Benevolent and knowledgeable Dopers, I beg your eyes, your minds, and your experience for a moment.
Next week I’m going to Arizona (Camp Navajo, near Flagstaff) to examine some equipment. It occurs to me that it would be a champion idea to bring a camera to photograph the equipment since I’ll be all on my lonesome, without a second opinion. However, my company–one of those big aerospace companies that is known by the last names of two or three pasty-faced dead guys and is composed of lots of other companies that used to be known by the last names of two or three other dead guys–is too cheap to provide equipment for this type of use. (But they’ll spend hundreds of thousands of dollars flying my boss across the country to attend two hour long meetings of no import whatsoever. Go figure.)
So, I’ve decided to purchase a digital camera on my own. I don’t a camera right now–'cepta couple of disposibles that are half used and probably beyond expiration–and am not particularly knowledgeable about cameras, though I do know a little about optics.
A few questions/requirements:
[ul]
[li]Price range of up to $500 or so,[/li][li]High resolution/contrast/saturation/quality,[/li][li]To be used in low-light conditions,[/li][li]I would like to buy an enclosure and strobe to use underwater, perhaps,[/li][li]Will be used in cold, cold weather. Is this a problem?[/li][li]Simple data transfer format; CompactFlash, SmartMedia or the like. Is there a format you’d recommend over the others, and if so, why? [/li][li]Any references you’d recommend? I’ve checked out photo.net and Philip Greenspun’s site, and I don’t have any faith in Consumer Reports on this sort of thing.[/ul][/li]Your recommendations?
I second http://www.dpreview.com/ , and I also heartily recommend the Canon PowerShot A series. I bought an A70 (3.2 megapixels) last year, and it is terrific. Most people agree that they are great all-around digital cameras.
Sony makes marine packs for some of their digital cameras, notably the P-150 and the T1 (maybe T3?). However, these are minicameras with very small lenses and less than powerful flashes, so they may not satisfy your low-light requirements. I suspect very few of the “shirt pocket” cameras will.
Cold, cold weather is a problem in that your battery life will suffer. Digital cameras are generally pretty power hungry. However, you should be able to keep the camera warm in an inner pocket.
You probably want to avoid Smart Media as it seems to have lost out in the competition for flash card formats. But generally, you can get a card reader for any of the flash memory devices out there, so data transfer is no big deal. The only real issues are how much you’re going to pay for a card of any given size and whether your investment in memory cards will get flushed the next time you upgrade to a new camera.
I went to the local camera place on Colorado yesterday afternoon, and left empty-handed due to the “too-cool-to-wait-on-you” attitude of the staff. Then it was on to Ritz Camera, where an attractive young lady demonstrated that she knew absolutely nothing about cameras. Finally, to Best Buy (ugh) where I couldn’t even find a parking space.
So, I’m sure there are more Dopers who want to display their extensive knowledge of photography and digital cameras. Come on, guys. Step up to the plate. You’ve got to be out there. What, do you have lives or something?
Re-reading the OP, I see that he is interested in cold weather operation and could be fitted within an underwater housing - information that CR wouldn’t include. I guess that explains not relying on CR…
CR has come up with a number of recommendations on consumer electronics that just boggle my mind. I don’t know who does their testing on that, but I just don’t give them much credence. Cars, yes. Cameras, nope.
As for housings, you can find watertight housings for virtually any camera, though some are more functional than others. I was worried about cold affecting the CCD chip, but from what I’ve read, this doesn’t seem to be an issue, I guess.
I never thought that the type of media was all that important. I have an Olympus camera that uses SmartMedia and it is the same as anything else. Card readers are stupidly cheap. I got my 9 in 1 card card reader (10 different media formats) for $12 + $2 shipping from NewEgg.com. There are lots of those available. All they do is connect to your USB port and read the card as a drive. If it functions, there is not much room for improvement. As far as I know, the digital quality of the storage media is the same between formats.
I’m in the Canon powershot A camp as is BBVL I have a Nikon DSLR but my Powershot A75 is my everyday camera. Not exotic, it’s just right and does everything well and has a ton of flexibility if you are knoweldgable about photography. You can also get an excellent factory underwater housing.
FWIW SD seems to be taking over in consumer cameras. I’m a compact flash bigot and nothing seems to be able to touch it in pro cameras but some of the newer powershot cams come with SD slots. I got a 1GB SD card for my Palm for $80 which isn’t too bad so it would no longer be a deal breaker for me.
Olympus cameras used to use Smart Media, but now they’ve changed over to xD picture card or compact flash. Here’s dpreview’s spin on the various memory card formats (http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/key=storage%20card) – they’re pretty explicit that Smart Media is a dying format – less reliable, and you can’t get anything bigger than 128MB which in the world of 7-8 megapixel cameras with video mode is just not sufficient.
In the past coupel of months, I have bought two digital cameras - one is a Canon 20d, which is about the best consumer level camera there is, and a Kodak Easyshare, which (at $200) is about the cheapest there is. I’m obsessed with photography (hence the 20D) but the Kodak has utterly blown me away. Its features are very basic, of course, with no bells or whistles (making it easier to use.) It’s a good solid camera which takes good pics over a variety of circumstances. Occasionally I’ll even find I’ll get better results with the Kodak than with the 20d (but only occasionally:))
The thing I like best about this is the cost - it’s significantly cheaper than comparable cameras, easier to use than most of them, and if I drop it while I’m kayaking, I’m only out $200. (When looking at comparable cameras and their prices, I’ve concluded that Kodak must be selling these at a loss, just to enter the market.) I also like how long the battery life it - it uses standard AA (be sure to get good quality rechargeables) and can run all day on a single charge.
I’ve seen several reviews which place it at the same level as the much higher priced powershot. If you’re looking to get your feet wet with digital photography, I can’t recommend this one high enough.
