Digital Camera

[AIRLNRGUY]

Hi everyone

I want to buy a digital camera, but have no idea what to buy. Here is what I want:

-A camera that will take pictures that are acceptable to upload to JP.net
-A camera that is priced as cheap as possible (I do not have too great of a budget right now, the primary reason for not wanting to use film, its expensive.)
-A camera that can give me some sort of zoom.
-And finnally, one that will be small and not require me to purchase several memory cards.

Thanks

[mikecweb]

A couple things:
There is no specific camera level that will allow you to get pictures accepted. And you should not be disappointed if your pictures don't get accepted right away after your purchase.
Cheap as possible doesn't really give your budget. You'll need to give some sort of range.
You'll want a zoom of at least 3x and more like 6x for the most flexibility.
The size of the camera has nothing to do with memory cards. Mega Pixels are what eat memory cards.

http://www.steves-digicams.com is an excellent place to look at reviews for almost every digital camera out there.

Hope that helped.

[AIRLNRGUY]

I mean one that doesn't give me crappy pics with low resolution. My budget can be anything upto 200USD. What is the difference between optical and digital zoom?

[SWA733Captain]

Im not exactly sure what you can get with $200 but i can say that optical zoom is good. The more the better. You realy don't want to use digital zoom because it produces alot of grain. Good luck in your camera search.

[pilotguy]

http://www.dpreview.com is a good site.

[ckw]

Well I've been looking for something of a similar spec for a friend, and in the UK at least, I don't think your requirements can be met at that price.

I'm assuming what you want is the equivalent of an average film compact that will produce a file from which you could get a reasonable 4x6 print.

Perhaps Ebay would be your best bet, as you can take advantage of "upgrade frenzy" and find a 2nd hand bargain.

Digital zoom should be avoided - effectively, this is similar to enlarging part of the image on a computer, and working on the computer can usually produce better results.

I'd suggest that going for anything less than 2.5 mega pixels will result in disappointment.

Cheers,

Colin

[philb]

First the bad news. It is highly unlikely that you will achieve your wishes with a budget of $200. For a new camera that will take consistently good aircraft shots, static and in flight, at about mid life for one of the Nikon, Olympus, Minolta or Fuji ranges you need to be looking at around $600 new at the store.

Your expenditure doesn't stop there. You will inevitably need extra memory cards, spare rechargeable batteries (digitals eat batteries), filters and even some portable storage to download your memory cards to when on a trip away from your PC. Then you need decent photo manipulation software. Some normally comes bundled with the camera but tends to be out of date or LE editions of expensive Photoshop ($700 full edition). The bundled software will give you the basics and acceptable shots but you will need more.

Two years ago, my costs in the UK were:

Fuji 6900z £ 625
Two spare batteries £ 60
2 Spare 32MB Smartcards £ 70
Paint Shop Pro 7 £ 95
Digital Wallet 3GB £ 325

at the time the £ bought $1.50.

Memory card prices have come down but other prices have been fairly static. What has happened is, as new models appear, they offer more bells and whistles (and better quality) for the same price.

When you are through buying all that, you may wish to print some of your shots. You need a good photo quality printer and, in the UK, you are looking from around £150 and up. These are very ink thirsty (the best are 6 ink cartridge machines) and photo quality paper isn't cheap either.

Some basic requirements:

At least 3x optical zoom (digital zoom is pretty useless). Also note that 3x zoom IS NOT 3x magnification (which would be a 150mm lens on an SLR) but 3 times the value of the widest angle of the zoom, normally 35mm on digitals, so you are really looking for 6x optical zoom to equate to a 200mm SLR lens.

Look at the OUTPUT of the camera. A minimum 3MP (megapixels) is the basic requirement, 5MP or 6MP is the current "prosumer" standard. Some cameras (all Fujis) interpolate 3MP into 6MP in the camera. There is a debate (now 2 years old) about this but Fujis sell and perform very well.

All digital cameras have shutter lag, which means that when you press the shutter the recorded image is anything from a microsecond to a full tenth of a second, or more, behind what you thought you were shooting. This is OK for static objects but for aircraft on the move you have to learn excellent panning and prefocussing techniques to overcome the problem. After 2 years with the Fuji and thousands of first class shots, I still miss the odd shot.

Unlike the sleeve zoom mechanisms on SLR lenses, the mid range of digital zooms have electronic zoom. This means that you have to preset the zoom and cannot adjust it as an aircraft comes nearer without the camera recycling the whole of the zoom/focus operation which means you are likely to miss the shot. This requires lots of practice to get right.

Having looked at the downside, let’s look on the bright side.

Manufacturers change models faster than the seasons. This means plenty of good quality second hand models are around at less than half the original price. Having invested what may seem to be a hefty sum, you will never buy film again, have to pay for processing, or risk having a film lost or mutilated. You can make as many electronic copies as you wish...for free or print them yourself, as you require.

Don't be fooled by the Photoshop lobby who will tell you there is nothing to beat it at around $700. They are right but only a short head behind at one seventh of the price is Paintshop Pro.

If you can be patient, having bought the camera, a spare card, a spare battery and using the bundled software, you can practice, improve and have a lot of fun without any extra cost whilst you save for the extras you want. It can be very satisfying to delete a bad shot when practising, knowing that you have learnt something and not lost the cost of a film frame.

Finally DO SOME RESEARCH. A great place to start is DPReview.com which covers just about every digital has excellent forums with thousands of people from around the world asking for and giving real and useful help.

[ckw]

Just noticed the latest edition of Amatuer Photographer (UK) has a feature on buying 2nd hand digital.

Cheers,

Colin

[AIRLNRGUY]

WOW! i didn't realize that it was so expensive. I guess from just what I have looked at, it is expensive to buy new, I think second hand is what I want. Thanks everyone for your help!

[jake3525]

hey airlnrguy i just bought a fuji finepix 3800! At best buy it has a free 64mb memory card comes with great photo editing software to install on your computer. The camera come complete with a USB hook up device and has a 6x optical zoom! U can also do portraits and movies with this camera if u ad case and rechargeable batteries it will run about $400-30


CAMERA IS ABOUT 4 by 4 all the way around check it out man!

VERY VERY GOOD DEAL!! REMEMBER THIS IS AT BESTBUY!

best of luck,
j

[northerner2121]

Hey! I bought a Fuji Finepix 3800 as well.($427 w/tax new at Best Buy) a extra 128MB xD card ($80), a Targus DV Camera bag ($30), CHEAP rechargable batteries from wal-mart($10 maybe), and a .45x wide angle lens ($57). You don't really need all this stuff but you might want to look into a bigger memory card. jake, when did you buy yours? I got mine with only a 16mb card. the 128 can hold about 200+ j.net quality pictures... all of mine on here are from that camera. I LOVE IT!

~Ryan

[jake3525]

hi nice to hear that u have the same camera! I bought mine on saturday haha. Does urs take a couple seconds before it snaps the shot like i click to shot it (i know how to do the focus as well) and it like waits 2 seconds then it takes the picture i cant figure out how to make it automaticly take the pic? From what i hear that is every digital camera. What mode do u use to take the pics with? please reply!!

regards
j

[northerner2121]

Mine is always in manual photo mode. The thing your talking about how it waits sometimes is because of the focus. Usually if you press and hold the shutter button about halfway, it will focus and either beep twice telling you everything's ok or a !AF will appear, telling you it's not focused. if you get it in focus before you take the picture, then click the shutter than things should be pretty instantaneous... Also, when you are in picture taking mode and you press Menu, and go over to the little +/- sign you can change how long the shutter stays open. the higher the number the steadier you have to be, and the lower the number the darker the picture is. However this camera is definetly mysterious, I've stilll got a lot to learn and i've had the stupid thing for 6 months It really is a great camera though. I like it a lot.

Glad to help.

~Ryan

[AIRLNRGUY]

Anyone know how the Sony Mavica FD-91 pic quality is?

[jake3525]

hey ryan will u put a photo link on for me or tell me the name ur photos are under thanks!


Mine are under jake deering HAHA i only have 1 right now but with 2 memory cards and a trip to cancun on sunday ill have a lot more!!!


thanks,
j