Digital Camera Recommendations

[!Nekko!]

I'm thinking of getting a digital camera. I don't know a whole bunch about them besides what resolutions they shoot at. I'm just looking for something that has a good resolution, good quality pictures, and a fairly large view screen. I would prefer to spend under $200. It'll just be a basic general purpose digital camera that I don't expect too much out of, but if it's an amazing camera for it's price, then I'm not opposed to spending a little more.

[Katsurugi]

For digital cameras, it's important to look at a lot of other stuff too, like ISO, red eye, optical zoom and probably sensor size. Usually price increases a lot with both optical zoom and megapixels. But I feel that optical zoom is more important since it gives you more freedom when taking your pictures, but megapixels will only limit you in what size you can print out your photographs. As of right now, you can make 8"x10" prints from even a 4 megapixel camera without any noticeable quality loss. So if you have more, you're definitely safe from this limitation. Most people don't even make 8x10" prints, mostly 4x6" prints digitally. Compact digital cameras on the market might have anywhere from 6-10 megapixels, but optical zoom usually is "stuck" at 3x. There are some models with 4x optical zoom, but usually nothing more. Otherwise, they'd be too expensive and too large to be a compact camera.

ISO is generally light sensitivity. The higher you go, the more sensitive you get, which is useful in low-light situations like at a club/party or band performance. But at very very high ISO ratings, you get some very obvious distortion or noise. That's the trade off with high ISO typically. It's not unheard of for digital cameras to go to ISO ratings of 1600, or even higher. But you really have to think of how practical this is, whether you're going to use it or not and if you do, will the pictures come out with acceptable quality. Commonly pictures taken with digital cameras are taken with an ISO of 50 to 200.

Sensor size will affect the quality of your images, generally bigger is better. Sizes are represented with 1/(somenumber)". If you're looking at some cameras with similar sensor sizes, don't get too bogged down in the numbers. Sensor size really isn't one of those things that companies tout on the features list. It's more of a spec than anything else.

The flash is also important. Some cameras often cause red eye more severely than other models. This is just because of the definition of red eye and how it comes about. If you have software that can remove it easily, then I guess it's okay. But usually, you want to save yourself from any extra work (amirite?). I have an older Canon Powershot A520 and the flash compared to even a Canon SD450 model (or IXUS if you're in Europe) is not synced too well. This just might be from age, but not every camera is designed the same.

If you want a large screen, then just know that larger screens eat up more battery. It just makes sense if you think about it, but if you buy a cheap camera with a huge screen, it's kind of pointless if you're buying batteries all the time.

Okay... I guess my little crash course into digital cameras is done, hopefully it has enlightened you a bit. But if you don't read anything you should read the next part.

My recommendation would probably be the Canon SD850 IS. It costs a bit more than 200 dollars. 8 megapixels, 4x optical zoom, 2.5" LCD screen, and goes up to ISO 1600 (which is more than enough in my opinion). Also, the IS in the model name stands for Image Stabilization which is good for people who might not have the steadiest of hands. If this costs too much, then just get one of the other SD models. They are just as good quality wise, with slightly different specs. All, if I recall, have 4x optical zoom at a reasonable price which is awesome in my book.

[Bigfoot]

If you don't go for the SD850, go for the Canon A570 IS.

Here's a pretty good review on it.

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_a570-review/

[Majin GeoDooD]

Compact digital cameras on the market might have anywhere from 6-10 megapixels, but optical zoom usually is "stuck" at 3x. There are some models with 4x optical zoom, but usually nothing more. Otherwise, they'd be too expensive and too large to be a compact camera.

I'd just like to add that I have a Kodak Z710 (7.1 MP) that has 10x optical zoom. It's roughly a $250 camera (I got it for less.. I had a lesser model that broke and they were out of stock, so I got the better one ), and while it is a bit bigger than most small digital camera its still no where near large.

[!Nekko!]

That's definitely helpful. I've had a friend who had a crazy image stability feature that shot good pictures while basically waving the camera around. I also didn't know about the ISO spec, but that's definitely helpful. I'm assuming you can change what setting that is at so you don't let let in too much light while you're, say, outside.

My girlfriend has a Powershot A530 and my mom has one thats a little bit better and I've always liked those. Checking on newegg, the SD850 is going for about 300, so that's out of my range, but the A570 is going for about 173 and I get a free SD card, too.

[Pyrion]

Fujifilm S700. I got mine for about $210.

It's a tad bit more complicated than the typical "fire and forget" cameras you can get for $100-150 though, but you can use it like that without getting too confused.

[Didaji]

I got a Canon PowerShot A400, i really like it, ok photos and so on, but its kinda old now Next time i probably buy a Canon EOS 350D, 400D or something, not sure yet.

[Katsurugi]

I only figured a general photography camera should give good quality as well as be as compact as possible. The SD or IXUS models for Canon are a pretty good match. While the Powershot A-series is good, some of the recent ones are a bit bulky. If you are going to get a Powershot A-series model, then make sure you get one that has a swivel LCD screen. That's probably the best reason to get one over the SD/IXUS (on top of manual controls and the convenient mode wheel).

If you narrow down your search, update us.