This one is for my friend Paul, but hey, anyone who's looking for a camera can use it!
For compact digital camera's, which seems to be what you're looking for, the number one thing to do is figure out what it is you want. What's the most important - cost, features, form, function, manual control, movies, picture quality, brand name? There's something for everyone out there.
The next step would be to go to a nice camera store - around Ottawa, not sure where they'd be, where you can pick some up and play with them. That's the only way you'll know how compact a camera you want. The Canon A70, 75, and 80 actually fit quite nicely in the hand, although they sound much bigger. The Elph's look much sleeker, though some people actually find them too small. Then, for those with a fatter wallet, the Canon S60 is coming out, a successor to the very popular S50.
As for objective reviews, you can usually trust Camera shops, or there are a few good review websites. For professional camera's
www.dpreview.com
for most everything else
www.steves-digicams.com
www.dcresource.com
both are fairly good, although their reviews aren't as objective, so may not be as helpful in deciding what you want.
Personally? I'm a big fan of the Canon A75. Relatively cheap (under 400), compact, big LCD, full complement of manual controls, and yet an easy point and shoot. An overall performer. Those looking for fun and some control. I also really like Nikon's and Olympus's, the former having excellent macro (close up) abilities and the latter having their stylish water resistant ultra compact camera's.
The Minolta G400 sounds quite nice, having not looked at it before. In Steve's conclusion, from www.steves-digicams.com, it reads
With its small, stylish body, 4-megapixel imager, impressive shooting performance, high-quality outdoor images, and street price of under $300, the Minolta DiMAGE G400 has a lot to recommend it. If you don't do a lot of indoor flash photography, the G400 would be a fine choice as a travel and outdoor camera. However if your family is like most, a camera will see most of its use for portraits indoors using flash; the limited flash range and poor auto focusing in dim light make the G400 a poor choice for this purpose.
With that in mind, only a little playtime will give you a better idea.
One last note - when buying a camera, you'll also need memory, batteries and a case. For memory, compact flash is the cheapest, and you can get 256 mgs for 50 or less, for SD, slightly more expensive with 256 coming under 65, and memory stick being comparable to SD cards now.
Enjoy Paul, and looking forward to comments.
Nicholas
1 comment:
Heh, yeah, I have been reading a lot of articles from Steve's Digicams, and also checking out other reviews around the 'net. My only problem with the Minolta is that I would want to take lots of indoor shots, say, at parties! The Canon A75, A80, etc, sound great - but they aren't pocket-sized! Unlike some people *wink wink*, I don't carry a backpack everywhere I go, and they sound a bit too hefty. I looked at one in a local camera store, and they're just a bit too big I think; I just wouldn't use it because it's a pain to carry. The Canon A80 would be my first choice if I took everything but size into account.
Hmm. I'm just not sure. I'll check out the Nikon cameras too, but the Canons seem to be dominating the reviews I've been reading. 4 megapixel cameras at roughly $400 are what I'm set on right now. At the end of the month when I get my paycheck, that's when I'll decide for sure and get one. I haven't seen the Digital Elphs at any store I've been in yet, I'll keep looking. I won't really know until I have one in my hand. You might be right - my fat hands might not handle them so well. ;)
On a side note, I bought an ATI All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro for $350 from FutureShop. It's wicked! There are better video cards out there but until I upgrade my motherboard and CPU, I won't need one - the CPU is definitely the bottleneck right now. In any case, the card is amazing. I just go to the settings, turn everything on I possibly can (including fullscreen anti-aliasing), then play just about any game at 60 fps. The remote that comes with it is cool too - I can control just about any application with it (WinAmp works really well).
I'm also planning to buy a rear-projection HDTV! Phew! I'm broke, but they tell me I don't have to pay for a year. :)
I'm looking at tvs 46-53", namely the offerings around $2000-2500 from Hitachi, Toshiba, and Panasonic, in order of preference.
Well, I'll catch ya later! Hope your summer is kicking ass.
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