i bought a canon powershot G2 last christmas. and i really wish i had gotten the G3. you can easily find a G3 on ebay (from an internet store, brand new) for the price of the A80 at a retailer (like best buy). my G2 was about $350
it depends what you want to use it for though. the G series are much better cameras, but the A series are more point-and-shoot cameras. it's not very convenient carrying a G2 in your pocket to take snapshots of your friends at a bar, but it's great for other situations. the A80 is also 4 megapixels which is really good quality. i'm not sure on what shooting modes are avalable, but i know that the G3 can take up to 3 minutes of video and can do time lapse shooting without being connected to a computer (all canon cameras can do interval shooting, but require being connected to a computer via the 1 ft USB cable)
absolutely get one. very convenient. i'll never go back to film. i'm not partial to any brand or model, but make sure it has the features you will use. and skip the ones you won't, as in, do you really need a voice recorder in your camera?
pick a media type that you can conveniently use: can you get the pics by wire only, sd, smart media, disc, etc. just make sure you can get the pics without too much trouble.
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I have 4 MP Kodak camera. It is a good little camera for the amateur. It should be just fine. I wish it had more optical zooms, but it was the best buy around when I got it. Watch out for digital zooms, they are not what they are cracked up to be. If you want to get REALLY close go with a camera with at least 3-4 levels of optical zoom.
if you are going to use digital zoom you might as well just not use it, open the picture and zoom in with your software
i never put much tought into the media type. canon uses compact flash, and the cards are very decently priced. my card came with a 32meg card, and i bought a 128 meg card for like $40 via pricewatch.com. the one thing i don't like is that i can't record images from my computer back to the compact flash card via the camera, it requires an external CF reader/writer (i would like to make prints of some of the cooler pics i've taken, but i don't know how they wll look until i take them off the camera)
if i had cash i would invest in some conversion lenses... a telephoto and a wide angle lens would be awesome
The most important feature of a digital camera is the time that elapses between when you press the shutter and the picture is actually recorded. The shorter the better, but the delay is the reason any real photographer hasn't gone digital yet.
most cameras have a two stage shutter button... halfway meters light and focuses, once it is focused and you press the shutter all the way in it takes the picture. problem is, it's hard to take candid pictures because it takes time to meter and focus, and often times the focus is off. had i known, i would have used my camera's pan-focus mode, that automatically sets the focus to infinity with a high depth of field, so when you hit the shutter release there is less time before the picture is taken. the camera still has to meter the light, but if you do the same in manual mode (set the aperature, shutter speed, and focus) then it'll take the pictures really fast. but you have to worry about proper exposure. this is why i didn't get any tittie pics from mardi gras!
Its 5 mega pixel of goodness!
Does MPEG movies with sound.
In regards to zoom it has 3x optical (NEVER EVER USE DIGITAL ZOOM)
YOU can 'digital' with Photoshop or what ever you use...
My father did wedding photograpy with $$$$ cameras and let me tell you, If you use the full 5 mega pixels and print with Wal-marts' kodak printer making 4x6 prints and you were taking photos out side with day light and your not a complete fuck tard, it would be hard to tell. I can e-mail you some samples that I took if you would like. Any image on my site has been sized down.... I hope this helps. If you have any other questions e-mail me... jshnp7@umr.edu
The most important feature of a digital camera is the time that elapses between when you press the shutter and the picture is actually recorded. The shorter the better, but the delay is the reason any real photographer hasn't gone digital yet.
Very true, unless you pay 1000's of dollars you will not get the 2 photos per sec. average you can get with a $50 SLR...
um, my G2 can do 2.5 or 1.5 (switchable) shots per second. and it's a $400 camera (but that's what i paid, not MSRP)
i've used some sony digital cameras, and i have to say i think they suck. the CD-Mavica is really cool because it burns the images on the CD, but everything else about the camera sucks. and i'm not just talking zoom, megapixel etc. i mean the whole modes and setup and menus were really inconvenient. i've used a lot of cameras and i found the whole thing confusing. BUT that's just me. personally i'll stick with canon or olympus. i prefer to buy a digital camera from a company who started off making cameras (like canon, olympus, konica minolta etc.) and not a company who started off making televisions and other random electronics (like samsung or sony or even casio)
although i DO like the 8 MP sony digital camera with the carl zeiss lens... i don't know the model number but i've seen it at best buy. it's quite hossy!
point is, go to a store and play around with the cameras, find one that YOU like, and buy it. if you listen to other people's responses you w/ill end up with a camera that THEY like which might not suit you
OH, but one really important thing (the one reason i decided i wasn't going to get the A series cameras) is the battery type. DON'T GET A CAMERA THAT DEPENDS ON AA BATTERIES!!! make sure it's got a rechargeable Li-ion battery. if you use it, plug it in at the end of the night, and it'll recharge itself. OR use it for a week, then plug it in. they last way longer than AA batteries, and you can recharge them when you need to. in my opinion that is totally worth it. i think everything should come with rechargeable batteries...
Sony is a good brand,
they aren't that expensive anymore either.
Haven't had any problems w/ my Sony camera. If you are going to get a digital camera think of it as an investment, because there is nothing worse the buying a peice of crap and not using it because it doesn't take good pictures.
i'd say go with one that takes AA batts. I have an A series, but I have NiMh batts in it. They last forever it seems, and if they run out, I don't have to go running for a charger, I can steal batts out of anything else to run it off of.
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I'm more than happy with a $80 POS camera I bought at Comp USA. I don't pretend to be a professional photographer, but this camera takes good pictures as long as you keep the resolution at or below 1280x1024. It's just not worth it to me to spend a lot of money on a camera, especially at the rate that the technology is improving. You can shit out $500 for a camera that could be worth next to nothing in a few years.
DON'T GET A CAMERA THAT DEPENDS ON AA BATTERIES!!!
I wholeheartedly disagree. Get something that takes AA's and get a good set (or 2) of NIMH 1800 MA rechargeable batteries with a charger. That way if you are camping or away from a 120V source you can just use any old Duracell batteries in a pinch.
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