Those Picture Taking Things

[AJ]

Jana and I are going to be looking at getting a new camera. Sucks going to events and not being able to take any pics for yourself.

We want something that will stay with the times on a digital aspect and will create crisp and clear pics.

What are some of you guys using? What do you suggest?

Budget will be 200-300 tops.

[Matt D.]

Based on experience I recommend the Canon Powershot SD300.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16830120160

If you want to save a little money get the SD200.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16830120161

I have used both and they are excellent cameras, obviously the 300 has a few more bells and whistles than the 200. They also take movie clips quite well.

[howslowcanyougo]

I have a SD200 also, it's small, simple, cheap and takes great pics!

[dsm95gsxer]

I have an hp photosmart pretty basic 3.1 megapixel, you can see some of my pictures in my dsm cookout post and I think it was around the $200 range.

[scheides]

Sony makes a few in that range that are pretty nice. They even have them at target, so you can pick them up pretty locally. I know several people that have shopped all over the net for cameras, then ended up buying one from target b/c of the camera quality, price, service, and returnability.

[Goat Blower]

I've got a new in the box Olympus C5500 5.1megapixel camera that also takes Quicktime movies. They sell for $239-$299 plus shipping on the internet, I think $329 at Best Buy. $225 cash and it's yours.

[JET]

Steve's sounds like a good deal. I have a Fuji A330 3.2 megapixel and it is a really nice camera. It will take movies and it is really small. Only about $150 new. PGP43 got one too and he really likes it also. The pics I post on here are taken in the 1 megpix setting and shrunk to 50%.

[Jakey]

I have a Fuji A303 3.2 Megapixel which I purchased in May of 2003. It has been an excellent camera overall considering it's been dropped, sat on, covered in oil, and who knows what else. The only downfalls are that the flash is incredibly slow to recharge and it does not like nighttime pictures. I can't even remember what I paid for it originally.

[tpunx99GSX]

I know you all may laugh at this but back when i worked at CompUSA (i think like 3 years ago) i did this sales contest where if you sold a certain amount of Kodak cameras you would get the camera that was in the tier of the amount you sold. well i sold 15 of them like 2 away from the top, and i received a 3.2 mp Kodak camera.
I wasnt sure what the quality was going to be like because kodak was pretty cheap when it came to digital cameras.
I took a crap load of pics with that camera and that camera fucking rocked. I compared it to my dads expensive ass olympus camedia camera and the kodak blew it out of the water with the quality of pics it was taking. I loved that camera so much.
But then after like 3 years of taking pictures it finally was dropped too many times and something broke inside of it and inside of my heart. :(
But anyways if your looking for a cheap camera that will do you right i would go with a kodak.

[AJ]

Well I stopped by to see Steve, but I missed getting that camera by a few minutes.

So we hit up Ultimate Electronics, Best Buy, and Nat Camera Exchange. This is what we ended up with.

http://www.amphotoworld.com/images/big/mndimz5b.jpg

Konica-Minolta Dimage Z5, 5.2 Megapixel, 12x Optical/4x Digital Zoom, Digital Camera

Key Features
Image Sensor Type CCD
Resolution 5.2 Megapixel
Optical Zoom 12x
Camera Type Standard Point and Shoot
Lens
Interchangeable Lens Without Interchangeable Lens
Optical Zoom 12x
35mm Zoom Lens 35 - 420 mm
Digital Zoom 4x
Focus Type Autofocus & Manual Focus
Focus Range 24 in. to Infinity (w) / 62.4 in. to Infinity (t)
Macro Focus Range .4 - 39.4 in. (w)
Focal Length 5.83 - 69.9 mm
Image Quality
Resolution 5.2 Megapixel
Resolutions 640 x 480 • 2560 x 1920 • 2048 x 1536 • 1600 x 1200
Video
Video Resolutions 640 x 480 (VGA) • 320 x 240 (QVGA)
Video Speed 30 fps
Max Movie Length Without Limit (Depends on the camera free memory size)
Exposure Control
ISO Speeds Auto • 50 • 100 • 200 • 320
Aperture Range f2.8/f4.5 (w/t)
Shutter Speed 4 - 1/1000 sec
White Balance Auto • Daylight / Sunny (Preset) • Cloudy (Preset) • Fluorescent (Preset) • Tungsten (Preset) • Flash (Preset)
Frames Per Second 10 Frames
Storage
Memory Type MMC Card • SD Card
Compression Type JPEG
File Size (High Res.) 2.59 MB (49 images on 128MB card)
Flash
Flash Type Built-In & External
Flash Functions Flash Off • Auto Flash • Fill-in Flash • Red-eye Reduction Flash • Slow Sync
Viewfinder / Display
Viewfinder Digital
LCD Panel With LCD Panel
LCD Panel Size 2 in.
LCD Screen Resolution 114,000 pixels
LCD Protected Position Without LCD Protected Position
Interfaces
Interface USB 2.0
Video Interface Video Out
Power Supply
Battery Type 4 x AA Batteries
Included Features
Self Timer 2 Sec. • 10 Sec.
Mp3 Built In Without MP3
Built-in Microphone With Built-in Microphone
Built-in Speaker With Built-in Speaker
Tripod Mount With Tripod Mount
System Requirements
Operating System Apple Mac OS 9 • Apple Mac OS X • Microsoft Windows 2000 • Microsoft Windows 98 • Microsoft Windows 98SE • Microsoft Windows ME • Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition • Microsoft Windows XP Professional
General
Dimensions (W x D x H) 4.3" x 3.3" x 3.1"
Weight 0.75 lb.

A little more than what we where thinking we would get but very happy with the choice!