It seems that there are a wide range of digital cameras that may be decent in the $300 or below market, now, but I’m not knowledgable enough to know how good they really are.
What’s the best general use camera you can get for under $300? Or, ideally, under $250? I’m not a photographer so I don’t need all sorts of fancy control knobs - something with nice automatic features or perhaps some presets would be fine.
I doubt I’d need anything beyond 3.2mp (which seems to be the standard for $200-300 cameras), and I’d probably be fine with a 2 MP camera if it took quality shots.
I just need something basic that produces good pictures indoors and outdoors and is pretty simple to operate. Your experiences?
Overall: really, the technology and prices are outstanding now. The cameras are relatively cheap and very powerful, and there’s a wide selection to choose from.
Things to think about:
Is form factor important? Do you need a teeny weenie camera that fits in your pocket? Or a larger camera with a better lens or more memory or battery or larger LCD?
Do you want a hyper zoom lens?
Do you care about being able to shoot computer-playable movies with the camera? (this is useful if you have kids and want to send small vids to Gramma.)
Factor in the cost of a memory card for the camera. This isn’t a very significent cost, but it definitely adds to your $300 bottom line.
Ditto the cost of batteries and a recharger.
Also check out the vast assortment of memory card incompatibilities. This is a quagmire of sorts. I was stuck in Sony memory-stick-hell for a while, now I use CF and am quite happier.
I’ve had good experiences with Sony (but see my memory stick comment above) and Canon digis. But really almost any brand is good in your price range. These days I’d stick with a maker that makes ‘real’ cameras, not an electronics manufacturer, but I’ve gotten pickier/snootier in my digi needs.
FWIW, my brother-in-law, with shopping advice from me, bought this camera a few months ago, and is quite pleased with it. 3.2mp, very compact, nice grip, adequate LCD, marginal viewfinder (but average for this class), even makes little movies for Gramma. About $250 street price, add ~$50-$75 for memory + Nimh batteries+charger.
What Squeegee said, a Canon A70. I have had one for 9 months now. Great set of features that you can happily ignore and just shoot away. Mine needed factory repair after three months and this is the only negative thing I can say. The video movies are surprisingly good.
This is so cool. I was going to ask the exact same question. Staples, Circuit City and CompUSA all have the A70 for $299. You can get it cheaper online. Look at www.pricegrabber.com. I’d like to hear some more opinions but I’ll probably pick up one of these pups tomorrow.
Or the A70s kid brother, the 2mp A60 may be what you want if resolution is not crucial. Street price about $180. Again, add $50-75 for batteries and a memory card.
On the other hand: shop around. The Canon cameras are great, but there are probably half a dozen models from other makers comparable to both the A60 and A70. Browse the sites I posted above and look at the comparable features and prices. There’s a very good selection in your price range right now, it’s really hard to go wrong if you stick with a good maker. Buy online if you’re comfortable with that.
One more satisfied Canon A70 owner checking in! I bought mine from a New York-based camera supply website called Butterfly Photo, who came highly recommended to me by a professional photographer friend. I am no kind of professional, so the A70 is absolutely perfect for my needs (replacing a film camera for everyday snapshots, plus taking pictures of stuff to sell on eBay). Plus, it is relatively small compared to similar models, and you’ll want a smaller camera so you’re more likely to carry it with you everywhere.
I’m no expert, but I’ve got a Kodak EasyShare CX4300 that I’ve had for about six months, and for the price I’m perfectly happy. The zoom leaves something to be desired; it’s either no-zoom or 2X-zoom, with no in-between, but I’ve learned to maneuver around the limitations. You can see a sampling of the shots I’ve taken with it here.
I’ll recommend what many already have: the Canon Powershot A70, although I think it’s slightly above your budget (if you take into account that you’ll have to upgrade the memory card from the 16mb one already included), it’s still a worthwhile investment. It’s an entry-level camera but it allows the more advanced users freedom to play around with their own settings and the results are fantastic and reliable for a 3.2mp camera. Pretty much all the review sites have given this camera high marks, in particular highlighting that in terms of value for money, the A70 is tops.
It’s a bit on the heavy side (it uses four AAs), but it’s easy to hold and the batteries tend to last forever.
But make sure you combine our opinions with some online research (http://www.dpreview.com is a good site).
I went with the Pentax Optio S, a super-compact 3.2MP camera with a 3x optical zoom lens. You can get a package deal from WalMart-online for $300 that includes a 128mb card.
I was really hot on having an optical zoom, 3+MP, and an extremely small size, the Optio S was the only one I saw with all three. If size is important to you, this is a nice option, the camera can fit inside an altoids tin!
Are there cameras that have a very short flash delay? It’s maddening to see moment after moment slip by because the delay between click and shoot is seconds.
It’s pretty reasonable in natural light, but indoors, you can’t take very many shots in a row, nor time them well.
I have a Canon A20 that I am very pleased with - anything in the Canon line would probably be good. Capt. Caustic does mention the flash delay problem which exists with digital cameras, though - on the more expensive models you’ll see less of that, but I still think the best flash photography is done with a good old fashioned 35 mm.
-2MP
-12x (!) Optical zoom LEICA lens (!) with image stabilization. This alone makes it worth the price.
-You can upgrade it to an FZ2 with a downloadable firmware upgrade. This adds manual aperture and shutter modes and a few other features.
I recommend you the Kodak DX6340, I’m thinking about buy one in a couple weeks, it has 3mp, 4x optical zoom, also has some manual settings. The most important feature (at least for me) is the possibility of using lenses adapters (a better macro, extra optical zoom and wide angle).
How about a Fuji Finepix. Here is the 3 MP Fiji S3000 that is a very nice camera with 6X optical zoom. It is a larger camera but it takes a great picture. I have the 2 MP Fuji 2800 and it is a fine camera.
There is another option, the Kyocera Finecam L3v3MP, its more important feature is a big (the biggest i’ve seen) screen, other important thing is that the shutter can remain opened fo 8 seconds.
I got mine for $309 online. Can’t remember the site. That was around Christmas time, and I was under the impression that prices were falling because they introduced a new model (FZ-10) which kinda replaces it, although it’s around 200-300 dollars more.
(Drawback: it only comes with an 8MB memory card which is basically useless, so with the added cost of a card, it’s not really a $300 camera, I guess. Still very much worth a look, and I think the best bang-for-the-buck camera you can buy.)
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