What digital camera would you buy for $300 to $400?

I need to replace my old one (HP,- it served its purpose) and $400 would seem to be a budget I can live with. What would be your suggestions?

I have two suggestions:

  1. Post questions like this one in IMHO
  2. I just got a Nikon Coolpix 5400 at Costco for $300 after instant rebate. It’s not a bad little camera. At 3x, it’s a bit weak on the optical zoom, but it’s got a separate flash shoe, which I like and a flip open screen in the back.

I picked up my Canon S1IS a few months ago for approximately $350 (with a free battery charger and 4 rechargeable batteries, plus a 32MB memory card). It’s got 10x optical zoom (32x combined), with a very silent motor for the zoom lens. 3.2 MP, with some 10 shoot modes… It is a bit bulky though.

You’re looking for opinions. So, off to IMHO.

samclem

Canon A70. Got one about a year ago. Great price, great features. 3.2MP, movie mode, and all sorts of other features.

We bought the Nikon Coolpix 5400 a couple months ago.

It’s good, easy to use, in your price range. I think if you stick with the camera brands. . . Nikons, Canons you’re probably better off than going with Sony, HP, but I don’t really know.

Hopefully mhendo will be along. He seems to know a lot about cameras.

Same thing we tell everyone else, go to dpreview.com and read the reviews. Go to dealcam.com and check out the prices.
And please tell us something about your picture taking aspirations when you ask this question. Are you taking snapshots? Art photography? Indoor? Outdoor? Going to be putting the pictures on the web or making 11 x 16" enlargements? Does the size of the camera matter? Do you need manual adjustments? Zoom?

What type of camera are you looking for? Do you need a lot of megapixels? Do you want a smaller camera that fits in your pocket or a larger type with a lot more options and zoom?

I have a Fujifilm S5100 and it’s great, although the controls are not placed as well as their beginner models. This camera takes great pics and has a huge zoom, but it won’t fit in your pocket because it’s shaped like a mini-SLR.

If you want something that fits in your pocket, I think Canon is the best.

Size isn’t so important, but one feature that is that my old camera never did well is night photography. I realize that no camera is going to make flawless shots when it’s pitch black, but I would like one that will with a flash illuminate enough on, say, Bourbon St. at night just who is in the picture.

Thanks for all advice btw.

In that case, you’ll want to skip the ultra-mini cameras like the Sony P200 and the T7. They typically have rather small lenses and tiny flashes. You might want to check on the availability of an auto-focus illuminator as well (something that helps the camera focus in the dark).

Sampiro, that’s one area where a consumer camera is probably going to disappoint. Any built in flash is unlikely to be powerful enough and the small sensors in these cameras are noisy when you set a high ISO value.

Many can take a more powerful external flash but the cost for a dedicated D-TTL flash and camera is well over your budget. If you don’t need full automation you can get incredible results with a old style thyristor automatic flash and in some ways it works better than D-TTL since there is no pre-flash to delay the shot or make the subjects blink. Just make sure you get one with a low voltage sync that won’t fry your camera and of course a camera with an ISO hot shoe plus manual control of aperture, shutter and ISO.

There are special flashes and slaves that work correctly with digital pre-flash but my experience with a Digi-slave is less than satisfactory.

I have to second this vote for Canon PowerShot. I got an A75 for my birthday and I love it. It has probably the best variety of settings as any point-and-shoot camera. It has fully auto settings and manual settings as well. I haven’t completely figured out the manual settings but they seem to work better than the auto settings if you know what you’re doing. At least I have the option of learning about, and using, f-stops and all that.

I read all the reviews on dpreviews as well as amazon customer reviews and epinions before I decided my first digital was going to be a Canon PowerShot. I was simply amazed at the vast quantity of positive reviews. I’m not at all disapppointed.

There’s another site where people post photographs indicating what camera and settings they used. You can search the albums by brand and model, so you can view the quality of the pictures (most important aspect?) of each model. I can’t remember the name of the site though. Can anyone help?

I second the advice to read reviews at Amazon and Epinions. This site offers comprehensive reviews of many, many cameras.

I just ordered a Sony DSCP200 for $380 from Amazon. I was looking for a compact camera to take quick shots of my kids, and this model seemed to be a good one based on my research.

Good luck on your search.

Ah. Found it. pBase Camera Database There’s a lot of crappy photos, but some amazing galleries that really show what a camera is capable of in the right hands.

You might like the Canon Powershot S1 IS. It’s a bit bulky, as gouda said, but it has a fairly fast lens (F/2.8-3.1) and a great zoom lens with optical stabilization. Stabilization is especially useful for low-light conditions. I’m very happy with mine.

I have the Canon A70 (now defunct, A75 replaced it), and I think the A75 would be in your price range.
I love it -I’ve taken lots of pics and short AVI clips. Lovely lens, it has an autofocus light, takes ordinary penlight rechargeables.

Now if only the weather and baby would play along, I can experiment further with the infrared lens…

Sorry, I meant to say the
A95 would be in your price range.

Another vote for the Canon Powershot. I’ve got the A85 and it has turned me into a camera happy weirdo.

My vote’s for one of teh Canon Powershot Digital ELPH cameras, something along the lines of the SD200.

It may not have the largest CCD or the highest zoom, but that’s ultimately not what’s important. What’s important is that you have the camera when there’s something to take pictures of.

The Canon Digital ELPHs are small and light enough to be carried in a pants pocket- I’ve had my S110 for 4 years now, and I’m amazingly pleased. I firmly believe that if I’d bought a more standard sized camera that I had to carry in my hand or some kind of case, I wouldn’t have used it nearly so much.

(Plus, you don’t look like a camera dork until you actually take it out of your pocket)

I love my little Nikon 5200. 5 megapixels, 3x zoom, 30 fps video with sound and it fits in your pants pocket. I got it, an extra battery and a 512meg memory card for $360 (eBay for the camera, then added the battery and card from the seller). Lots of other little things I like about it (like the enclosed lens cap). My friend also has one and he loves it too.

-Tcat