Which camera should I buy?

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Dear all,
I apologize if this isn't the correct newsgroup for this question. I am
wondering what digital camera you would recommend with the following rough
specs. I am kind of overwhelmed with the choice out there...

My Budget:$300
Expected Use: general recreational pics, and the occasional more serious
photograph.
Zoom: a good optical zoom (I like to shoot things candidly from further
away)
Size: small but *not* tiny, something I could squeeze comfortably into a
pocket would be great. Those credit card sized camera are too tiny for my
fingers.

That's it. I don't care much about shooting modes or gimmicks, I just want a
no nonsense $300 camera with a reasonable zoom and maybe a flash. Any
recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Sure! sorry I was vague. Currency is $300 US. By recreational I mean your
basic vacation shots, family get togethers etc. By serious, I mean that I
occasionally go out alone to shoot things a little more planned and
artistically, be it animals, landscapes, sunsets, people etc. (though I
don't see myself needing high speed sports shots or too much night
shooting). These images I would prefer to have rich colors, reasonable
contrast, and perhaps be printable up to 8x10" or so... Previously I have
used a Nikon F50 35mm SLR and had wonderful results, but now I just want
something smaller and digital. This will be my first digital camera, which
is why I'm so naive about them


"Linda Nieuwenstein" <buzzball@REMOVETHIS-allstream.net> wrote in message
news:z_pVe.618$hW.341@tor-nn1...
>
> "OcTavO" wrote
> >
> > My Budget:$300
> > Expected Use: general recreational pics, and the occasional more serious
> > photograph.
> >
>
> A couple of questions:
>
> Which currency?
>
> Does general recreational mean leisure sports? If not can you give
instances
> of what events fall under general recreational?
>
> There are many types of serious photograph such as a portrait, macro of a
> flower, a wild life shot, sporting shot, landscape shot. All require
> different settings and lenses for instance. Can you define what your 'more
> serious photograph' will be of?
>
> Take care,
> Linda
>
>

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Tue, 13 Sep 2005 02:36:35 GMT, Daniel Silevitch <dmsilev@uchicago.edu> wrote:
> On Tue, 13 Sep 2005 01:53:39 GMT, OcTavO <octisback@NOSPAMearthlink.net> wrote:
>> Sure! sorry I was vague. Currency is $300 US. By recreational I mean your
>> basic vacation shots, family get togethers etc. By serious, I mean that I
>> occasionally go out alone to shoot things a little more planned and
>> artistically, be it animals, landscapes, sunsets, people etc. (though I
>> don't see myself needing high speed sports shots or too much night
>> shooting). These images I would prefer to have rich colors, reasonable
>> contrast, and perhaps be printable up to 8x10" or so... Previously I have
>> used a Nikon F50 35mm SLR and had wonderful results, but now I just want
>> something smaller and digital. This will be my first digital camera, which
>> is why I'm so naive about them
>
> Something like the Panasonic LZ2 might be a good fit for you. 5
> megapixels, 6X optical zoom, street price in the $250-300 range.
>
> http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasoniclz2/

Should mention that I picked that one mainly because you said that a
decent zoom would be useful for you; it's one of the few models
that offers a reasonably long lens (220 mm in this case) in the price
bracket you mention. If you don't mind settling for a 3x optical zoom
range, there's a large number of models to chose from.

-dms

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Having been down this same road a year ago, my pennyworth is this :
1 You will have to allow much more money for additionals than you ever
did with a film camera. Digitals don't normally come with a case; you will
need two sets of rechargeable batteries and a charger (include car charging
as a capability !) and then you will several memory cards probably 256K for
a point and shoot (nominally 1M per photo) - you will take many more shots
so 200 + photos on a trip is nothing. And then you'll need another bag to
put this all in !

2 I lasted almost exactly one year before my frustration with a P & S (
Canon A80 so it was a reasonable one) was solved by getting a DSLR - I feel
so much more comfortable going back to really seeing what I'm taking.

Best of luck

Rob


"<RJ>" <baranick@localnet.com> wrote in message
news:5rmci1t323qpnvh4ul47r5jnl7cpf5um44@4ax.com...
>
> Take a look at the ( new ) KODAK CD33 camera.
>
> 3.1 mp, zoom, etc. for a budget-busting $129.
>
> Looks like it's got all the features you'd want,
> with enough $$$ left over to budget
> memory cards, nimh batterys/charger, case, etc. etc.
> ( maybe even a huge tripod )
>
> Seriously...
> You can't beat the price/feature ratio.
> And it may be all the camera you'll need.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, 13 Sep 2005 01:13:57 GMT, "OcTavO" <octisback@NOSPAMearthlink.net>
> wrote:
>
> >Dear all,
> >I apologize if this isn't the correct newsgroup for this question. I am
> >wondering what digital camera you would recommend with the following
rough
> >specs. I am kind of overwhelmed with the choice out there...
> >
> >My Budget:$300
> >Expected Use: general recreational pics, and the occasional more serious
> >photograph.
> >Zoom: a good optical zoom (I like to shoot things candidly from further
> >away)
> >Size: small but *not* tiny, something I could squeeze comfortably into a
> >pocket would be great. Those credit card sized camera are too tiny for my
> >fingers.
> >
> >That's it. I don't care much about shooting modes or gimmicks, I just
want a
> >no nonsense $300 camera with a reasonable zoom and maybe a flash. Any
> >recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
> >
> >
> >
>
> <rj>