Which Digital camera.

[Caliban]

Well guys,
SWMBO has informed me she is buying me a digital camera for Christmas.
I have a Nikon f65 film camera and love it. Can't afford a digital slr, so have been considering about $600 for a Fuji with 10x optical zoom and 5 megapixels or a panasonic lumix with 5 megapixels and 12x optical zoom.
Don't know what Nikon have for that money, any clues?
Is there anything else I should look at, any other camera I should avoid?
You know the usual heart ache before parting with the folding stuff, it's my money she'll be using.

[normell]

Go here for some idea on prices
http://www.teds.com.au/

Normell

[MICKYG]

Have a fuji 5500, its magic and very affordable.

Regards Mike.

[Gingermick]

it's my money she'll be using.

I'd be interested to hear her response to that :):D

[Driver]

Jim

I've had several Nikon SLRs (film) over the years and I'm a firm fan of Nikon technology. I didn't want to spend $1500-plus to buy a digital SLR so I got a Nikon Coolpix 4800.

I'm very happy with it. I like the fact that it's a bit meatier than some of the digitals that you can slip in your top pocket. It has a 4 megapixel system, 8.3 x optical zoom and a reasonable size screen (with an optional digital viewfinder). I paid about $650 for it.

Hope this helps.

Col

[fxst]

well I ended up with a Kodak DX7590 and printer station around your price
absobloodylutely good camera.
But then I'm biased :D
I used to be a canon digi fan and anti kodak but I have seen the light.
Pete

[bitingmidge]

If you haven't already, check out the reviews and comparisons at
http://www.dpreview.com

There are a couple of other sites out there, but this is the most comprehensive. After you have decided, check out some of the forums on the same site for any relevant info.

They've just done a full review on the lumix. In your price range, most represent pretty good value for money though!

Cheers,

P :D

[craigb]

Don't ask me. I only take happy snaps. :)

With a Canon PowerShot.

The camera is way better than my photograpic ability.

[Grunt]

I just forked out $1500 for a Nikon D50 Digital SLR. Just a fantastic camera.

However, you should do as Midge says.

You could have a look at the Nikon Coolpix 5900 or the new P2.

[Zed]

I've got a Kodak DX6490. great 4Mp camera. the curent kodak is the DX6590 5mgp its fabbo. 10x optical zoom, full feature digital.

send me your email address and I'll send you a 4mg image and you be the judge.

cheers

[bitingmidge]

Oooops, sorry!!! http://www.dpreview.com (no "s") all fixed.

:o :o :o
P

[Robert WA]

I picked up a new Konica/Minolta Dynax D7 SLR today. Had ordered it a week ago. About $1600 with a 0.5 gig card.

Why Minolta? A long story, but the punchline is that I have a camera bag full of Minolta lenses. Minolta did the kind thing and made a digital SLR that will take its old film camera lenses.

[Ashore]

I have a kodak with printer base ie you put the camera on the base and can print 6x4 pics at the touch of a button
Cannon produce much the same result

What to look for after being on a tour with lots of people with the latest and greatest
Go for at least 4 meg pixal
look for the optical zoom at least 3 but the higher the better, not the digital zoom , optical zoom is due to the lenz on the camera , where digital zoom you can do on your computer and does not improve the picture

Cameras with large rear active screens that show what you are taking chew the hell out of batteries, use the eye piece not the rear screen . that means make sure you can switch the rear screen off

When you buy negotiate for a large memory stick at least 512 mb or 1 gig
do not go lower.

Go small something that fits easily into your pocket , you will be amazed how small some of them go and they take as good a picture plus they fit in your pocket. A 6 meg picture taken by a small camera is just as good as a 6 meg from a big one

Shop around most camera salesmen are like used car salesmen, what we have here is the best and only available, take note of the brands and check google for their web sights to see what is available. So dont buy on the first day you go looking.

Check but most cameras take video make sure yours does

When you get the camera you may also need a 180 gig hard drive for the computer cause your gonna keep a whole heap of pics you never print

And make sure the battery unit is re-charable check the price of aaa batteries

The last thing photoshop cs2 can turn anything into magic With a good printer even a 2 meg picture


The trouble with life is there's no background music.



Russell

[bsrlee]

I just bought a SonyDSC-H1 - it is my 3rd Sony camera & all worked well. I'm still waiting for the batteries to charge :rolleyes:

Specs: 5 MPixel, 12x optical zoom, pop-up flash, 'image stabilizer' (for those shaky days) uses 2x AA (no proprietary battery packs $$$) 32Meg memory built in, eye piece view finder has focus adjustment (for us who need glasses, even if we don't use them :) ) and the main LCD screen works in daylight, unlike some others, also does good videos too.

I bought a 2 Gigabyte memory stick - currently on sale for <$450 if you buy them as part of a PSP add on pack (released today) The PSP pack also has a spare cable that fits the camera & some proprietory Sony DVD copying soft ware, mini-DVD case, carabiner & screen protectors - its even a good deal if the kids have a PSP. Thats about $550 off retail for a 2 Gig stick :eek:

[Schtoo]

No specific cameras per-se, but some general things I will aim for next time around. Which will prolly be soon...

Low battery consumption, or large battery capacity. The Olympus we have now uses 2AA's, and it eats them pretty quickly. Yes, it's now 3 years old and the cameras are getting better, but still it's a PITA to carry around lots of batteries all the time. Dad's Sony isn't that much better, and it's only 18 months old itself.

Common, reasonably priced memory. The Olympus uses Smartmedia, which is pretty good. Dog chewed one and it still works, is well priced and reliable. Not as common as I would have thought. Problem is, that most makers use their own system, which is great if you use a Sony camera, video camera, laptop, etc, etc. But I don't do that, so it can be painful. At least consider what works for you.

Lots of optical zoom. Digital zoom just annoys me, to a point where I won't use it if I can avoid it. Luckily, this was one thing I pushed for when we got ours, and LOML agrees it was a good idea, now.

Not too big, not too small. The tiny ones are just too small, and you pay plenty for the priveledge. The bigger ones are too bulky most of the time. This isn't news, but it's worth thinking about again. We do have 4 cameras in the place, the big thing rarely gets used at all. My shop camera often, but it's ancient. The Olympus is a medium sized thing and it's dragged everywhere. The other is a spare only, because it's film.

And I nearly had heart failure looking at the camera prices you folks get. No wonder my dad went nuts when he was here. :eek:

One last thing, when you do buy, don't walk in and say "that one please" because you won't get jack. Haggle, push, threaten, whatever to get as much as is humanly possible. That's your job. ;)

[oges]

I have the Fuji S5500, quite happy with that and has come down in price since I got mine

[Iain]

Fuji S7000, big and meaty for someone with big paws like me, manual, auto ability to accept external flash and match film speeds, not a dedicated flash.
Auto or manual focus, rapid fire/capture on all frames, first 5 or last 5 whyich I use for showjumping.
6X optical zoom and uses 4xAA batteries.
Xd card or microdrive up to 2gb, or run both and take piccys for a year, RAW format (at 18mb per piccy), onboard editing (which I never use) full exposure control, backlight control, 2 macro modes, 2 speed timer and heaps more which make for an excellent low cost cam.
Digital SLR which I prefer to optical SLR as you can see the result prior to shooting TTL.

[dan_tom]

I would not get any digital camera less than 5 megapixels, as the print quality of less than that is no good. We got a Nikon Coolpix 8900, great little camera and like you, had the Nikon F65 so the accessories we have for that (ie: flash shoe etc) are interchangeable (not the Tamron lenses though). Get a camera unit that comes with a charger and battery (like the Nikons) rather than having to duck down to the shops and keep buying replaceable batteries! Adds up over time!

I found this website helpful http://www.ccccamerahouse.com.au/store/browse.asp?idCategory=3 which is where we ordered ours from (well we lived in Sydney at the time, so went on in!).

Think also of adding to the final price the following:
- camera case
- card reader
- a 1GB memory card
Ask if you could package it. Really don't need an extra battery unless you are thinking of camping for extended periods and don't have access to a charger. The 1 GB card takes around 800 shots, so you don't have to download that often.

You can print cheap prints at Big W, so I wouldn't worry about getting a printer. We did all that jazz and have photo paper sitting around... It's about 20c a print, so not worth the hassle!

Cheers
Dan

[Kev Y.]

I got my self a digital camera about 2 years ago, first thing I did was go pick the brains of the local camera guru.

I told him what I was planning on using it for, then asked for his recommendations.

He advised me to stick with a brand that was a proven maker of film cameras, and then sold me on a RICOH Caplio G3.

So far I have not been disappointed :)

[Grunt]

I wouldn't get carried away with a high MegaPixel count. A 6MP camera will print A4 size print. A 1.3 MP camera will do a nice job of a standard 6x4 print.
Large pixel counts use up large amounts of memory card space.
My camera is 6mp. I can get nearly 300 high quality jpeg pictures and about 130 RAW (6MB each).

[Greolt]

If you already have a Nikon SLR do you have many lenses?

If so it would make a lot of sense to get a DSLR body.

Check out this link as an example
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NIKON-D50-6-1-Digital-SLR-body-NEW-D70-D70s_W0QQitemZ7552786002QQcategoryZ43456QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Read up on compatability but almost all Nikon lenses ever made will work with this body or even look at the D70s

Because you have had a SLR you will find anything less to be very limiting IMO

Greolt

Edit: typo

[Greolt]

Read these links. This bloke carrys on a bit but has a lot of common sense too.

Worth looking through his site.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/2dig.htm

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.htm

And as has been said before, dpreview is a good source of reveiws, info etc.

Greolt

[Ianab]

I've got the older Lumix (2 mpix) and it's still a great camera. Prints are very good considering it's only 2 mpix. A4 comes out pretty good - some quality loss if you look close, but then the idea of printing A4 is that you dont have look close.
G/F has just got a 5mpix Lumix at her work, it's even nicer.
My old one still does what I want so I'm not upgrading, but I'd buy one of the new ones if I was.
Pixel count is only part of the equation, optics and sensor quality are probably more important but harder to measure. I'd still choose pics from my 2m Lumix over a cheap 4m plastic lens thing and the 12X zoom is realistically all you can use on handheld anyway.

Cheers

Ian

[Caliban]

:D Guys
(and you too Dan)
I think I've decided after reading everything available and poring over specs.
The dpreview site is a mine of info (read last 2 nights and every spare moment at lunchtime, also why I'm sitting here at this hour) The indepth review of the panasonic dmc-fz5 makes me think it's probably the beast for me. I think I saw one on the table at Midge's place, so who owns it? Come on, fess up.
I still have my f65 film camera which takes better photos on full auto than I ever got from fully manual cameras, so in extreme cases when I kid myself that I need a more capable camera than the panasonic, I'll still have the trusty nikon to fall back on. Probably will never happen, but that's what I'm telling myself at the moment.
Thanks for all your valued info, I've read each of your replies and have surfed for a review of every camera mentioned on this thread so if nothing else you've kept me busy.
Zed sent me a few samples of his photos and they are excellent and not at all ape ish.I hope the camera I buy that is toted as better than his will do as good a job as his did. Maybe it is ape skill.

[fxst]

Jim check this out its important info on digi camera probs. not sure if this info was passed to you
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0510/05101403oly_ccdadvisory.asp
Pete

[MathewA]

I'm looking for a new DC and one of the things I will change on the new one is it has to take more than 2 AA batteries. I won't buy one with a proprietary batter or with only 2 AA. DC eat up the 2 AA far too quickly - especially the newer ones.

[jow104]

I love my fuji S5000 most probably would the upgrade to S5500 as well.

10 times optical zoom or 22 digital zoom (which is OK)

How could you consider anything else?

Batteries rechargeables last around 500 pics (4 batteries) and recharge within 2 hours (even off the cigar lighter in the car)

[Stuart]

I picked up a new Konica/Minolta Dynax D7 SLR today. Had ordered it a week ago. About $1600 with a 0.5 gig card.

Why Minolta? A long story, but the punchline is that I have a camera bag full of Minolta lenses. Minolta did the kind thing and made a digital SLR that will take its old film camera lenses.

I LOVE my 7D - awesome beast. BTW, just ordered the KM 11-18mm for it. :D

Don't forget to apply for the $300 rebate.

For those needing a good review site, I religiously use

www.steves-digicams.com (http://www.steves-digicams.com)

Best I've come across, not necessarily for the comments, but because you get all the stats, the full operating manual, and best of all, actual, full resolution photos taken on the camera- what better way of seeing the quality of the camera than that?

[Wongo]

Jim, take the money and run. Get yourself a cool jointer. :cool:

[scuttle]

Hello
We have a Sony Cyber shot which is incredible in that it takes good photos of landscapes but also equally good photos of the grain in Huon Pine.
They are reasonably priced and in my view good value for money. There is a site in Sydney called Gadgets.com.au I think which sometimes has them cheap.
Get a spare set of batteries with whatever you buy.

Regards

Scuttle