family pics and " oh look at that beutiful sunset" kind of pics. Budget of around $300.00.
A couple years ago, for a vacation in Hawaii, my dad picked up an Olympus. They make a few models with good shock protection (5-10 foot drop depending on the model), and waterproof, so you can take them, literally, under water (3-10m under water depending on the model.
We have since picked one up for ourselves, the Stylus Tough 6000. It's 10MP, has a 5ft drop rating, and has a 3m/10ft under water rating.
The photos are perfectly decent. Not what you'd get from a DSLR, but you can take this camera places you'd never take a DSLR and get a picture you'd otherwise miss.
We got it for $330 on sale, regularly $350. Shop around. Right now Best Buy and London Drugs have them for $330.
It's a great little camera.
Yogi @ Sun May 24, 2009 9:25 pm
Thanks Guys, I appreciate your input. Unfortunately I was already on my way into Edmonton when you posted. Coincidentally though I did purchase an Olympus! 
'She' is neither ready for or wanted an SLR. Just point and shoot. I had intended to get a Fuji 'waterproof 3-10 metres' but upon discussing with the sales people at one camera store, the lady quietly told me that they had actually done a 'water test' and found that water got into the battery compartment. She advised me to go to London Drugs to check out a few other waterproof models. It turns out that the 'water proof point and shoots' aren't! Instead the fellows there showed me the Olympus FE370.
The Olympus FE370 8 Megapixel Digital Camera features 19 easy-to-use Shooting Modes, 8.0-megapixel CCD that captures enough detail for photo-quality 16 x 22-inch prints, 5x image-stabilized optical zoom, Face Detection, and 2.7" high-resolution LCD screen. Also video with sound mode.
Nice, simple little camera. easy to use And my friend is extremeley happy with it.
Although the shelf price was $199.99 and I felt that was quite reasonable, turns out this camera was 'an unadvertised sale item for today only' (??? 
) Price $159.99
Camera, spare battery and extra 2 gig memory, with GST totalled $218.00.
You should have seen her with her new toy. Like a kid at Christmas!
stemmer @ Mon May 25, 2009 4:52 am
Appears to have favorable reviews at DPReview.com
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/O ... _fe370.asp
danimal @ Mon May 25, 2009 7:08 am
I bought a Canon Elph last boxing day for ridiculously cheap and it's been great. The photos are fantastic and it's easy to use. Only downside I learned is that the camera doesn't have a built in memory and my computer can't seem to read the SD card inside the camera so I have to use a card reader to upload any images.
Yogi @ Mon May 25, 2009 7:13 am
I just use the 'USB direct' cord to my Elph. Never had any sort of problems with this one.
Blue_Nose @ Mon May 25, 2009 7:26 am
dpreview is great, I poured over that site before buying my Canon A720 IS - if you do a bit of research you find that the notion that more megapixels make a camera better is mostly a myth, and that's why I like the way their reviews consist not only of technical specs, but side-by-side comparisons to similar cameras.
Also, if anyone is considering buying a P&S, you should check out the extra features you can get out of your Canon with CHDK - honestly there wouldn't have even been a debate in my mind if I'd known about that addon, and things like automatic bracketing and live histograms make the camera even better than it already is. The best part is that it doesn't permanently change your camera's firmware, and you use the CHDK addon by simply switching the SD card to "lock" - still writes to the card, and you can switch back easily by unlocking the card.