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Need a Digital Camera

P

pixelbaker

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 29, 2003
Messages
332
I've just sold my old AMD 2200+ system so I've got a little cash to spend on a digital camera. I'm very into photography and was wanting a digital SLR to replace my current SLR as developing all the film for a teenager is hard on cash fund. Should I go ahead and get a mid range digital camera or save up for a long time and get a DSLR? I have narrowed it down to this cam if I go with the regular digital cam.

FUJI FinePix E550

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=30-122-041&depa=7

Quick Specs:
6.3MP, 4xOPT, 6.3xDG, 2.0" LCD, xD Card

I think it would be great for the type of photography I'm into with macro focusing and just general point and shoot. I will definately be looking into a DSLR in the future but for now I would really like to have a nice digi cam to take pics with and not have to use my 35mm SLR (which is actually with my brother at college, 400 miles away...) If you have any other suggestions on cams that you have personal experience with or know are good or may be a better deal please comment. Thanks
 
So, that Fuji digital camera costs $340 and is 6.3 megapixels, huh?

I bought my Canon Powershot A70 a year ago for that same price with less than half the megapixels.

But, I was very, very, VERY satisfied with my purchase, and I believe you will be with that Fuji, as well.
 
You could try the photography section of the forums. I'd go for an A80 though... complete control with Canon quality lens ;)

//edit: Seems like Canon's updated it with the A85 ... and that's almost $100 less than your Fuji! Go with that one... I bet you the quality of the 4MP is better than Fuji's 6..
 
thanks for the input. I think I'll be holding off until Christmas and buying an LCD and larger HD for now. I'll check back on prices and options again with Christmas sales going on.
 
The IQ on those Fuji cameras tends to be "ok" but the extra resolution is not improving it any over the 4mp A80 for example in most situations. It's just a lot more noise generally, and the lens isn't as good. I'd recommend the Canon A80 as well.
 
alexyang said:
So, that Fuji digital camera costs $340 and is 6.3 megapixels, huh?

I bought my Canon Powershot A70 a year ago for that same price with less than half the megapixels.
Click to expand...


I think that fuji has a native resolution of 3mp and it upsamples to 6mp.


Either way

Canon 3mp > Fuji 6mp.
 
emorphien said:
The IQ on those Fuji cameras tends to be "ok" but the extra resolution is not improving it any over the 4mp A80 for example in most situations. It's just a lot more noise generally, and the lens isn't as good. I'd recommend the Canon A80 as well.
Click to expand...


a80 user here
i friggin love this camera
if you shoot at LS the quality is really incredible

and unless you want to offer poster prints there is no need for 6mp
 
I have the Canon S50...love the quality pictures but I personally prefer Nikon. I'm gonna borrow my Dads FM 1 :)
 
ycchan said:
I have the Canon S50...love the quality pictures but I personally prefer Nikon. I'm gonna borrow my Dads FM 1 :)
Click to expand...
In general I prefer my FM to using most point and shoot digitals too. for certain purposes. It's not really a fair comparison for either camera.
 
emorphien said:
In general I prefer my FM to using most point and shoot digitals too. for certain purposes. It's not really a fair comparison for either camera.
Click to expand...

oh no it wasn't meant to be a comparison :p

I prefer Nikon over Canon regardless whether its an FM or not.
 
Hyper_Psycho said:
why nikon > canon ? :eek:
Click to expand...
I'm curious too. I love both though, the major difference now is the coolpix cameras aren't very reliable and Nikons DSLR strategy is totally different, not to mention the different interfaces.
 
emorphien said:
I'm curious too. I love both though, the major difference now is the coolpix cameras aren't very reliable and Nikons DSLR strategy is totally different, not to mention the different interfaces.
Click to expand...

I had both nikon and canon DLSRs and pns cameras
and i would love the ease of use for canon while nikon often offered some neat fatures such as bracketing, BSS, HS thumb shots and things like that
in terms of SLR canon dSLRs feel easier to use than Nikon
but whatever
whats your delio ycchan, if you will?
 
Just ordered the Canon A85 to replace my Old A40.

239.00 and free shipping from

www.bestpriceaudiovideo.com

Their resellerrating here.

Their selection isn't the greatest, but if they have what you want, their camera prices are outstanding. Accessory prices are only average. Have bought both my cameras and my digital vid camera from them.

As far as the camera itself goes - after owning my A40 for a year, it still takes great pictures, and it has survived SEVERAL drops onto the ground - two onto concrete! I only have an issue with its autofocus/exposure lag times and its so-so low light capability. But others who own other point n shoot cameras all seem to have similar issues.

If you want more megapixels, they've got the A95 (5 MP) for 322.00

BB
 
I would go for a A80 or a A95, the swivel screen is incredibly useful for macro shots.
The A95 has 5MP, and the screen is like 1.8" or 2". They took the A80 and added almost everything that people wanted, cept for a metal tripod mount.
I happen to have one for sale if you want it... :p
 
agentzero9 said:
I think that fuji has a native resolution of 3mp and it upsamples to 6mp.


Either way

Canon 3mp > Fuji 6mp.
Click to expand...
Thats wrong.
The fuji ccd works by having hexagonal sensors, allowing it to technically capture twice as much detail in the same area as a traditional sensor. Its definately not as good as traditional 6mpixel sensor, but it'll better a 3mp canon one.
At that price though you're going to be buying noise for high megapixels whatever the brand of camera, you get what you pay for at the end of the day :(
 
ToiIetDuck said:
Thats wrong.
The fuji ccd works by having hexagonal sensors, allowing it to technically capture twice as much detail in the same area as a traditional sensor. Its definately not as good as traditional 6mpixel sensor, but it'll better a 3mp canon one.
At that price though you're going to be buying noise for high megapixels whatever the brand of camera, you get what you pay for at the end of the day :(
Click to expand...

sir, scientists in finland found out that
canon > fuji
no matter what the issue
 
ToiIetDuck said:
Thats wrong.
The fuji ccd works by having hexagonal sensors, allowing it to technically capture twice as much detail in the same area as a traditional sensor. Its definately not as good as traditional 6mpixel sensor, but it'll better a 3mp canon one.
At that price though you're going to be buying noise for high megapixels whatever the brand of camera, you get what you pay for at the end of the day :(
Click to expand...
That's not an entirely accurate description of it, I'd suggest you read up on it again, perhaps not on Fujis press release though.
 
Hyper_Psycho said:
sir, scientists in finland found out that
canon > fuji
no matter what the issue
Click to expand...


Then sir, you are quite ignorant. Read other peoples reports than ones just from finland. Fuji makes great cameras and yes canon has better ones, but so does fuji, but fuji for the quality + price = best value.
 
nirkillerangel said:
Then sir, you are quite ignorant. Read other peoples reports than ones just from finland. Fuji makes great cameras and yes canon has better ones, but so does fuji, but fuji for the quality + price = best value.
Click to expand...

ask any photographer which brand they would chose if they needed a backup compact camera ...
 
nirkillerangel said:
Then sir, you are quite ignorant. Read other peoples reports than ones just from finland. Fuji makes great cameras and yes canon has better ones, but so does fuji, but fuji for the quality + price = best value.
Click to expand...
nirkillerangle,
there's something you may not be aware of, and it's not actually labeled as such, but this is primarily a canon fan_boy forum. debating fuji vs. canon etc. will get you nowhere.
 
kenrippy said:
nirkillerangle,
there's something you may not be aware of, and it's not actually labeled as such, but this is primarily a canon fan_boy forum. debating fuji vs. canon etc. will get you nowhere.
Click to expand...

haha
its like nvidia vs ati
we all know that ATI is better ;)

photo quality wise i would put my life savings on canon over fuji
but if you were like olympus v. fuji then i would be pro fuji
 
Generally some Olympus and Canon cameras are comparable in image quailty, with Canon ahead at the lower end. Fuji on the other hand generally is much noisier and subject to more chromatic abberations than Canon/Olympus (not always).

Nikons Coolpix image quality is usually fairly good and the lenses have become much faster optically in the past couple years. When you compare their image quality to Canons, canon has traditionally preferred a smoother image that may not be as sharp while Nikon prefers a sharper image that's noisier. It's more or less the same in the end, you sharpen the canon shot sometimes, remove noise in the Nikon. Ultimately I prefer the smoother, lower noise concept even if the image can be somewhat soft. This same situation carries over in to the DSLRs.

The big problem for the coolpix line has been mechanical and electrical reliability. They often have AF and zoom motors fail, and I've dealt with more than should that have had intermittent power issues or non-functioning buttons.
 
emorphien said:
Generally some Olympus and Canon cameras are comparable in image quailty, with Canon ahead at the lower end. Fuji on the other hand generally is much noisier and subject to more chromatic abberations than Canon/Olympus (not always).

Nikons Coolpix image quality is usually fairly good and the lenses have become much faster optically in the past couple years. When you compare their image quality to Canons, canon has traditionally preferred a smoother image that may not be as sharp while Nikon prefers a sharper image that's noisier. It's more or less the same in the end, you sharpen the canon shot sometimes, remove noise in the Nikon. Ultimately I prefer the smoother, lower noise concept even if the image can be somewhat soft. This same situation carries over in to the DSLRs.

The big problem for the coolpix line has been mechanical and electrical reliability. They often have AF and zoom motors fail, and I've dealt with more than should that have had intermittent power issues or non-functioning buttons.
Click to expand...

very good points
i had my coolpix 4500 af/zoom motor crap out
and nikon was nice to fix it for free
later on if I had the huge camera in my pocked it would go into naggin sound mode when i booted up but never gave me the same problem again

my a80 is kicking but, i can go running with it, biking and has no problems booting up
 
nirkillerangel said:
Then sir, you are quite ignorant. Read other peoples reports than ones just from finland. Fuji makes great cameras and yes canon has better ones, but so does fuji, but fuji for the quality + price = best value.
Click to expand...

I hope you are not factoring in those fake megapixels into the "quality" rating. And I'm too busy to read up on the build quality of the fuji but if history is any indication for consumer cameras between canon and fuji, the canon will have far superior build quality.

Which begs the question... what exactly are you incorporating into your idea of "quality."
 
agentzero9 said:
I hope you are not factoring in those fake megapixels into the "quality" rating. And I'm too busy to read up on the build quality of the fuji but if history is any indication for consumer cameras between canon and fuji, the canon will have far superior build quality.

Which begs the question... what exactly are you incorporating into your idea of "quality."
Click to expand...

The A340, 330, 320, 310 and several other camers done use interpolation, MOST of fuji's cameras dont, so get that idea out of your head. It is plastic built, but still has good quality. I am not saying fuji is better than canon by any means, or that canon is worse than Nikon, I am simply letting people know there is more out there than everyones OMG GET CANON responce. That is all. Its good to have multiple choices.
 
nirkillerangel said:
The A340, 330, 320, 310 and several other camers done use interpolation, MOST of fuji's cameras dont, so get that idea out of your head. It is plastic built, but still has good quality. I am not saying fuji is better than canon by any means, or that canon is worse than Nikon, I am simply letting people know there is more out there than everyones OMG GET CANON responce. That is all. Its good to have multiple choices.
Click to expand...
There are plenty of choices. And plenty of decent cameras, but Canon has put forth a really good effort to offer what might be considered on average a superior product line at the consumer level. At the higher end their competition is more fierce and focussed. At the low end though the actual quality and performance are rarely major concerns, so whether Canon really is better or not, there are a lot of good and popular alternatives.
 
I think you'll find that moving down from a film SLR to a digital point and shoot is going to yield very dissapointing quality from what you're used to, and hardly any of the features you take for granted in an SLR. What brand camera do you use now? I think your next purchase, should it be a dSLR, ought to depend on your lenses now, so that you're not stuck with a body from Nikon and lenses from Canon.

Bottom line -- get the dSLR -- if you are low on cash, Canon D30, D60, 10D, 300D, Nikon D70, or Fuji S2, ought to do the trick for $500-$1200.
 
emorphien said:
There are plenty of choices. And plenty of decent cameras, but Canon has put forth a really good effort to offer what might be considered on average a superior product line at the consumer level. At the higher end their competition is more fierce and focussed. At the low end though the actual quality and performance are rarely major concerns, so whether Canon really is better or not, there are a lot of good and popular alternatives.
Click to expand...

I disagree -- I think it is completely the opposite. At the lower end I think Canon competes much more with low end offers from Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Kodak, Minolta, Sony, etc. There are just so many consumer 3-4 MP 3x zoom cameras to choose from it is mind-boggling. But move to high end digital, many of those companies have no offers and there are really only two key players: Nikon and Canon. And I think Canon really has a market edge over Nikon, despite which company makes better equipment. Canon has a clear edge in sales over Nikon for SLR photography equipment in basically every type of photography, especially sports photography. Do I know why this is so? I have no idea.

But this does not mean that Canon can simply make shitty products because it has no competition -- the opposite proves to be true when every so often Nikon releases a new dSLR. Canon spends lots of time and lots of money on its high end products but I don't know if the competition at that end is as fierce as competition on the low end. I think that high end developers at Canon and Nikon are more faced with a faction of discerning buyers (albeit loyal buyers) that critique their products very closely.... more than they are faced with competition from other companies.
 
I don't spend alot of time just in general chat on the forums, mostly just selling/trading awhile back, but from what I've gathered I think many of the most recent posts could qualify as "thread hijacking" considering that I just asked opinions on a single cam and maybe suggestions on which camera I should buy and why. When did it turn into a battle of the brands? I'll just abandon this thread and let you continue your dispute.

PS: Correct me if this is how it is supposed to be. If it is, I wish it weren't... :(
 
pixelbaker said:
I don't spend alot of time just in general chat on the forums, mostly just selling/trading awhile back, but from what I've gathered I think many of the most recent posts could qualify as "thread hijacking" considering that I just asked opinions on a single cam and maybe suggestions on which camera I should buy and why. When did it turn into a battle of the brands? I'll just abandon this thread and let you continue your dispute.

PS: Correct me if this is how it is supposed to be. If it is, I wish it weren't... :(
Click to expand...

Well, this is a discussion. We are allowed to discuss the points the others have raised. If not, the forum would turn from a "discussion forum" into a "PM-forum" where you send a message to the board and everyone who responds sends you a PM telling you what you should do. This doesn't sound like a very good idea.

By the way I answered your question. Perhaps when you were spending your time looking for reasons to be pissed off you passed over my post.
 
no no. you misunderstand. it went from exactly what I wanted to learn, which was great, to a debate and I didn't want that. just annoyed me that I had asked a question and the thread I had started has gained a totally different purpose and I now have to wade through what I'm trying to find from the things I really don't care about.

and not really "pissed off", more concerned really :D

and btw, thank you and all others applicable for replying on topic. not sure what these others are about :)
 
kenrippy said:
nirkillerangle,
there's something you may not be aware of, and it's not actually labeled as such, but this is primarily a canon fan_boy forum. debating fuji vs. canon etc. will get you nowhere.
Click to expand...


Pick any non-branded forum (cept a canon forum of course) and chances are that the majority of the people will prefer canon.

Go to any media event, any sporting event, and more then half the cameras will be canon (i'd say more then 3/4 of them at a football/baseball etc game).

There is a reason for this
 
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