Digital cameras

Yoda

I need a good digital camera and figured I would get one from the Apple Store. Anyone have experience with any of the ones Apple flogs? I'll probably buy one from the Apple Store in New York City when I visit on Halloween.

Maoltuile

Yoda wrote:

I need a good digital camera and figured I would get one from the Apple Store. Anyone have experience with any of the ones Apple flogs? I'll probably buy one from the Apple Store in New York City when I visit on Halloween.

I got an Ixus II after seeing a friend's. I wouldn't buy it off the Applestore, though, unless there's a special bundle going - you'll get it cheaper in a camera shop.

ZENER

What budget have you ?

The Canon 300D is excellent value and is available for $999 with a short zoom lens - don't know if this is within your budget though.

ZEN

Yoda

No, $1000 is out of scope. Half that, or less, is what I'm looking for.

Are there differences in the brands, Nikon, Olympus, Canon...? Of course there are.... I see even Sony is into the game now.

rob1891

edit: ah, didn't see the 500 limit, nevermind ....


Canon are doing rebates for us sales. buy a 300d for 799, get 100 off. Buy a 28-135 IS for 409 get 200 off the 300d and 30 off the lens, buy another lens on top of that and get 300 off the 300d + rebates on the two lenses, though there are limited lenses to choose from and limited combinations of them you can choose.

Still, 300d + 28-135 IS goes from 1208 down to 982. Just make sure you can show a US receipt for a US warrentied goods (not grey imports).

http://66.245.180.181/canon/rebateclaimform.pdf
prices from B&H, better place to shop than an applestore

ZENER

OK so under 500 quid. Personally I wouldn't get too hung up on megapixels - I know Pro wedding photographers using only 3MP but have very good lenses and crop in the viewfinder rather than the computer.

You might pick up a Canon D30 SLR for about 5 or 6 hundred if you look around. A brilliant versatile camera that produces excellent results. Failing that remember that the lens is what will have most effect on the picture so try pick a maker known for their lenses.

I used to love Olympus Zuiko lenses but they went wierd on digital cameras and produced a strange range without a decent SLR, Nikon are well renowned for their optics but you'll be hard pushed to get anything decent for under 500. I had a Fuji 6900 Zoom a year ago which was OK but not great optically around the edges and corners.

What sort of pics will you take - snaps or amature stuff ?

ZEN

Gordon

I use a Canon powershot A70 (I think it is) and it is fab. It's probably the cheaper end of the market and I don't know if they sell it in the Apple Stor but it's perfect for me. It has 3.2 megapixels and works perfectly with image capture (although I may have needed to download the install cd for it - I'm not 100% on that as I installed the cd anyway without checking image capture). The Canon doesn't show up as a removable disk though as it does in Win XP for example.

However, out of the few types of digi cameras I've seen - the Canon is the most logical menu structure so far that I have experienced. It is simple to use and sturdy for transporting. Though my camera takes 4 walkman batteries. Memory sticks aren't that expensive compared to some new manufacturers.

They say that the Canon digi's are the Volvo of the digi cam world. Could be true but I liken their menu and ease of use to the Nokia mobile menu and ease of use.

however, I can't say I have fluent knowledge of other brands intimately.

Good luck, digital cameras are great.

Yoda

Well, the Nokia is the Macintosh of the mobile phone world.... so that says good things about Canon, I guess.

What I really need to take pictures of more than anything else is street signs, examples of public typography, sometimes closeups of books, that sort of thing.

Tiriel

the fuji cameras are actually quite good ... they are much cheaper than their canon or nikon equivalent and the quality is fine.. I got the A210 for about 200 yo yo's and definitely recommend it. the functions etc are basic but it does its job

Gordon

My powershot has fine quality for street signs and for cloes up (like all digi's nowadays probably) it has the old ultra close up thing for up to 10 cm or so (distance) photography.

I have taken pictures of up close text (A3) and it came out fine for quality on hi setting, but closer still would do grand for clarity.

Personally I like the white balance setting where you can set your own white balance in times of different lighting, but that also may exist with other brands.

If you like I can take some pictures of your choosing and you can evaluate them for research purposes: a street sign on high quality and close up text etc. PM me if you want samples and give me your email address as hi qual pictures are max 1.2 megs each.

Yoda

That sounds cool.

How do the megapixels rate? Gordon's Powershot is 3.2 Mp, but there are 4Mp and 5Mps out there.

rob1891

I have a canon a70, 3Mp, it gives prints at 7x5 which is a little bigger than a 6x4 standard print, at perfect photolab quality.

You can still enlarge a 3Mp to 10x7 / A4, it looks great on a wall, takes a bit of staring to see the flaws from a foot and if you are looking any closer than that you can see artifacts in graduated colours like skys fairly easily. However, what is the point of printing A4 if you aren't putting it on a wall and who puts their head an inch infront of a photo so they can tell you your camera wasn't good enough!

I read once that going from 3-4 Mp was completely pointless and 3-5 only a little bit point-full(?). To print A4 / 10x7 at the same quality a 3Mp camera can do 7x5, you need 6.3Mp (300dpi*10inches*300dpi*7inches), ouch! So don't consider a 4mp camera better than a 3 only because of the sensor.