wife needs/wants a new camera since hers broke. my mom gave hers to my wife to pacify her for me until christmas. the problem is that i know zero to nill about cameras. $350-400 is what i want to spend...digital preferred if i can get a good one for that price.
later, dustin

 

I have been very happy with my Sony digital. Easy to use and several nice features.

Mine is 2 years old, so I am sure the model numbers have changed, but you should be able to get a nice one for under $400. Keep a little left over in the budget for extra batteries, a larger memory card, and such.

Depending on what comes with your camera, the standard card may only hold 20 pictures or so. I have a couple of cards that hold over 100 pictures each, but they will cost 50 bucks or more each.

 

what are some of the #'s to look for, such as megapixles, zoom, etc...
later, dustin

 

I would get 3 megapixels or higher. All the zooms are very similar until you get into the big buck cameras. I also like to get as large of a viewing screen as I can.

 

Kodak DX6490- 10X optical and 3x digital zoom- 4MP
Can get at Wal Mart for under 400. Makes good mpegs w/ audio also.
Great camera.

 

Kodak 3.1 megapixel here. Model #DX6340.

~$290.

Extra battery, 256MB Secure Digital Card, and the Transfer\Charging Base

~$150

We use it every day to take pictures of machinery and such. The pics in my Gallery were taken by it on the "Good" setting (there are two better settings left, but aren't good for e-mailing pictures to farmers using dial-up )

Really easy to use, even dad can use it , too bad he won't .

Good Luck,
Chris

 

Just bought my wife a Canon A-95 last month. Excellent camera, easy to use, 5.0Megapixel. The A-95 is 4.0 and the A-75 is 3.2 meg. All use the compact flash card which is the cheapest. 512mb for $45 -$55 on sale. Buy rechargeable AA's, the good ones and use throwaways in a bind. Very, Very, Very user friendly. Have used an A-70 (pre A-75) at work to take hundreds of pictures, maybe thousands. Did a lot of research at .www.dpreview.com and looked at a million cameras at shops. The Canon is always a highly recommended. You can get an A-85 with rechargeable battery's, case, and extra 512mb card for around $400 at about any of the big places. Staples, Best Buy, Circuit City, Etc., etc., Did I say it was user friendly, also a very comfortable grip and is built very solid. Good luck and enjoy.

 

check out cnet.com i usally go there and see what is hot at the time and their price guide is great. checks 20 or so different places at once. there reviews are pretty good also.

 

Can you guys see the viewing screens outdoors in the sunlight? We have a cheapo-WallyMart digital, and my bigest gripe about it is seeing the screen outdoors. Just wondering if the more expensive ones are easier to see??? If you can see your screen outdoors, what brand/model do you have? I am thinking it is time to update.

Thanks...
Steve

 

I just got a Sony 5.1megapixel for $350 2" screen took it on my honeymoon to Maui works great got it at Circuit City and also bought a HP ALL in ONE printer for $200 and they gave us a $50 rebate for buying it and the camera sweet deal printer has a scanner, photo copier, picture printer,and its a regular printer

 

A problem I see routinely is that someone gets a digital camera but they don't know squat about using a computer. Also, people who use a digital camera, and those who they share their photos with, should be willing to work with CD's rather than printed photos. I just returned from a four week trip where I took about 400 pictures. I burned them on CD's and handed them out to family members who wanted them. Some looked at me kinda funny when I handed the CD to them and I doubt that they have looked at the pictures yet. Dang if I'm gonna print out pictures just for them!

 

Most of the viewing screens are hard to see in daylight. I saw an article in "Outdoor Photography" magazine recently about sun shields that attach to the camera and shield the screen from the sun. According to the article they work pretty good. I usually use the viewfinder and then shade the screen to look at the picture I took.

 

I have the Sony DSC-F828 it is 8.4 megapixel and takes both compact flash and memory stick. With a 1 gig memory, I can get over 700 pictures on it, I also have a 2 gigabyte microdrive for it. It has Zeiss lens and NiteShot so you can take pictures in total darkness. If you don't want to spend a lot of money, Sony P-10 is also a good camera. I have had Nikon's and Kodak's and I like the sony's best. Also lower end cameras use AA batteries and eat them up. Middle of the road have a rechargable Lithium Ion cell. Compact Flash is the cheapest, Fry's usually has them on sale weekley. I ALWAYS get a extended warranty, they always break. Try checking this site at least to look. //www.outpost.com Good luck. Jim.

 

I have a Sony DSCP 52....
Works great, simple to operate. Great little camera for simple basic photography....

I'd like to get one similar to Jims above me there... That's a very nice camera.

 

Do I even want to know what that bad boy costs?? Sounds like a great camera.