Looking for Digital Camera Ideas

If you are thinking digital SLR I would go with the Canon Rebel (in any of it's varieties-T1i, Xsi, Xs). It is VERY affordable and has a a fully automatic mode and lots of partial auto modes for those who are starting out. If you get it in a kit it comes with a lens or two, battery, memory card, everything you need to get started. Good Luck.

Hey J.,
I have owned a few Sony Cypershots, and they take GREAT photos. They are also small and very easy to use.
If you want a more advanced camera I'd suggest the Canon DSLR. It too is very easy to use and easy to upload photos onto the computer. Also, the photos can be enlarged to poster size with no graininess. The only down side to this type of camera is that the photos are a larger size and take up more computer space.

I absolutely LOVE my Nikon DSLR. It's addictive, and very very easy... since it has a double auto feature... so you can have the lens on auto focus, and just twist it to zoom... as well as the camera itself on auto. Or you can leave the lens on auto and use the different features (sports/kids/night/up close/distance/portrait/fireworks/museum/ etc.)

Then, when you're feeling adventurous (and since it's digital, you aren't wasting money learning) you can put the lens OR the camera OR both on manual and start learning focus.. or aperture/shutter speed/etc.

The DSLR's also "last" longer than pocket digital cameras... because you have the lens to zoom with (and they're built super sturdy to begin with). Just as an example... my DSLR is only a meager 6.1 megapixels. BUT because of the lens (and I've gotten hooked, so I have a few lenses now), even just the original lens... my 6.1 megapixel camera takes better, more detail heavy pics, than my Mum's 13 megapixel pocket camera.

Right now, I'm waiting for the 24.5 megapixel camera drops into the $600-800 range (probably in about 2 more years) before I upgrade my camera body. If I had the money I would get the 12.5 body now... but I'm certainly not heartbroken about it, because I have my lenses, so I can wait. Same token... any lenses I buy... snap right into any new body I buy.

Even when I upgrade though (and I have 2 friends with $ to burn, and one prof. photographer friend who DO have the DX3 24.5 megapixel camera... I'm still going to keep my old D40. It's water photos (out of water... not under) are simply phenomenal... and it's "kid" setting really gets kids true skintone, which is super rare for auto. There are a few other things about it I love, too, and I have lifetime repair on it... so when I have a fancier-schmancier one, I can still have a backup for the rough and tumble stuff.

That's another thing I love about DSLRs... everyone I know who has 2 or more KEEPS their old one, and uses it still. Both for features they love, and as a backup that still takes GREAT pics.

DO buy the multiple year or lifetime repair warranty though... I've had to use mine twice (dropped it once, and my toddler spilled OJ on it another time). Got it back a few weeks later. Good as new.

LOVE Nikon's digital SLR's.

R

Canon SD anything are really good small point and shoots. I have a SD 800 IS and I like it a lot. Also have a S5, which is a fake SLR. They call them ZLR's. Has a flash hotshoe and can do manual aperture things and all that, but the lens isn't interchangeable. Great starter for learning real photography stuff w/o the investment of the Rebel just yet. Runs about $500 which is the same as the body for a Rebel, but just a lens for the rebel (a good image stabilizing one like what you get on the S5) can cost you WAY more than that.

Had a Nikon Coolpix before and it was also pretty good. If you have a mac, the Canon's won't mount as a harddrive, you'll have to use the software to access your pics, or Picasa. Nikon's mount as if it's an actual hard drive - if that means anything to you. If not, ignore it!

Hi J.-

I absolutely love my Nikon Coolpix P4!! The best thing is you can modify pictures on your camera. Its sort of cut and paste idea, you can voom in and recut a picture to center it, voom and voom again.. and retake the picture.... Love it love!

I second the plug for Panasonic Lumix. we are on our second one (the first was stolen) so have had the 6 megaPixel and 10 megaPixel versions.

I was won over from being a steadfast Olympus fan from university days. I had an OS-2 tank SLR,(semi automatic) with 2 lenses, and then additionally, an Olympus 210 point and shoot automatic (which now is gigantic! I remember it seeming so tiny and portable!).

A professional colleague recommended the Lumix, we tried it, and we love it. The optical zoom is great, the video is good, the automatic and semi automatic modes pretty comprehensible. That tiny time delay is still there but it is shorter, and the Lumix has a burst feature that does rapid fire shots in 3s, 5s, or 7s. AND it's pretty affordable - our newest one was less than $200. If you want something that fits in a pocket or purse, I'd recommend Lumix.

Hi J., We had a nice digital camera from Cannon, but it would drive me crazy because the delay, while only 2 seconds, might as well have been 2 minutes. I never got the picture I wanted because the kids would move in those 2 seconds. Then my extremely generous husband bought me the Cannon Rebel XT and EVERYTHING changed. I absolutely LOVE taking pictures now. The delay is less than 1/2 a second so you get the shot you want. It is the best camera I've ever had and well worth the price. I think you can get it at Costco for a little less than the regular stores.

Hi J.,
I loved taking pictures because it's so much fun to look back on. I was fine with a digital camera until I had kids. I made the switch to an SLR because I wanted something that took pictures as fast as I clicked. Babies/kids move all the time and missed opportunities happen with delayed shots. We got a Nikon D50 because my husband has Nikon lenses. I chose the D50 because it's smaller/lighter and it can go into manual mode for my husband. I've taken over 25k pictures on it and it's still going strong. You can't go wrong with Canon or Nikon for simple SLRs. I did get a little Canon powershot because it takes videos and it's small and convenient. The picture quality isn't that great, not compared to the SLR. I know a lot of moms who use their phones for that purpose.
Hope this helped.

Good luck.

I can tell you that I will never buy a SONY camera again!!! Our expensive SONY camera broke after a year and a half (we did not buy the extended warranty). It would shut itself off and not stay on to take a picture when fuly charged. We had to send it into SONY and paid $200. To have it "fixed". When it broke again (same problem) 6 months later, they tried to make us pay again to have it fixed. We tossed it out and bought a Canon and are very happy with it. I saw someone at DIneyland with the SONY we had and asked them if their camera had ever stopped workng. Their camera had broken as well and they too had to pay to get it fixed. I was so dissapapointed to learn that such a reputable company had such terrible customer service! I was sad to have waisted our money.

We just got the Canon powershot SD980 IS. My husband did the research- it's supposedly best combo of megapixels, zoom, misc features. I like it so far (less than a week). What I like that's new to me: some touch screen functionality, video vertical (and horiz.).

Note that the 980 is new; it is supposedly better than those with higher numbers like the 1200.

That's all I know!

I'm a NIKON person. I have had and owned several of cameras and couldn't decide what the best and most reliable camera to own. One day I saw a friend with a NIKON. I was told and shown all the features, benefits, how much the money is worth it to have and own one. For the first time since I ever owned my first camera to have one that I just cannot stop bragging about it. I did some research on the internet and realized how NIKONS are rated as greatest camera....For the first time I ever went on for three years now with my NIKON and still didn't have any problem with it....

My camera was an investment, as I wanted it to be. I never cared much for taking pictures till I had my son. I was done breastfeeding one night and was still up, so I decided to watch some tv....big mistake. I started to watch HSN (I know right!) And I found this 10mp camera made by GE and had a beautiful carrying case. It cost about $400, but I used the payment plan. There are many different styles at Best Buy, but I love my camera and I have about 10 albums full of pictures when my son is only 5. HP has many, many, many perfect ones that are probably better than mine and has a printer with it, I would be getting one of those when I do something stupid with the one I have. Believe me, it will be worth it because kids don't sit still forever and you would want to take pictures of everything they do. :p good luck!!!

We have the canon rebel dslr and love it. It has easy click and shoot setting or more advanced settings. My favorite is the action setting-great for shots of going down the slide or jumping off a diving board. Exteranl flash and zoom lenses are a plus, too. Check out Amazon for great prices. We bought ours through there and it was the lowest price we could find.

I just got a brand new Canon SD780 that I LOVE. My last camera was a Canon SD600, but it was stolen at the San Diego Zoo a few months ago. This is similar to that one, which I also loved, but smaller. The 780 has great picture quality (as did my last, very important to me), but this one also has HD video. I have shot a few of my son and watched them on the computer and they look amazing.

For digital SLRs, the Canon Rebels are great (my husband uses one at work for taking photos used on all kinds of professional brochures/flyers - he's a graphic designer). They also are having a lot of sales on the Nikon D3000, you could get that for $650 or less with two lenses. Both brands are good, although I haven't had actual experience with the Nikon D3000.

Pick a few cameras and read a bunch of reviews for them.

Before digital, I used only Nikon all the way back to the FM manual SLR camera (40+ years ago). As automation was added, it just made life easier; I loved shooting and wanted to capture great images from life quickly and without fuss. (It doesn't matter how fancy you can get with manual controls, if the great subject is already gone.) So when digital came along, I switched to point and shoot cameras, because automation was mature, and I was tired of lugging a big, heavy and conspicuous camera, and they are much better priced than DSLRs. (You can get a really worthy camera for $200 - $300, and since the technology changes so fast, you can afford to replace them every few years.)
My first digitals were Canons because the reviews said they had the best quality imaging, and I found that to be true even with my 1.3MP camera (2001).
Then I discovered Panasonic Lumix and those have been my camera of choice since then (2005). The most important factors in good digital photography are the optics (lens quality) and the CCD (the digitizing engine.) Panasonic uses Leica lenses: excellent optics and the choice of professionals (e.g. photojournalists) since WWII. Panasonic has also been very innovative (e.g. the first to provide optical image stabilization in automatic cameras) and great with packaging everything into a really small camera (like wide angle / superzoom lenses).
I just bought my latest Lumix, the DMC-ZS3, which is the first hybrid superzoom (12x) camera taking great still pictures and camcorder quality motion pictures (new technology for HD movies using less memory than MPEG) in a compact (4.1 x 2.4 x 1.3") and lightweight (8.1oz w/battery) camera.
The contender for my consumer $$ is/was the Lumix DMC-ZR1 (6 months newer with new better image stabilizer, 8X zoom and even smaller & lighter (~6oz) and less money than the ZS3, but without the fancy motion picture (has MPEG only)).
Both of these are great all purpose cameras handling a wide variety of situations: family events, kids sports, travel.
Amazon is a great place to buy and also Costco -- though their selection is limited. Right now they have a special on the ZS3 for less than Amazon.
For professional reviews and input, I like dpreview.com, and also use testseek.com to find a variety of review opinions.
Have fun with this.

I'm the grandma that always has a camera with her! I have a Kodak that cost a little over $100 and I love it! It also takes video. And, it's small enough to fit in my purse so I can have it available all the time. It has a fairly good zoom on it and it doesn't have a very long delay. That's important when taking pictures of kids who are constantly moving. Even still, a lot of pictures are of the back of their heads, cause they are already going on to the next thing. Good luck with your decision. So, there are a lot of things to consider. I'll bet most of the cameras out there take good pictures but you should get one you will use. My daughter got a really nice camera but it is big and inconvenient to carry around. I would say price, size of the camera, delay time, and zoom are important things to consider.

Hello J.. I had a Nikon cool pics that I adored, but it's broken now and I can't use it :( I received a Canon Powershot A590 which works pretty well. My only complaint with the Canon is the amount of time the camera takes to take a picture. I push the button to take it but there is a delayed response. This might be something I can fix with a different setting or something, but I haven't had time to check the manual. Other than that, it's a great camera. Nothing fancy, gets the job done and very inexpensive (I had it on my baby shower wish list, so I picked it out lol). Good luck to you :)