I need a decent camera for a decent price. Anyone got any ideas or pointers to what i should look for and how much i should have to pay?
Thanxs
Deb ;)

hey wonderbird! well, you're going to need to narrow down your price range because what you can get under $200 is VASTLY different from what you can get under $300. As stated in the other thread, canon makes great digital cameras (although they're obviously not the only one.) When I started shopping around for a digi I decided that I mostly wanted to concentrate on camera company brands, as opposed to Hewlett-Packard, etc. Which is why I ended up with a Canon, and apparently a lot of other tpunk's have them too. :) The more megapixels a camera has, the larger the picture/ file size will be. Not all cameras with the same amount of megapixels are created equal, though, so do some research on individual cameras before you commit. You can check out digital camera resource and Steve's Digicams for great in-depth reviews of tons of cameras. These reviews are very technologically oriented, though, so a lot of what they're talking about will probably make your eyes cross, but in the end you can get the gist of what they're saying. :) Also check out epinions or amazon.com, they have a lot of consumer reviews which can help after you've been reading the tech reviews.

Also look for a camera that has a decent *optical* zoom, as opposed to a high digital zoom. Ideally nothing under 3x and that's even a bit low, depending on your price range.

Hope this helps!! Let us know what you end up with! :cheers:

Go spend 400.00 on something vital to your trip and really usefull. Get a canon s 400 , s410, s500 i like the s Series canons very small cameras very good pictures. Compact design + great image = buy it.

I really like the tiny digital cameras too, especially the canon digital elphs. I decided to *not* go with one because they always have a proprietary battery, which can be expensive to buy and/or buy a charger for. Mine took AA batteries, which is a little easier to find while traveling if you're in a pinch. Also the small size of the baby cameras can cause a little bit more barrel distortion, if you notice that sort of thing.

I agree with Blakeimus about the Canons. I took a Canon S400 with me and when I had that stolen I replaced it with the replacement S500. Both are great cameras and I have some really great shots.


Having said that give me an approx price your willing to spend and I'll come up with a reccomendation for ya.

cliffo

You pretty much can't go wrong with most Canons... personally, I'm on the Sony route since I have an investment in those darned MemorySticks, but I've yet to see a set of lousy pictures from a Canon digital. Other cameras I've used, on the other hand, have been really moody. I still love my Sony P3, though.

Getting good pictures are a key point for any of my traveling, so it's important for me to have not only my camera, but all sorts of spare batteries, memory cards, and charging cables/adapters at the ready. Even download cables, in case you find an internet café where you can hook it up and send the stuff to a server back home for safe keeping... In fact, before I go anywhere, I look up the electronic shops that carry the gear just in case I need a new charger, card, etc.

Maybe a bit obsessive, but since I party so damn hard on these adventures, I need SOMETHING to act as my memory ;)