Recommendations for digital camera--may actually be on topic

[SteelyDan]

Okay, this sounds like a stretch, but the truth is that the only times I've wanted a digital camera over the last year have been to post photos of guns. Once or twice I resorted to using a scanner for pictures of guns or knives, which were crappy quality. Also, I notice I'm not alone here; lots of folks say they want to buy a digital camera for such pictures. So, I'm wondering if anyone can suggest something in the $300 to $400 range?

I'll also understand if the post gets closed, but--for what it's worth--I really am thinking about gun photos. For everything else, I've got a nice 35-mm.

 

[RightIsRight]

Canon A70 for about $300.

I researched it quite a bit and this unit always came up with good reviews. I have had mine for about 2 months now and use it for taking pictures of my work. I love it.

This is part of my website where you can see some of the pix: http://www.thedeckpros.com/cust1/quad.shtm

 

[TheeBadOne]

Nikon digital cameras are know for superior "Macro" photo ability (close ups of items).

 

[Preacherman]

I second RightisRight on the Canon - but go for the new A80 model. It's just come out, and is available for under $400 (I paid $377 and change, IIRC, for mine at Wal-Mart). Really excellent camera, and relatively easy to use - and the macro feature works fine. For samples of the first photographs I took with it, see this thread.

 

[Amish_Bill]

To get enough detail for a proper gun pic, you should be looking at something in the 3-4 megapixel range. A 2 megapixel camera might be OK, but I think your budget can get you better.

Quality - In general, the #1 one criteria is resolution. (megapixels) More is better, and you want no less than 3.

Zoom - Optical zoom is ALWAYS better than Digital zoom. To be precise, Digital Zoom isn't even really Zoom - it's just cropping and interoplated (guessed) image enlargement.

Storage - The cameras you will be looking at for taking gun pictures should all use some type of removeable memory cartridge. The oldest and most common is plain Compact Flash. Other options are Multimedia Card (loosing popularity, as I recall) and Memory Stick. Memory Stick is a proprietary Sony creation. As such, I'll never buy something that uses it without an overwhelming justification. I tend to look for regular Compact Flash in my devices.

Batteries - Some require expensive Lithium AA batteries. Some will run on normal or rechargeable AA, and some have special battery packs. My preference is for using NiMH rechargeable AAs or regular Alkalines.

I don't have a specific recommendation right now... most of my digital camera energy has been focused far up the food chain lately. (Thanks Mr. Photographer... )

 

[Amish_Bill]

Amazon has the A80 for $360 right now.

You might find a better price doing a search at froogle.com (google's experimental shopping engine) -- I don't know about dealing with discount camera places though... I hear some suck. caveat emptor

Hmmm... A80....

Lets see.
4 megapixel - check
optical zoom - check
compact flash (type I only) - check
AA batteries, Alkaline and rechargeable - check

Yep. This one sounds awfully nice.
Plus, it's a Canon.

 

[BryanP]

I recently purchased a 5 Megapixel Canon S50 and am very pleased with it. It will cost you slightly more than you're talking about (about $450 if you look around). However, if you're only wanting pics to post online it's overkill. The A70 mentioned earlier would probably be a better choice for that.

And to make it gun related, I have posted pics on this board taken with my S50, but I had to size them down rather dramatically so as not to waste Oleg's bandwidth and storage needlessly.

 

[P95Carry]

Amish_Bill has said much useful advice so won't repeat ...... but suggest go look at http://www.buydig.com/

I was looking around a while back and thru http://www.dealtime.com/ found my way to the other one. I wanted min 3 Mpx ... and wanted to keep cost around the ball park $330 or so. I finished up with a Kodak .... DX6340 .... I did puechase a 128 Mb card to add to it but to be honest . much of time internal memory is adequate for 15 - 17 pics of high qual.

There are a lot of specs to take into account and yeah ... ONLY be interested in optical zoom ... digital zoom is useless! Not really zoom at all .... all it does is same as if you crop later!!

Compact flash is preferable but the Kodak multimedia card is fine ..... and I have a card reader in USB which will deal with any cards out there.

Good luck

 

[Quartus]

Some will run on normal or rechargeable AA, and some have special battery packs. My preference is for using NiMH rechargeable AAs or regular Alkalines.

Cameras will EAT ordinary alkaline batteries. Go for something with a Lithium Ion battery, or you will be changing batteries long before you fill up a memory device.


On another note:


RightIsRight, welcome to THR. Your web site appears to only work in Internet Explorer, which means you have excluded about 25% of your potential market just to keep Bill happy.

Hope you can afford that.

 

[P95Carry]

As a rider to Quartus' last post .. I forgot to mention power.

My Kodak needs just 2 AA size .... I keep two sets of 4 NiMhi AA cells always charged and available ... and carry those in the camera's small zip pouch .... that takes care of many pics .... no prob. I prefer this to any internal rechargeable system needing some way-expensive dedicated battery pack.

Beauty of NiMHi .. they are about twice capacity of old NiCd batt's .... in this case I think, 1300 Ma.


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edit to add .... Quartus .. last survey I did re browsers .... IE was way more than 75% ... and this was taken as a sample from 1 million hits on a BBS - IE was more like 90%+ .... the rest was Netscape, Opera etc.

 

[Amish_Bill]

Yes, they will eat regular Alkaline batteries by the box. That's why I highly recommend a few sets of NiMH rechargeable batteries.

The problem is that there are some cameras that REQUIRE Lithium AA batteries. Regular Alkalines are not even a backup option for them. A camera that uses NiMH rechargeables, but can run on whatever Alaklines you can find in a pinch has a leg up in my opinion. If the Lithium batteries were not so expensive, I wouldn't care much...

 

[geegee]

Thanks to Steely Dan for the question, and the rest of you folks for some great information. Right on time! geegee

 

[Kaylee]

Okay, this sounds like a stretch...

well um.... yup.