I’m thinking of buying Mrs. Giraffe a digital camera for Christmas. However, I have never used one and have no idea what features are useful, what brands are good, how many megapixels I really need etc. So, I’m looking to Dopers to help me pick out a good one. Tell me about your digital camera experiences, and give me recommendations on what to buy.
I’m pretty tech savvy, just ignorant, so don’t be afraid to use explicit technical details. Or explicit details of any kind, for that matter. 
I have a cheap Kodak digital camera. It’s the DX3600 model. 2.2 megapixel with an 8mb compact flash card. Do yourself a favor and buy a decent one.
I ordered mine last week, about 40 dollars. It is 1.3 megapixel and the size of a box of matches. It shall be for my own entertainment, and nothing more 
I can let you know how it goes. I would suggest however that you get a proper one, if you want an actual camera tho. I am quite partial to the Canon Eos ones (called something with an X in the states?)
Check here for reviews.
Whoops, I should have included digital camera in the marital aids thread. Marital aids: which is the favorite?
End of hijack. Carry on.
Here’s mine, I love it. I actually have 2 digital cameras, the other one is also a Sony - the Mavica FD-91. The 91 is huge, and I wanted a smaller camera to carry around day to day.
I love my DSC-S85, it takes great pictures (4.1 mega pixels) and since I have a Sony Vaio computer with a memory stick reader built in, using the memory stick is as easy as using a floppy.
It also takes short video clips. I never used the video feature until I got my kitten, now I’m taking a lot of cute kitten clips and running them through Windows movie maker (to reduce size from 2+ MB to under a Meg) and posting them on my website.
The camera has automatic and manual features, and lots of choices as far as quality when saving.
In general, any thing over 2.1 megapixels is good, but if you plan on printing a lot of pictures more pixels is better. For web and email you don’t need as much. If I were to buy new, this would be a big deciding factor. I don’t print much, I could get by with less than what I have. Lots of folks thing more pixels = better, but unless you are doing some serious printing I think it is overkill.
Zoom - disregard any claims of digital zoom, you can use software to get the same results. Optical zoom is good, my 91 has 14x, the S85 only has 3x. I miss the zoom on the S85, but I wanted a smaller camera and more zoom = bigger lens.
One thing I really like about the Sony cameras is the Infolithium batteries they use. I can charge my battery and take it out for a full day of shooting. Some cameras you need to change batteries after 15-20 shots, and I think that would suck.
I suggest trying this site for digital camera reviews. At least a good place to start. Lets you do side by side comparisons.
I have a Sony that and my favorite thing about it that it uses a floppy disk as the film. So I don’t need any cables or special software to move the files if the computer has a floppy drive just put the disk in and grab the files.
That said it is better to use a newer floppy. If you use the same one over and over the image dosen’t seem as good and a floppy dosen’t hold that many shots. This is only an issue on vacations when you may not want to have a box of floppy disks in your pocket.
But I agree with JT and you should get a decent one.
Great minds must think alike, FallFast, that’s the link in my post, too.
Funny, my camera gets a good review on that site. I used to have a Fuji and found it to be a much better camera. The menus were easier to use and the camera was designed better, in my opinion.
Great replies, everybody. Please keep the info coming!
Additional info:
I’m willing to spend $400-$500. I have no idea what I can get in this price range. I think my wife would like to be able to take photos of equal (or better) quality to those of a film camera. We would probably do a lot of printing, as well as storage to CD-R (or eventually DVD-R).
More questions:
How many megapixels is required for good photo quality? I’ve been thinking I’d get at least a 4 megapixel camera. Do I need 5 megapixel? Can I even get a 4 megapixel for $500 or less?
How much on-camera storage do I need? Do people usually own multiple memory sticks, and just swap them in and out, or do you just use the one? How big is a single image file (i.e. how many can I expect to fit on an 8 meg memory stick)?
Any recommendations on where to buy? Are there any good online sites?
Thanks for all the help so far.
I bought this camera, and I love it. Everyone in my family has a digital of some sort and this one seems to be the most idiot proof. Even takes 30 second video clips. Ive taken hundreds of pictures so far and I cant complain about the quality. Sometimes low light is hard to shoot, as with any camera, but you have the option of setting everything manually if you want to optimize low light shoots.
I think the Compact Flash Card is the way to go. So simple and small. Plus you can get 128 meg. cards for $75 and take 600 pictures at a decent resolution.
Sorry, you won’t get the equivalent of 35mm with any digital camera at this time unless you limit the size of prints you need. You can’t blow up even a 5MP digital image to poster size without seeing some pixelation, unlike a good 35mm neg. A negative has about 16MP of information, IIRC.
But most folks aren’t making poster-sized prints, so this isn’t a big issue. For 4x6, you need roughly 2MP. 8x10 requires 3MP, bigger requires 4 or 5MP. Most consumers won’t ever need greater than 4 MP IMO, but more is always better. (These estimates are general guidelines, not absolutes) For online use, 2MP should be fine. 5 MP will cost you more for the camera, extra memory cards, time lag in writing out the images, and you’ll end up throwing most of those pixels away in the end.
A good printer is probably more important than the camera. I think the Epson Stylus Photo line is currently the best out there. You can get these printers from $100 to $400, all are excellent.
Memory storage is cheap. All cameras come with too little. For a 3 or 4 MP camera, you’ll want at least 128meg card, probably 256 or multiple 128’s. Cost for these is way down and still dropping. I don’t recommend CFII disk drives, they cost a lot, have reliablility issues, and eat batteries. Add this cost into the price of the camera.
A raw 3 MP TIFF image is 3meg, but people rarely use that mode. SHQ for my 3MP Olympus is about 1.3 meg. HQ is 600K. I usually use HQ but sometimes go to SHQ when I am expecting to print the image or think it could be a really good shot.
You’ll need rechargable batteries. If the camera comes with AA you’ll need to buy a set or two of NiMH rechargables and a charger. If the camera has a custom rechargable consider buying a spare. Add this cost into the price of the camera.
Online as well as mailorder, I recommend B&H Photo. They are one of the few photo shops in NYC that are reliable.
Oh, I have an Olympus C-720, which I bought for the 8x lens and I wanted a 3MP. My older camera was an Olympus D-490.
I wouldn’t worry much about CF vs SM vs MS memory cards. CF is cheapest and has the highest storage, but all three are good and the costs for all are coming down. Unless you have cards already buy the camera you like and deal with the memory cards as you go along.
Video is a cute feature, but the quality is very low, don’t expect much. If you really want to record video you’ll need a video camera. I think if you get a Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Sony, or Fuji you’ll be fine. Other manufactures make some nice cameras, but the big 5 are really producing the best stuff out there.
You can’t go too wrong with picking up any of the brands that Telemark mentioned. (The Olympus C-4000 might be a good starter camera – it’s a somewhat cheaper version of their highly regarded C-4040 model).
You can get very good reviews of digital cameras at dpreview or steves-digicams. You can save money by buying on-line. Most of the price grabber software (e.g. bizrate) will rate the merchants. Avoid the lowest priced merchants – they are usually scammers.
You will need to budget some money for accessories. Depending on whether the camera has proprietary batteries included, you’ll need to buy some NiMH batteries and a charger, and one or more reasonably large memory cards. If you computer has USB then you’ll probably be able to load images directly from the camera, otherwise you’ll have to buy a card reader.
Telemark’s right—you’re not going to get 35mm-film quality from a $500 digicam.
If you really want film quality, get one of these…only $5000-ish, and lenses are $500 and up (you’ll need several). :eek:
I want one. :drool:
I have an HP 315. It’s a 2.1MP. Even at it’s lowest setting, I’ve taken pretty decent pictures printed as 3x5’s. At the highest resolution, I got a pretty good 8x10.
I’m buying this one soon - Kodak EasyShare LS443
http://electronics.cnet.com/electronics/0-6613935-1304-20465176.html?tag=dir
it’s 4MP for ~499 (but you can save $75 buying it online) and allows for as much video/sound recording that your memory card can hold (18 minutes with a $100 256meg card). I was going to just get a normal digital camera, but figured this will be my last camera purchase for 5-10 years so I might as well buy one that can make videos.
This guy writes incredible reviews:
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/kodak/ls443-review/
I have been using a Canon G1 for a couple of years now, and I would highly recommend any of this camera’s descendents.
Be sure to get at least 3mp. Sure, you can print nice 4x6 photos from 2mp, but you have no maneuvering room. If you use >3mp, you are printing a 4x6 print from an image capable of going to 8x10, so you can do all kinds of neat cropping to make the picture really perfect.
Make sure your camera comes with a beefy rechargable battery, or factor in the price of one. Some manufacturers omit the battery to lower their sale price.
Again, I have to say good things about the G1 bloodline. As I recall, its battery was designed for a video camera, so it is potent. I can take my camera for an entire day’s shooting and fill up my 340mb microdrive without the battery petering out (keep in mind that my microdrive is consuming more power than a CF card does).
Good luck!
Update: I’m currently thinking about the HP Photosmart 850. It’s a 4 megapixel camera with an 8x optical zoom, for around $500. (I saw it in Fry’s Electronics for $500, but haven’t searched around on the web to see if I can get it cheaper elsewhere.)
Any thoughts on this? I like it because it has an 8x optical zoom – all the other 4 megapixel cameras at $500 or less only have a 3x optical zoom. The interface seemed pretty slick and the camera itself looked nice. (They didn’t have a memory card in the display model, so I couldn’t actually practice taking pictures with it, unfortunately.)
Also, thanks to all who posted – the experience in this thread has been really helpful.