Best digital camera for the price?

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Kryogen

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Feb 3, 2002
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What's the best digital camera for the price? I mean, what takes good pictures, and isn't too expensive? I'm a student, I can afford one, but I don't want to spend money if it's not really useful.

I mean, what takes GOOD pictures, but is not too expensive? 3.2MP??? Lower? Higher? Is 2.0 good, or not really enough?

Any models that you would recommend? Why?

Thanks!
 
Can 3.2MP make good prints the size of a regular photo?

Any models that you recommend?
 
I bought my fiancee an HP735 for Xmas. It retails for $200, but I paid something around $150 with my discount. It works great, pics are a good quality, and it has an optical zoom as well. Digital zoom is worthless, so ignore it. I also got her to dock that recharges the battery, and outputs the pictures to her TV.
 
So what exactly is your price range? I mean the digital rebel is a good camera for the price ($999)!

But I suspect you are looking for something more consumer grade. If so my advice is to look at a Canon A70 or A80. Both have great price performance ratios and are beloved by many. They feature a decent lens, good image capture and both great automatic and great manual features.

Another thing, when you are thinking about image quality worry less about the number of megapixels and more about the actual image quality. While resolution is important, it is not the end-all of image quality. There are many things that contribute to making good pictures on a digital camera such as the size of the CCD, the cameras capacity to reduce noise, and the quality of the lens.

That said, most 3.2mp cameras will produce a decent picture in regular photograph sizes. (Around an 8x10 is the max for a 3.2mp). If you plan on printing much larger than that then you probably want more resolution.
 
Canon A60/A70 - best picture for the price.
Canon S410 - best small digicam (Sony T1 is also nice, but >$500)

I have an S400 and plan to use that for everything until I can get a digital SLR. Then I'll have an uber camera, and a small point-and-shoot for travel. I usually recommend this route to friends seeking a camera - you don't get stuck with a bunch of manual features you don't want when you're starting out, and you don't obsolete your manual camera down the road if you upgrade to a digiSLR. If you only want one camera, pic between small size (S410) or good price/pictures/manual options (A70 is nice).

3.2MP is what you need, any more isn't really necessary, any less seems to cause problems on prints larger than 4"x6". And I agree with djnes here, digital zoom is a huge piece of crap.
 
Yeah, my budget is pretty low, BUT I'd rather invest a bit more and get something good. What I mean is that even though 3.2mp is a tad expensive, I think it'd be worth it over 2mp.

I'll check the canon A70 out, thanks.
any other ideas?
 
Kind of an impossible question...

the best for the money? i'd have to go with the 1d mkII :D
 
Originally posted by Kryogen
Yeah, my budget is pretty low, BUT I'd rather invest a bit more and get something good. What I mean is that even though 3.2mp is a tad expensive, I think it'd be worth it over 2mp.
Click to expand...


3.2 is a tad expensive?


That statement doesn't really mean anything..


There are 3.2mp cameras for $50, and there are 3.2mp cameras for $500. And then there are 2mp cameras that cost more than 3mp cameras.

What you need to do is give an exact amount of what you are looking into spending.
 
Uh, I wana spend approx 250$ US MAXIMUM or something like that.

I was thinking about the canon a70 from what people have told me. BUT, I think it's wayyy more expensive in canada like 415$CAN (312$US), so I think I should order from the US, it would still cost way less than getting it here.

Any good canadian retailers with honest prices?

Suggestions?
 
Black's Photo

I've found Black's to be pretty good - they do price matching as well -- they have the Canon A70 for $450CDN or the Canon A75 for $400CDN --- that kind of puts both of these cameras right on the edge of your maximum but you would also need to buy rechargeable batteries...

I have never actually bought online from them - I usually just price check and wander down to one of their brickandmortar stores and pick up the stuff there and their inperson service is fantastic but I can't actually say what their online service is like
- I bought my A80 from one of their stores in december
 
They charge way too much canadian. I'll order from a US store.

But um, the batteries thing really sucks. I'd like a digicam with included rechargeable battery.

What about the nikkon sumething?
 
Just get a camera that uses AA or AAA batteries and you can just buy a charger. Buying a camera which uses a special battery means when it dies and you're out somewhere you can't just run to the pharmacy for some batteries. You can pickup a name brand recharger kit for about $20, and it will include a set of batteries.

As for image quality, even 2.0 megapixels can still do good 4x6 prints. Most people like to get a camera that is 3.0 megapixels so they have the option of doing good quality 8x10 prints. When you are price shopping, remember the differences between an optical and a digtal zoom.

Some cameras will be cheaper because they only have a digital zoom, which is where the camera just blows up that portion of the image and it will appear fuzzy like you enlarged it on a photo copier. An optical zoom is where the lens moves in and out and there's no difference in the image quality as you zoom in and out. (Basically, you want an optical zoom if you prefer one, a digital zoom is pretty much not worth using.)

As for brands, the Canon Powershot series is great bang for the buck and there's a few models to choose from depending on what you want for megapixels. The Coolpix line from Nikon is good also, although I haven't used them personally. You can save some money by going with Kodak or H-P, especially if you are just using it for snapshots.

If you want a super compact camera, that's another section all together, but I like the Minolta X line.

A good website for reviews, although it sometimes doesn't cover cheaper cameras like Kodak/H-P/etc, is DP Review.
 
A70 or A80 gets my vote.
As for the special batteries, they are a pain in the ass, VERY expensive, and don't last any longer than AA batteries.
My Canon A-80 on 2300mAh batteries(4) lasted about 700 pics, all of them with flash on. Get a couple sets, and you'll be fine.
 
I got an Olympus stylus 400(4.23mp) from the Egg for $328.00. This included a 128mb memory card ($50.00) + $40.00 rebate. You can get a stylus 300 for around $225.00 (3.2mp), both great cameras for the $.
 
proprietary batteries in cameras suck because of the price and the fact that, say you're on vacation and both your batteries die and you can't charge them, you can't just go to a local corner store and buy a temporary replacement.

I have a Canon A80 now and I picked up a good powerex battery kit for around $100ca which has 8 2200mah AA batteries, charger, and adaptors for wall power AND car lighter power. a proprietary battery for another canon similar that uses them is around $60(except the camera is more expensive so it's about the same, only less flexible)

As for cameras, the Canon A70 is really popular and has manual controls to do lots of neat stuff. cameras like the Olympus Stylus 300 and 400 are alright, but they lack the manual controls on the A70. small Canon cameras like the S400 also lack the manual controls AND lots of people have problems with the lense and get error messages. it apparently takes very little dust and debris to get into the opening around the lense which gums up the gears and one day you turn it on and it refuses to open up and gives you an error. turning it off and on fixes it for a bit, but it's annoying. It's the only reason why I dislike the smaller cameras. (my friend has the S400 and he just had it sent away for a cleaning due to this issue because he is heading on a trip in april and needs it to work properly.

For canadian prices, check out Vistek.ca, I know the A70 is $419 there, but they're probably the lowest price you'll find in canada for most items. I work in a digicam store in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and we match prices with vistek.ca
 
Yeah but um, 410$ is a steal. I'll order one from the USA 220$ US, that's 295$ can. 115$ rebate, insane isn't it?

And I'll prolly buy a memory card here in a shop, and a charger too.

Might go with the canon A70, expensive though... bleh.
 
Another thing about the AA batteries is that they add a bit of weight to the camera. Most small digital cameras feel flimsy to me and lack enough heft for me to comfortably use. The A70, on the other hand, is around the perfect weight for me.
 
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