Camera Recommendation

[ezgb59a]

Okay I'm in the market for a digital camera. I looked at them several years ago and said no thanks. Now they have improved - supposedly - and take much better pictures. If nothing else they are much smaller!!!

What are some good cameras out on the market? What kind of $ can I expect to spend? I've got two box cameras (Minolta and Canon AE10) ... don't care for the Minolta all that much but it is easy to use. The Canon I have some tele lenses and use it to take most pictures. But a digital would be nice to add to the mix.

So what should I look for? What brands are good? Which ones are bad? What features should I look at? What kind of price range gets you the most for the money?

Any insight would be great.

THanks
Mike

[Jeff G]

I have the Panasonic DMZ-30. It's is about as far up the ladder you can go without getting into a true DSLR(interchangeable lenses).

It is a great camera allowing you everything from full manual control to full auto control and it has a fabulous lens. It runs between $600-$700.

The main thing to look for in any camera is the lens. That is what makes or breaks the camera. The camera can have all the electronic bells and whistles but if the lens isn't terrific the images will suffer. A better way to look for a camera is decide on a price range, then you can filter down to cameras to check out.

[TwoDogsBob]

What those guys said, they have excellent points..
After you go through price range, options, go somewhere where you can pick them up and feel them.
Comfortable, something you can get use to?
Buttons in all the right places?
I mentioned this before, a camera is a tool, YOU are the one taking the photographs. Good tools don't get in the way of the one using them.
After you make your decision go out and shoot, shoot, shoot.. Shooting photos in digital, besides the cost of the camera, is free so do it a bunch. Learn from your mistakes and get to know the camera well.

[tomkat83]

i have a samsung S630. 6mp, 3x zoom. it was 129.99 from circuit city. even came with a free 512mb sd card. it's fairly small, takes nice close-up pictures of coins and full feature videos are darn decent at 30 frames per second. i originally wanted a fuji finpix (a large frame camera) but after carrying my g/f's clunky olypus around for 8 hours i decided against a big camera.