Digital Camera Question

[Adem]

So I plan on purchasing a digital camera, but I really don’t want to spend a lot of money on something based on what it looks like. I don’t know enough about digital cameras to know what to look for so I was wondering if anyone could recommend one? Any camera below $400 Canadian would be fine.

[howyadoin]

One thing to keep in mind is that accessories can easily double the cost of your camera - batteries and a charger, a decent-sized memory card (mine only came with a 16-meg card, which is a joke), a carrying case...

I've got a 4.1 megapixel Fuji A345 that's a year and a half old. With all the accessories included, it came to about 500 bucks Canadian. From what I hear, prices have dropped since then.

[DonC]

I got an HP Photosmart M525 6.0 Megapixel camera last year. I spent less than $200 American on it and a couple 512MB memory cards (they were on sale) and a carrying case. It isn't necessary by any means, but I also got rechargeable batteries. Those and the charger ran me $40, I think.

[thespianphryne]

Sort of depends on what kind of photography you're hoping to do with your camera. If you don't care about the optics, you can get some good deals on cameras 5 megapixels or more for under Cdn$300. Although you should budget a little more for memory cards and back up batteries.

Just remember that after a point it doesn't matter how many mega pixels you have, it's your lens that makes the difference. So if you're basically a snapshooter, a 4-5 megapixel camera with 5x-8x zoom should hold up well for you. Once you get over the 5 megapixels range, remember that a higher zoom capacity is better the higher megapixel capacity.

I would look at Fuji finePix, Nikon Coolpix, or one of the HP Photosmart cameras.

-Das

[Adem]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. To answer your question Das I just want it to take quick pictures. I'm not planning on using it to do work or art.

[thespianphryne]

All right then, here're a couple of recs that'll give you room to buy extra memory as well. These are all good snapshot type cameras.

Kodak EasyShare V570
Fujifilm FinePix Z1
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1K
Sony Cyber Shot DSC-W5
Casio Exilim EX-S500

-Das

[Sheldon]

All of those cameras are fine for just point and click stuff. When you get into manual control over shutter speed, and aperture and stuff like that you start having to spend more money.

[gary bolt]

I bought a digital camera right around the same time several of my friends did and for some reason we all bought Canons from their PowerShot line. They all have great automatic point and shoot capabilities and take good photos in almost any situation you can imagine taking snapshots in. Mine cost a bit more than what you are aiming for and has all kinds of manual override modes but in most situations the camera takes better photos if I just set it to full automatic. They also are designed to take AA batteries which is often handy because if my re-chargeables run out of juice it is still easy to buy replacement batteries.

I agree with some of the cautions and recommendations mentioned in previous posts. You will probably have to buy a bigger memory card and it is a good idea to get a battery charger and chargeable batteries.

[thespianphryne]

All of those cameras are fine for just point and click stuff. When you get into manual control over shutter speed, and aperture and stuff like that you start having to spend more money.

I refer you to this (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=4700650&postcount=5).

[ragnarok_2012]

So I plan on purchasing a digital camera, but I really don’t want to spend a lot of money on something based on what it looks like. I don’t know enough about digital cameras to know what to look for so I was wondering if anyone could recommend one? Any camera below $400 Canadian would be fine.

Here (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=1727559&postcount=6), and here (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=2456545&postcount=20) are some posts that you might find useful.

I'd tend to look at cameras that use sd memory media and shy away from xd media if I were you. xd is the most expensive, and I believe that sd is the cheapest.

[Adem]

Thanks for the information everyone. I'll look at the cameras you mentioned and try to find the accessories.