Try again…
Anyone here have digital cameras? Which ones do you prefer and why? What is an acceptable price to pay for one? Are memory sticks really all that? Anyone boycotting Xcam because of their stupid pop-up campaign?
Shoot, just lost a big post. I’ll try to recreate it.
Without saying what your needs are there’s no way to recommend a camera. What do you intend to do with the camera? If it’s just for online pix or printing out 5x7s, then 2 megapixels would be fine. If you want to make 8x10s then you’ll be happier with 3 mp or higher. Xcam makes web cams, they are effectively toys in comparison to a real digital camera.
I like Olympus and Nikon, but Fuji and Canon make nice cameras as well.
The three main types of memory, in order of cost/meg are CompactFlash, SmartMedia, and Memory Sticks. Sony is the only one using or making Memory Sticks. CF is the most widely used, but SM is used in a lot of other digital devices.
I prefer AA batteries, and you’ll need NiMH rechargables. Some cameras use custom rechargables, they are more expensive and difficult to find, and you can’t stop at any random store to pick up AAs in an emergency.
Optical zooms are important if you want to take more than snapshots, but they cost money and steal light. Digital zoom is useless, ignore it completely. Movie mode can be nice for some cute online movies, but they are nothing like a video camera, very low quality video.
Visit http://www.dcresource.com for reviews of every digital camera on the market and some very knowledgable people.
I got a Kodak 2.1 megapixel about 2 years back. All I can say is they are worth their weight in gold. I haven’t kept up with all the new models, but I will wholeheartedly agree with Telemark said.
I’ve had an HP 315 for about a year now. It uses a Compact Flash card for storage. I use regular alkaline batteries. Transferring the pix to my computer is a breeze. I went to a car show and shot over 200 pix and still had plenty of battery power left. You get three levels of detail. I used the low end and the pictures still came out quite well. At that resolution, you can get decent 3x5 prints. It all depends on what type of photography you want to do. For point & shoot stuff, most any name brand will do. You can go nuts and spend thousands of dollars, of course.
Thanks for the link. The camera will be used for taking photos of gels at our lab, but will be expanded to other areas once we finish moving here.
I bought a Nikon Cooplix 950 three years ago. It was expensive, but it has proved its worth many times over. I use it for fun/social purposes, but I also use it to take all of the photos for my website and the books I publish, and I’ve only ever heard praise for the results. It seems to do everything I could ever want.
It is essential to have rechargeable batteries, and to have some sort of photo tweaking software (e.g. PhotoShop lite edition) to modify the results until you’re happy with them.
I got a couple digital cameras & along with them I got a compact flash reader & a Smedia reader too. Thing is
of those four, only one of them consistently works with the computer. Thats the Fuji FinePix &
it works well. More opinions on cameras eopinions.com & amazon.com lets people talk about them too.
I’m not exactly sure what gels are, but if you are looking to take close up photos the Nikons win hands down. No other camera comes close to the up close work you can do with the 995 or 950.
I always use a card reader as opposed to plugging the camera into the computer. It cost $20 and will make you life much simpler, especially if you have multiple memory cards.
Very good info here.
I have an Olympus E-10 that i picked up last year for about $1500. It’s pretty expensive, but it takes fine pictures (4.1 mega-pixels) and has 4x optical zoom. You can jack it right into the USB port on your computer for easy downloading. It will take both SmartMedia and CompactFlash cards simultaneously. With 128MB SM or CF card i can get 45 photos at the highest j-peg resolution.
If you are looking for something a little more high-end, Nikon is set to release its new 6.6 mega-pixel D-100. This should retail at about $2000 in the US and will accept F-mount lenses (so that nice 80-200 f2.0 you bought for your N-90 will work just fine).
If you’re not ready for something quite so expensive, the above mentioned Nikon’s and the ‘point and shoot’ Olympus’ cameras in the 3 mega-pixel range are very nice.
For another good source of info try: http://www.dpreview.com
As folks have said it kinda depends on what you want to do with it. There are some great options out there (Nikon Cooplix and Canon G2 come to mind as well as many others too) and some fantastic ones on the horizon (Foveon X3)
I had a Coolpix 800 that I recently traded up to a 990.
This is easily one of the most flexible cameras out there. It has a great range from point and shoot to near complete control. The twist design allows you to take photos where others cannot (above your head, waist level, and ground level).
Nikon just announced their newest in this line the 4500 and it is making me drool. Also that means that the last model (995 - one of the best values for the buck out there) should be coming even further down in price.
Another great resource is DPReview fantastic in depth reviews, great forums, and a side-by-side comparison tool to assist you in narrowing down your choices.
I just picked up a Canon Powershot S200 ELPH today. It’s really small, which is why I got it. I’ve been pretty happy with it over the five hours and 10 minutes I’ve owned it now.
A few months ago I read that there’s a major technology on the horizon that will supposedly offer quality equal to $1000+ 35mm cameras, but at the same production cost of today’s 2-3 MP digital cameras. (Sorry, I don’t have a link.) You might want to get a fairly low-end camera now, if you can’t wait until this improvement is available.
What a coincidence, I was looking at purchasing the very same camera just today. Let me know how you like it over the next few days; I’ve decided to sleep on it before I plunk down the cash.
I have the Nikon 990. I would not recommend the 995. Not quite as flexible, and the pop up flash is really annoying. The 4500 that CheapBastid mentioned is supposed to be fantastic, almost up to the level of the D-1 and other professional cameras. But I can’t justify picking one up, since I have only had the 990 for a year. 
I have a Kodak DC 215 that I won in a sweepstakes two years ago. It was worth about $400 at the time. I think that’s probably more than I would have paid if I’d had to buy it.
I did buy several accessories for it, including a Viking compact flash memory card which hold a lot more pictures than the 4MB card it came with. Very nice camera for the amateur, but I am sure there are many others that the pros would prefer.
There’s a tiny camera at www.sipix.com.
I haven’t seen the Xcam pop up ads in months. Lucky me. 
I’m not sure how large gels are, but I’ve been using a Canon G1 in my lab for photographing various components and it’s worked well. The macro capability isn’t very good, but they sell an adapter for mounting standard filters so I mount a close-up lens on it when photographing small objects. You can do that with many camers but not all, so check before buying. The trick with lab photography is to not use the built-in flash. If you do, you get all sorts of nasty reflections and you get no shadows. Instead use a bright light (desk lamp will do). And most importantly, use a tripod. A nice sturdy tripod. Don’t skimp on this, trust me.
For everyday snapshots I use a Nikon 2500, which is much more compact and portable than my G1. The image quality is very disappointing though, definitely not up to the standards of their high end models. (It’s not just the lower pixel count - the color reproduction and exposure control seem to be poor and inconsistent, which is very surprising coming from Nikon.)
I sell on eBay so all I need are pictures that are of acceptable quality to post on the web and send to friends. I see all the really cool cameras out there (I love the look of the Nikon CoolPix 850 and the Fuji FinePix 2800) and go “ooooh pretty”, but really all I need is a 1-2 megapixel camera. In my experience it’s really easy to get carried away with all the bells and whistles of the more expensive models without actually asking yourself what you need in a camera.
I used the Kodak DC215 for ages and found it a nifty little camera. I’m on the verge of paying for a Fujifilm MX-1200 camera from eBay (around $130 USD and it came with two 32mb smartmedia cards and a card reader).
If you check the dcresource link (it’s somewhere up there … I’m too lazy to scroll up! :p) there’s a buyer guide for cameras where you tick the features that you would like - high resolution, macro, etc. - and they tell you which cameras are best suited to your needs.
I have the Olympus C-700 and it has been great for me. It features a 10X optical zoom for a very reasonable ($450) price. It doesn’t sound like you terribly need that much zoom, but dammit, I’ve become enough of a photography geek that I’ve developed an insatiable need to talk about my camera’s specs.
Not quite true - Samsung are now using Sony Memory Sticks too.
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/news/corporate/com_news_996803050343_001200.html
Well, I caved and bought the camera. Should arrive in a week or so. Amazon had a deal going on I thought was decent: the camera, free shipping, plus a free 32 MB card or $30 off a 128 or 256 MB card. I will become a picture-takin’ fool.