Digital Camera Advice

December 21, 2004

Q: What should I consider when shopping for a digital camera?

A: This is a big topic; I recommend you search the Web for articles. I will mention some starting points here.

People put too much emphasis on megapixels. These matter most if you are going to print. If you are going to look at the pix on screen, in email or on the Web, anything from 1.3 megapixels on up is fine; you probably don't need over 3 megapixels for most uses.

Watch out for "zoom" comparisons. "Combined zoom" or "digital zoom" is meaningless. "Optical" zoom is what matters; get at least 3X Optical Zoom.

Avoid cameras that don't have a view finder, or you'll end up using the tiny LCD screen for framing your photos -- which is not good.

If we had two nearly identical cameras and one had lots of buttons and the other had fewer, the one with more buttons might be better -- the one with fewer buttons probably uses tiny menus to do the same things.

I would plan on spending between $150 and $300. Anything under $100 is probably too cheap. Over $300 may be too much camera to start.

We've been very happy with the Olympus Camedia D-150 brio zoom. $150 at Costco several years ago. There are many varieties of Olympus.

On the other hand, a friend recommends the Canon S1 IS, which is around $350 and has 10X Optical Zoom -- I'm considering this one. mjh

Here's what Lisa T. said:

I love the camera I took the eclipse pic with. It's a canon S1 IS. The IS stands for image stabilization and it totally ROCKS on this camera -- I can hand-hold the camera in VERY dark situations and still get a focused shot. (But I used a tripod tonight.) It's running at between $350 and $400 right now -- which is above your $300 -- BUT it takes a compact flash card (the very cheapest kind of storage) and AA batteries (the cheapest batteries, especially when you get NiMH rechargeables). So I think you should cough up an extra $50 or so, knowing that you'll end up spending less on the accessories -- the camera is well worth it. :) Lisa

Z - Other entry by mjh at 03:27 PM | email this