Recommend me a decent digital camera for a non-technical older couple

In My Humble Opinion
1

My in-laws are going to give a digital camera to my grandfather-in-law for Christmas. My GIL and his wife will not be taking professional photos or anything – mostly candid pictures of family members or friends at various gatherings. My in-laws have asked me for advice, but I don’t have a lot of specific knowledge about digital cameras (though as a former graphic designer, I can follow the lingo regarding pixels, etc.).

Here are the factors I’d like to weigh:

PRICE - Not going for the rock-bottom cheapest, but don’t need to pay for all the unecessary bells and whistles, either. Moderately cheap with good quality is the goal here.

COMPLEXITY - Some models save photos to a regular ol’ floppy disk, others use various kinds of memory stick. Since saving gobs and gobs of photos is not a priority, a camera that saves to floppy seems preferable. (Sorry, I have no specific information about my GIL’s computer viz-a-viz compatability with any memory stick system).

PIXELS - Mega-large photos are not a necessity. Big enough to make 1280 x 1024 wallpaper will be sufficient. That’s roughly 1.3 megapixels … maybe a 2 megapixel camera would be a little better, becasue they’d like to print semi-decent photos to photo paper.

RELIABILITY - I assume 9 out of 10 random models of digitial cameras are reasonably reliable with light use. I just want to avoid any known duds.

…

OK, Dopers … I know you folks can come through! Thanks in advance for your ideas and advice!

2

On the basic setting, the Canon Powershot line is just point-and-shoot, without much to fiddle with. I own the S20, and it’s been money well-spent (downsides; the flash is a little underpowered and it’s limited to 2x zoom only, but that’s the tradeoff of a very solid compact camera that you can throw in a coat pocket with no worreis). With the power kit (rechargeable batteries are a must) and a decent amount of memory, it does start getting above the mid-range price, though.

Rather than a disk-based model, I’d really recommend spending extra to get either large-capacity flash, 256 meg plus. I’ve got one of the 370 meg IBM microdrives (those are larger capacities these days, too), which is basically a CompactFlash-sized hard drive right in the camera. This spares them from having to fumble with extra disks or whatnot. I’ve heard the microdrives are less reliable than the flash cards, but mine’s had no problems in coming up on two years now. They do suck power at a higher rate, though, which makes rechargeable batteries even more of a necessity.

3

Stay away from the floppy model cameras. Sony was the only one who made them IIRC, and they’ve stopped now anyways. Horrible quality, huge cameras, many tradeoffs.

Any simple P&S from Olympus, Canon, Fuji, Sony, or Nikon would do you fine. Most have USB ports and cables, so if their computer has USB just plug the cable from the camera to the computer and it looks like an extra disk. Just drag-to-copy.

1 MP is the bottom end of the market right now. It’s good enough for web use, emailing small photos, etc. 2MP makes the images much more useful, both online and in print. You’re probably correct that they wouldn’t benefit much from a larger camera.

Digital zoom is useless, ignore that figure. Optical zoom is the only thing that counts. Many basic cameras come with at 3x optical zoom, you save money if you go for a fixed lens.

Memory Stick is a Sony format. The other two in main use are Compact Flash (the industry leader) and SmartMedia. Frankly, it doesn’t matter much what you choose, though CF has the lowest cost and the highest capacity. When you buy the camera you’ll need to get a bigger card, I use at least a 128meg, you might be able to get by with 64meg. If they take a lot of photos, 256 might be nice, but that’s several hundred shots.

Rechargable batteries are a must. I think AAs are your best bet, cheapest and you can always use Alkalines as a backup. Some cameras use propriety batteries, which isn’t always the easiest thing to deal with. Regular alkylines die extremely quickly, you’ll need NiMH rechargables and a charger, figure that into the cost.

For printing, I really like the Epson Stylus Photo line. No other consumer printer comes close to the quality at the price. Printing however isn’t a simple operation for the non-technical. You can bring the memory cards to photo shops and they can print them for you with no muss and fuss.

-dave-

4

Drastic, Telemark, thanks for your advice.

Any other opinions?

5

Are they going to be printing out the pictures, or just emailing them? If it will only be emailing, the floppy cameras from Sony are fine. They are so easy to use, and if that’s what you are looking for, there you go. You do not need a lot of pixels for posting on the web or emailing.

Floppy cameras work on any computer with a floppy drive, and no special software is required to transfer pictures. Many people have problems figuring out to hook up cables and readers to get photos from camera to computer, anyone can stick a floppy in and retrieve pictures.

Sony batteries rock - they are more expensive initially (but the camera should come with a battery and charger) but in the long run, what would you rather do. shoot for hours (and sometimes days) on one charge, or replace AA’s after 20 pictures?

I am still happy with my Sony Mavica, even after I got a new 4.1 megapixel DSC-S85, I still hold onto my floppy camera. It is so easy to use, and for web and email it is perfectly fine. I can even print out 4" x 6" prints that you can’t tell from regular camera prints, at 8" x 10" it still looks good to all but the most discriminating eye.

6

Thanks, Boscibo.

:slight_smile:

7

I am in favour of the floppy disk cameras. Mine is a Sony Mavica MVC-FD71. My folks loved it for its simplicity and went looking for one. They chose one with more bells and whistles than mine but are completely happy with it. They aren’t too expensive, and the disk can be used in any computer.

The deal with the memory cards/sticks is that they tend to be very fragile - in my experience anyway. Also, when you run out of room, unless you have several extras, you can be up a creek. Whereas, with the floppy disks, you can just buy them anywhere (and much cheaper).

8

I’ve had SmartMedia cards for several years, all are still in use with no problems. Memory is so cheap these days, I got a 128 meg SM card for $40, that’s good for 200 HQ shots on my camera. CF is even cheaper. MemoryStick is slightly more expensive.

I still don’t like the quality issues with the Mavicas, I think you get much better quality images with other cameras, and the camera size was a big turn off to me. A USB card reader might solve the simplicity problem. Just treat the card as a floppy, pull it out of the camera and stick in the card reader, looks just like a disk and has much higher transfer speeds than a floppy. If you take 100’s of shots in a weekend, like I often do, floppies would become unmanagable.

Still, pretty much any camera out there will give good enough quality for web use and 4x6 prints. If their computer has a USB port, the newer cameras can just plug in and look like a disk. One big memory card and some rechargable batteries and you’re all set.

9

I need to find out whether my GIL’s computer has a USB port or not. That will make a difference. No one in the family may feel comfortable installing a card reader. Hopefully, there will be no cards to install internally or anything like that.

BTW, Washte - the Sony Mavica is the only digital camera I have ever used. I didn’t find it too big at all (but have never used another digital camera for comparison) and was satisfied with the photo quality.

10

As I said, for web and 4x6 snapshot use, I don’t think you’ll notice any quality difference from the floppy cameras. The reason they have lower quality images (IMO) is that they need to compress the jpgs so much to fit enough on the tiny (1.4 meg floppy) that you can see the compression effects. With memory card storage you don’t have to push the compression so much.

To install a USB cardreader you need to plug the cardreader into the USB port. That’s it. Pull the card out of the camera and put it in the card reader and it looks like a disk. This works on Windows 2000 and XP, and I believe 98. It won’t work on Windows NT but if the folks aren’t technical I doubt they’ll be running that.

If the camera has a USB port you can just cable it directly to the computer’s USB port and it works the exact same way. The images appear to be on a disk mounted on your computer.

There’s also the fact that once the images on the computer it really helps if you can crop, resize, and rotate the images, which will require the ability to use another software program. If they are really technophobes this might be a bigger issue than getting the images on the computer. Printing well is an even larger issues.

Good luck. You can see reviews of all the cameras on the market at http://www.dcresource.com and http://www.dpreview.com, both are excellent sources of information.

11

I’ve got the Olympus D-380. It’s simple to use, just like a 35 mm with a few more bells & whistles. Quality of the pictures is great. It cost about $250.

12

bordelond, exactly how non-technical is your grandfather-in-law?
If he’s as bad as my mother*, go for one that uses a floppy for storage. If you think he’s capable, go for one that uses memory cards of some kind.

Kal

*[hijack]My mother can just about use a tv remote to change the channel and adjust the volume. After almost 20 years of owning various VCRs she still does not understand the concept of being able to record one channel while watching another and sits there with a look of panic on her face in case turning the tv channel over screws up her taping. Every time she has ever taped anything I have to explain what to do.

Last Christmas she decided to get herself a cellphone. It gets very irritating to call her and listen to her press buttons for 10 minutes because she doesn’t realise that the reason it stopped ringing is because she answered the damn thing. When she has eventually registered that a voice was coming from the phone and then had a conversation with you, it’s kinda fun to listen to her taking 2 minutes to find the button that hangs up. Don’t ask how she copes with text messaging.

Actually, if your grandfather-in-law is as bad as my mother, don’t get him a camera at all - get him wax crayons, a pad of paper and tell him to draw pictures of the family. It will save you years of frustration, trust me.[/hijack]

13

Here’s some samples from my Kodak EasyShare CX4200.

These pics have been cropped.

The top two are from about 20 feet away from the stage, maybe 30 feet from Mr. Tyler, taken at medium res. The other three are taken from the lawn seating at hi res. Take from it what you will… the amphitheater is about average size. The last picture I printed out as an 8x10, and it looks great. Very little pixellation, if any… it was a hi-res pic.

http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/jjtm/newgallery/AerosmithCV.html

I have more samples if you want to see them.

It’s really a very simple setup, a bit of installation, and a quick upload from the camera.

14

Kal - At least your mother tries to tape stuff. Mine will call me and ask me to tape things for her, because she’s never managed to figure that part out. /hijack

StG

15

I work at a computer manufacturing company in the Midwest known for its cow-spotted boxes. We see several digital cameras come through here for evaluation, to determine whether we’ll offer them for sale through our retail outlets (yes, we have pretty strict usability and compatibility guidelines). We use digital photography in all our documentation, and at home I use exclusively digital cameras.

Bottom line: For what you describe, actually a 1.3 megapixel camera would be plenty dandy. If I were a salesman, I’d be telling you what bells & whistles you need, and what resolution is really “best.” But for what you describe, something small & easy to use is fine. Canon, Kodak, Olympus all offer cheap models w/built-in flash for way under $200. They take AA batteries, and are usually smaller than their film counterparts.

All of their OSD (on-screen displays) are pretty functional, no real surprises anywhere. Make sure you get a camera with an LCD screen on the back, and a conventional see-through viewfinder (for bright conditions). With outdoor lighting, 1.3 megapixel shots look absolutely fantastic at 4x6 print size when printed at Ofoto or Snapfish photo services. The photos are much less grainy than 200 speed film, unless taken in low light, where they become pretty grainy (just like any high-speed film would). We use them for all our family snapshots, and it’s been a boon to our scrapbooks, because we’re not worrying any more about whether we’re “wasting film.”

As to the preference for floppy diskettes, I’d avoid them. They are a mechanically moving object prone to failure, and have a limited capacity. For a 1.3 megapixel photo, coming in at roughly 850 K, you’d need to swap out a diskette for each photo. The newer Mavicas use recordable CDs, but they are much larger and heavier than other cameras. The ease of “just popping out a diskette or CD and plugging it right into your computer” really isn’t any benefit over the ease of just “plugging your camera into your computer,” especially when the USB connector cable can be left connected into the computer–one connection each time you download photos.

Which brings up the other issue about storage capacity–the advantage in having a large memory card (say, 128 MB or 250 MB) is how infrequently you have to download the photos onto your computer. With our 1.3 megapixel camera and a 128 MB card, we can take about 150 photos(!) before needing to download.

And, of course, the digitally cleaning up of photos is fun (before printing them).

My 2 cents.

16

Yes, 1.3 megapixel should be fine for them, I use that myself with a Fuji 1.3 megapixel camera (Should be some on ebay). You don’t want one thats too small…its tricky to hold. Also, LCD display is pretty worthless in bright light like outside.

Biggest issue I found when I gave cameras to older people was they would put their finger in front of the camera lens…

17

I have my eye on that for a Christmas present for a 14 year old. It is now down to $180 at Best Buy, buy.com and several others.

18

bordelond, be sure they have a computer with USB ports too, that’s how they usually transfer photos.