I know this thread has come up in the past, but Im looking for something midrange. I dont need something super fancy with expensive lenses or anything, but it needs to be better then the usual cheap ones at Best Buy that just arent that good. Ill be looking for one with good quality pictures of course, and fast shutter speed. Right now, Im just using a cheapo Olympus camera. But since I plan on actually doing some travelling, and of course sales, I need something good. Itll be used for everyday pictures of the family, outdoor shots, gaming items, everything.
id recommend any of the fuji 'S' series, as close to digital SLR your going to get without breaking the bank, fantastic image quality for everyday use, and loads of options to mess with if you desire it, including manual shutter speed, macro, 10x optical zoom, i currently have the S5500 which is 4 megapix true resolution, but can interpolate to 8mega on raw mode
Yeah I have a S5600 (S5200 in America) and it's about as good as you can get without going SLR, all manual modes, RAW, and various modes to let the camera do the work for you. I can give you some example photo's of me being "creative" if you want. The newer models should be the same if not better. However, you can just get something better like a Pentax K110D SLR camera and the kit lens for the same price, the "zoom" won't be as high, but it's a proper camer that you can expand with more lenses later on if you get into photography. I just bought a Pentax K10D which is Pentax current top model SLR camera, cost me £499 (I think you can get it for about $800/900 with rebates in America) and a standard kit lens, and it's superb, really an inspiring camera, any crap photo's are purely down to yourself and not the camera.
Ill be using it for shows and stuff for school, since right now I plan on going into journalism, plus for my site Thats exactly the type of information I was looking for, thanks guys.
I hate to hijack the thread, but I need advice on this as well. I want something that allows me to mess around with exposure times and whatnot, but without being too complicated. It also needs to be under $200. I was looking at this one - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830180092
I have a Casio Exlim EX-Z850 which is an 8 Megapixel camera, which I bought as I was recommended it by a professional photographer who used one too (as well as expensive digital SLR cameras). There is also a review by a photographer here too. http://www.kenrockwell.com/casio/exz850.htm (if you go to the guys main page and click camera recommendations then you'll get 3 brands, a Nikon, a Casio and a couple of Canons, Funny enough I've only ever used Canons and this Casio) I love it as the picture quality is great, it's small and not to bulky and the battery lasts for a long long time, I can take over 800 shots (without flash) and the battery metre still shows lots of life. Also has a great high speed and slow speed lens so water shots and traffic light trails look fantastic. 3 times zoom, simple interface with lots of things to play around with and simple enough to set up quickly. Been superceded by the EX-Z1050 (10 megapixels, go figure...)
I use a Panasonic Lumix. fantastic quality with loads of options to mess about with. It also does very and I mean VERY good video ! The Lumix series are quite light and slim as well so they are ideal for traveling. The one I have cost around 25'000 yen these days (5mega) so not too expensive. Yakumo
I also have a Fuji S6500fd. Great camera, a good bridge between compacts and SLR. Some of my better photos taken with it are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/steady.eddie/GoodPhotosAKAAttemptsAtBeingArtsy?authkey=yEbof3QDD4M If you don't want something as big as that take a look at the panasonic/lumix TZ3: http://www.panasonic.co.uk/high-zoom/dmc-tz3eb-s/index.htm http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonictz3/ EDIT: the s6500fd is known as the s6000fd in the states, in case you get confused when you can't find it! A good review of it is here: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilms6000fd/ I bought it for £150 a few months ago
Don't ever use a DSLR if you're not ready to buy one. I have a 7 Mega pixel IXY that basically just sits there now. If you have a kid, you can't really use anything else. The shot is gone in the 8 seconds or whatever it takes to take the picture.
I have this camera and it works great! videos are god like too! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830144093
I'd Go for a Casio or Cannon,i've had both and they give good picture quality and most excelent video clips in VGA resolution @30fps If you can afford it get an Ixus 70 or 75 or one of the 6-7 mpixel Casio ones.
I've got an Canon ixus 75, very nice camera with a bunch of options that allow quite some neat photo's! And it has a bigass screen (3'') which is nice as well. Just took it with me on a trip to Japan for 5 weeks and I am very satisfied with the pictures I have right now, so really positive about it!
I had an older Casio Exilim (3 megapixel, no optical zoom). It was okay for awhile, but it was lacking in the options department, and I want something a bit more advanced to play with. Their newer models look nice, though.
I have a Canon PowerShot A620 and A540, both have loads of options and modes, absurd battery life, and great quality pics. Those are a bit "old" now (2005 models), so maybe these aren't readily available anymore... haven't got the chance to try any their succesors yet (the A550/A560/570, A630/A640 and the A700 series), but I'd guess they're just as good. oh, and this page has some decent camera reviews.
