I want a small, no-fuss, point and shoot digital camera for Christmas.
Santa has asked me for more information–Santa has a budget which is flexible, but not huge, and reserves the right to choose not to buy me any digital camera at all. Should Santa choose that option, I might consider buying myself a digital camera anyway–I’ve been spoiled by all my friends with digital cameras who have pictures back immediately, while my pictures from August are still on the camera.
Can anyone give me some recommendations as a starting point?
I decided on it for two reasons. First, one of the professional photographers at work suggested that if I had a brand of camera (real camera*, with film) that I liked, to investigate their digital line of cameras. He thought it was better to buy a digital camera from an established camera brand, rather than a camera from an electronics brand that didn’t have a history with cameras.
Second, after reading a bunch of SDMB threads about digital cameras, I followed a link to a site with a lot of digital camera reviews. That was still overwhelming, because all the reviews were written by a professional with A LOT more knowledge and experience than I have, or ever will have. Then, I saw in his review of the Fuji Finepix that he bought this camera for his mother, because she wanted a digital camera that was easy to use, and he wanted a camera that was good enough that he wouldn’t go crazy when he needed to assist his mother.
So in a nutshell, I thought that was a solid foundation – a camera that a professional photographer would purchase for his mother.
It has been great for everything I need a camera for, which is:
taking pictures of my cat
taking pictures on vacation
emailing pictures to my mother
I know it doesn’t make any sense, but I’m sure I will be 90 years old and still calling the kind of cameras with film “real cameras.”
I have a Casio, the 10.1MP model, and I absolutely LOVE it. I have taken some really beautiful pictures with it. It also makes short movies and you can add sound to a picture file too. It’s very small and has a big screen on the back.
The one disadvantage it has, which I guess a lot of the tiny digitals have these days, is that there is no viewfinder: you shoot through the display screen. This is good in that you can sit a camera on your lap and discreetly take pictures (flash off, of course) of a play or event where you don’t want to have a camera in front of your face (you can still see enough to make sure you are getting the general area in the frame); and it’s bad because the viewfinder allows you to use your head to balance the camera.
But I love it and think it has been worth every cent.
Those recommendations are already seriously out of date. The replacements for all those cameras have already been released; and some aren’t improvements.
You should really give us a price range, even a general one.
If you’re looking for a simple P&S with no manual controls, try the Canon SD850. It has excellent image quality, a fine movie mode, Image Stabilization, and enough features to make you happy. It’s very small and pretty tough.
A little bigger, but cheaper and with full manual controls is the Canon A570IS. I think it’s hard to find a better basic camera for this price anywhere. It’s not small enough to slip in your pants pocket, but will easily fit in a jacket pocket.
I just got this one. Actually, I got the pink one which I didn’t realize is more expensive. Hmm, wonder why. Anyway, the camera’s great and I really like the frame. This package, a memory card (came with a USB card reader), and a charger/rechargeable batteries came under $200. Easy to use, large display, point and shoot.
I recently did similar research for a potential Christmas present for Mrs. Giraffe. My final list ended up (from cheapest to most expensive):
Canon SD1000
Canon SD800 IS (last year’s model of the SD870)
Canon SD870 IS
The SD1000 doesn’t have image stabilization which I wanted, so I ended up going with the SD800, which is significantly cheaper than the SD870 with essentially the same features.
I bought an SD800 as well, since I need to have an optical viewfinder, which was dropped on the SD870 in lieu of a 3" LCD. Both of these have a 28mm wide angle lens, which was the feature I was looking for. If that’s not important to you then the SD850 (with the 35-140mm lens) will produce sharper images.
Kodaks really don’t match Canon, Panasonic, Nikon, or Sony for image quality at this point. They have their proponents, but I just don’t like the images they produce. The Kodaks are relatively inexpensive, but IMO you get what you pay for in this case.
The Olympus FE-270 is the perfect beginner’s digital camera, IMHO- We call them “n00b-proof” at work because they’re so easy to use.
They take amazing photos, run on 2x AA batteries (get rechargeables!), and aren’t packed full of useless “features” the average person will never use. They’re also about AUD$150 at the moment, but you’ll still see change from $200 when you include the memory card and batteries.
My 2¢: Find a solid name brand that you like the looks and feel of, and is in your price range. I’ve always maintained that my ability as a photographer will have more of a bearing on my picture quality than minute technical differences. Of course, YMWV.
It’s not bad, but he just picks a single camera from each company so it’s not very good for comparison. For example, the Sony H3 and the Canon SX100 have almost identical specs and both are getting similar reviews. I actually like the Canon better, but he chose to mention the Canon SD850 (which I also really like) so it’s not a great article for comparing models.
I certainly see where you are coming from. And were I actively buying a camera for myself, I’d probably go that route. But Santa–better known as Dad–is shopping, and Dad’s the kind to check out all the reviews on electronics before he makes his choices. Thing is, I don’t even have any idea where to begin to make a choice. And while anything he picks out will probably be fine, assuming it’s in his budget to actually give it to me, I could use a starting place. Telemark,
A Budget is hard, because I honestly don’t know how much my parents are willing/likely to spend on a camera for me. But, my instincts say that ~$250, is probably the upper limit, and I’d kinda prefer something less expensive. (I don’t want to feel guilty if I end up deciding to replace it in 3 to 5 years).
Everyone else, thank you for the links, the suggestions, and I’ll do some investigating of them, just not right this minute.
Look for what I call lifestyle features. I like my Pentax Optio WP mostly by virtue of the fact that it is water proof. Most of my pictures happen on the beach and my skill is usually enough to compensate for whatever shortcomings the camera might have.
Weather proofing, night shot modes, speed of shutter. Those are the features that might make a camera not good, but good for you.