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Opinions New Camera (again)

B

bigstusexy

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 28, 2002
Messages
3,194
Hello everyone!

Its been about a year now and I am ready to get a new camera. Not only did I mistreat it and it got dirty, then had the unfortunate suprise of having the LCD crack but just before I actually decided that I had completely outgrown the camera.

I went with a Fuji FinePix A210, it was
3.2 MP
Auto everything
Macro mode
Manual exposure and white balance settings
manual flash modes.

This was basically a nice point and shoot with some controlable features.
---------------------Old camera History (you may skip)
Problmes:
()Pictures could easily be blury
Although I had control I didn't have enough :). I know not many camera's have manual focus but I think I'm ready, the AF worked but sometimes it was tricky to use, low light shooting was hit or miss (lots of misses) Shots of people moving were... not good. No Shutter time control (I'm still a complete noob so don't hurt me) I'd like to try my hand at makeing settings I can use to short action shots, Settings perfects for that low ligt situation. As well as leaving it open for seconds to capture those building and very low light shots at.
()Lense, After buying the camera I read a review, it didn't matter much as I just wanted one and find one for that price that wouldn't embarrse me with its quality was a rea challenge. I'm not Mr. Money bags now but the problems do pug me. There is some purple fringing wen full zoomed, and pincushioning at full wideangle, although I'm not exactly sure what it is there are some photos that just are "somethings not right with this one" to me As it only has 3x optical zoom I zoomed alot, also the zoom wasn't smooth so sometimes I need to zoom more but then backup some so being at full zone happened alot.
()capture system 3.2MP is mostimes more than enough for me, maybe I'll want to make bigger prints one day but you get pixel envy :) thats not the issue. The reall issue is even though you have great shots with most levels the only times when the picture was completely free of noise and even hidden noise (the noise isn't the standard red green and blue pixels but speckles of lighter darker or just off color points, you know what I mean) was when you had large helping of light in sceeen. This is very rare, its acutally not an issue when you have those small like pictures printed and they print very nice but it can be annoying when you shoot for things that my not end up being resized. Although Digital zoom is evil, sometimes you can live with it, its not avaliable on the 3MP mode of the camera
() Macro was nice but it didn't allow for me to get that close I had to be almost 2 inches away and no zoom.

there were more problems but I think thats enough to explain a few things
----------------------- End old camera History


Here is a list of what I think I'm looking for:

Most of all price range is 260 as you'll see I'm somewhat flexable
Manual focus! *sigh* I have to put this as a must
The more manual the beter!
I'd like it to take AA, I've got some really good Rechargables and a charger 8 in all This is one investment I'd like to take with me
Zoom: 8x or better
Image stabilazation is nice but not needed
I'd like some burst features too doesn't have to be unlimited but thats nice.
Macro mode that has something to offer?
Oh sound and something hear 30fps capture would be nice

What I am try to accomplish is I'd like to have a camera that can work for me when i don't feel like working. However I want it to have better quality then the last one (shouldn't be too hard to do) and enough features to play with that it can hold me over another year or so until I save up to get a D-SLR and I won't be so lost.

About me: I am doing this as not even a hobby, I would like to capture memories to have, sometimes I like to create art and I need a source. If I ever meet any hot women :p, Sometimes I see interesting pictuers and i think that I want to be able to do that. So that means I'm not super serious but I want to learn and beable to have something to show for it

Here are some canidates that I've found so far.

This one I really like, friend who is in the photopgraphy feild doesn't like it but she says that sometimes she is just picky

This is a new one that I just added to the list tonight I haven't check out all its features out and don't know if its staying onthe list.

Also any good review sits are welcome.
 
I would stick with Canons if possible...Cameras are unlike a lot of electronic toys here because its usually a lot more than specs....I've noticed Canons seemed to have a pretty good balance of color, light, and customization, and pretty high-quality lenses that help some of the ones I've seen outperform other cameras with better specifications. The ideal camera for me would be a G6, but like you said, my budget is much lower than that! I'm not even in the market for a new camera yet! I think there are some good Canons in the $300 range, which would be a good buy, in my opinion.
 
I don't have any specific cameras to recommend, but I would like to point out that you can put most of the criteria you listed into DPReview's feature search. There are a ton of cameras out there that meet your basic requirements, I think: DiMAGE Z10, FinePix S5100, Olympus C-750 UZ, among others. Definitely don't just assume the Canons will be better.

Also, if you're serious about manual control, you'll want to add shutter and aperture priority modes and white balance control to the list of features you're searching for. I think the cameras I listed do have those features, and I'm pretty sure each of them has been discussed here before (try a search!).
 
Thanks all keep them comming!

I wasn't aware about dpsreview Thanks for the link

YES! Shutter witebalance appture and all the rest are covered in the more manula the better part :) I want to get as much manual control as I can so when I move to a pro level I won't be totaly lost and fustrated with a reall expensive peice of equipment.

I'll look at the cannons but something is kinda bother me about them, my friend told me to stay away from them but in my own looking there is something about the whole color and light processing thing... kinda makes me think that no matter what the camera is going to do somet thinking for me and that is a bit scary.

Months and months ago the s5100 came into my sights just by accdent. It was really eye catching by the review I read (PC Mag I think) but the problem was when I read the review at steve's he noted the same thing thats noticalbe on mine, that it has some purple fringing at full telephoto and something at wide, I'll check it again to be sure. I'm just so feed up with some shots that seem like there was something a bit off with thtem that I don't want to take the chance you know?
 
A friend i know has the 5100, and its quite a well featured camera, especially for its price.
Unfortunately i think in some ways thats its downfall, becuase the price is the best bit of it.
I've never been particulary over impresssed with the quality of the lens on it, and since he's got a few additional cheap lens extensions the purple fringing is even more noticeable.
So personally i won't be buying one as i can see myself being better off saving for a 350D or whatever Nikon brings out in the next year, but for the price it goes at, it might be worth giving it a try out at a local camera shop?
 
Hey guys I'm still looking its kinda depressing because everything I think i've found something good it turns out that there is some problem that I wonder if I could live with.

I've added to the list the Minolta Dimage Z2 It's a 4 MP camera and it has a movie mode to die for. The reason I added this to the list and give it a little better rating over the z20 is that I was reading a few reports that they said that the image sensor has been the same size all the time wih this line of cameras, and that with the added MP else the noise has grown with them. Alot that the Z2 had a good mix of high MP and less noise. I've found it for a spectacular price before the rebate from a company that is trust worthy.

The biggest problem is the image quality, I've sen some sample shot from steve's digital camera review site and they were horrible! I asked someone who had taken a photo class if he though the shots were bad enough to forget the camera and he didn't agree however another passer by said he saw the same thing I did. What I though I saw was the blue-ish glow (possibly) that you see when things are optically magnified and out of focus a bit. The pictures at dpreview looked a world better but when you look at the pictures for the test (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/konicaminoltaz2/page8.asp) If you look at the corner say the top left one because you encounter it first :) I see small colored zones around the black elements on the page, same thing at all 4 extreams. this is more apparent on another test patter which is a large grid. Also I notice that this distortion seems to be linear and dimishes to almost or even vanishes at center. Also, just on the test shees, it seems like the color changes as well.

Like I said before I have no real experience or knowledge with this but I do believe I am seeing that. I know what when the picture is resized to usable sizes on the PC it goes to unoticeable and I have no clue about prints.

Well if anyone has anything to say let me know. I've been looking at a few places to find cameras but I'm not turn up too many canidates.

Untill next update
Stu-
 
Well looking at the actual sample images for the Z2 it looks great, and it doesn't appear to be too much to be picky about in them :confused:
Definately worth a play with if thats the kind of think you're after :)
 
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