camera purchase

[grousehunter]

Does anyone have any advice for a relativly cheap $200 and under digital camera that would take decent photos? I would want it mostly for taking pictures outdoors(scenery, wildlife and just hunting and fishing photos). Not to overly conserned how it performs indoors, but would like it to do good in low light conditions to really sunny conditions. Not really sure what you can ask for in a 200 dollar camera but want to start getting into photography a little bit, i have always loved taking pictures.

Blake

[Jackpine Rob]

I assume you're talking about a point and shoot? If so, we've had pretty good luck with the Kodaks, and I have just purchased them off Kodak's HSOforum. You can get refurbished cameras with a full warranty for under retail prices.

The one I have is the C763, and it fits nicely into the shirt pocket. Rechargeable LiIon battery. The pic in my avatar was taken with that camera. Here's another one from the same trip.

[finnbay]

Almost all of today's point and shoots do a pretty good job under the conditions you think are important. If you plan on getting up to and 8x10 print, I would suggest at least a 5 megapixel. Don't need much more than that.

[Moose]

Grousehunter,

I recently purchased a Panasonic TZ3 from Circut City for $235.00 and it came with a 1gb sd card for free I had to order it online and pick it up in the store to get that price. It has a good 10x optical zoom that starts at 28mm for the wide landscape shot and goes out a long distance on the telephoto end. It's a 7mp camera which is more than enough for anything I want to do and it has a full range of features. There are no manual settings this is a simple point and shoot. I like it because it is small enough to put in a small case and where it on the belt like a cell phone and still has a big zoom to catch the Eagle in the tree I,m fishing by or carry through the woods Grouse Hunting and not get tangled in the brush you can google it and type reviews after the model # and get all the info you need on it and several price ranges but beware of some of the really cheap stores they are usually a scam. Stick with a store that has a good name like Amazon or circuit or some of the other ones people on this forum have mentioned

I like the Panasonics for their picture quality and high quality Leica lense. I'm still getting use to it but I'll try to post some picture to give you an Idea of the quality.

This is no zoom

This is 10x

This is 40x with digital zoom

The lighting idd kind of bad but it give you and Idea of the zoom range.

[MN Shutterbug]

I also have a Panasonic P & S. I think it's a great little camera. Mine sports a 12X optical zoom. However, I do think you'd be better off with a camera that allows you to take some control. Automatic will work great in the majority of the cases, but it's always nice to have the manual override. Not only that, but you'll learn much more about photography if you can be in charge of the camera.

[grousehunter]

What do you guys think of the Canon PowerShot A570IS 7.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom? I can get this one on amazon for $140 and it got good reviews. It says it has.... Manual The ultimate in creative control, you set ISO speed, exposure compensation and white balance. Are there point and shoots that have more manual control or is this what you were talking about? Do you think 4x zoom will be good enough? thanks,

Blake

[MN Shutterbug]

A 4X optical zoom won't do much for you. This is only the 35mm equivalent of somewhere around 140mm. If you want to take pictures of wildlife with this camera, you had better tame the wildife first. Other than that, I know nothing about the camera. Anyway, anything under 10X, you probably won't be happy.

[grousehunter]

lol...well now that i canceled that order. I've been looking at the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8K 7.2MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom. At $250 its definatly a lot more then i want to spend, but seems like it has a whole lot more features and more manual stuff to learn about on it. It always seems like you can just keep adding 10 dollars here and there to get something a little better, lol..where does it stop

[Jim Almquist]

Grousehunter you don't even want to go there The first digital was Kodak 3.1 mp that was around $350.00 7 or 8 years ago then a Minolta that is 4 years old and that ran around $400 and now a Canon 30D which at the time ran around $1300 and all I was trying to do was get the camera to take the picture when I pushed the shutter It was more then just that but once you shoot a SLR a P&S will drive you nuts if you can not control what it is doing to the shot you are trying to shoot. The Panasonic you are looking at sound like a good little rig.

[Steve Foss]

The Panasonic Lumix series is excellent. It has the features that pretty much all the good P&S cameras have, and as mentioned that Leica lens is SUHWEET!

[grousehunter]

Well im pretty sure ive decided on getting the lumix fz8...should i get a faster memory card if im taking shots all in a row, like action type shots...or how does that work, will i be fine using the cheaper one? Is there anything else i should look into getting with it besides a camera case?

Blake

[Steve Foss]

Blake, I'm not sure how fast the camera's own writing speed is. You may spend some extra money only to find the camera can't write to the card as fast as the card is capable of taking the images, in which case you'd have wasted your money on the faster card.

Fast cards have their biggest impact in that, when you buy a cheap card reader to plug into your computer (WAY faster than plugging the camera itself into the computer) the faster card will upload its images to the computer in less time than the slower card.

But goodness, a SanDisk high quality fast writing 2 Gb card is going for something like $25 these days. The other thing about the best brand names and faster cards is they tend to be the longest-lasting, too. So if you can find a good deal on a 1 Gb or 2 Gb SanDisk or Lexar card, go for it.

[MN Shutterbug]

I think you made a good choice. It'll only be a matter of time before you'll want to add a conversion lens for even more zoom. When that time comes, and it will, let me know. I've got one that works great on the Lumix. I wouldn't be without mine.

[grousehunter]

so will any scandisk work then...dont have to worry about it not fitting or anything. I found a scandisk 4gb extreme 3 sdhc card and usb reader combo for 40 dollars..would that work? im not really sure how fast the camera is, but this is what is says..

Shutter Lag 0.005 seconds

Time Between Shots 0.6 seconds

Burst Capability 3 or 2 fps Up to 13 images (Standard mode) or up to 7 images (Fine mode)

Would i need a faster card like i mentioned for this or could i just go with a cheaper combo..found some 2gb cards for as little as 12 dollars. Doubt i really need the higher speed, but would like to have the card matched to the camera just in case

Blake

[mmeyer]

grousehunter,

Unless you're going to be shooting lot of bursts (not many people do), you wouldn't need the faster card. It will write to your computer faster but with jpegs, that's not a huge issue either. I have one faster card and 3 regular cards and I don't notice any difference for the most part. As long as your camera takes an "SD" card any "SD" card will do.

[grousehunter]

thanks for all the help..just ordered the lumix dmc-fx8 , now for the long wait though. Then off to hunt down a nice tree/trees pic for the march photo!

[yakfisher]

If your looking at an SDHC card make sure the camera can read it. SD and SDHC are a little different. A camera that uses an SDHC card can use an SD card but a camera that uses an SD may not work with the SDHC. I know my DSLR will not work with SDHC or a card larger than 2GB. Otherwise the $40 deal sounds great.

[Random guy]

Thanks guys. I destroyed another camera and all I know is to point it at the fish press the shiny button. So that info helped. Will the Panosonic do a good job for me taking close up shots of clients with fish then blowing them up to 8x10s both easily and clearly? Nothing worse then having a picture of a trophy fish that looks "fuzzy".

Also do they offer something guide proof? Water, impact, temp resistant? I tend to trash at least one a year.

[yakfisher]

 Originally Posted By: Jonny P

Thanks guys. I destroyed another camera and all I know is to point it at the fish press the shiny button. So that info helped. Will the Panosonic do a good job for me taking close up shots of clients with fish then blowing them up to 8x10s both easily and clearly? Nothing worse then having a picture of a trophy fish that looks "fuzzy".

Also do they offer something guide proof? Water, impact, temp resistant? I tend to trash at least one a year.

Check out the Olympus 770sw or the 790sw, both are super compact, water resistant to 33ft and shock proof from a five foot drop. My wife bought me the 770 because as she says it's Matt proof. I made a post with a couple of pictures on it that was started about the same time as this one. Check it out, it's title "Decent pocket camera."

[Steve Foss]

Jonny, any of the better point and shoots will do what you want as good as any of the other of them. I generally recommend the Panasonic Lumix series because that Leica lens is a BIG plus.

But none of them are Jonny-proof. There are no such cameras in the world.

[jonny_redhorse]

that Panasonic 18x zoom feature finally got to me!...I (being a point and shoot afficianado )...parted with a few buckos and will have my new Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ18 tomorrow !...I know I coulda went with the "big guns" but I just don't like lugging those lenses around and everything is on the camera for what I want to do!....from less then half an inch on those macro shots(which I love)to zooming out 18x with a 28x504mm Leica lens,plus I can screw on my 1.7 olympus teleconverter to get out alittle further...it has Raw capabilities and full manual settings as well.....no,it's not going to be great for those "bokeh" shots but I have been able to live with that for some years now,and settle for "reach" on those birdies in the fields,also bought it because my fuji s5000 has taken over 11,000 images and is getting "tired" ...guess we'll see ....I still have my fuji s9000 and it's a great camera for beautiful super close-up macros and my Nikon digiscope for those "far off" telephoto shots....the digiscope does show quite abit of bokeh on its images...comes with the close DOF ....springs coming!...I want to get some photos of migrating "shore birds" heading north to the nesting grounds in the tundra!....or that ruffed grouse sitting on it's drummimg log!....I'll be ready!

[Steve Foss]

That's great, Jonny! Way to go!

[MN Shutterbug]

I can't wait to see some photos from this camera. BTW, before you can screw on your Tcon-17, you'll need to get an adapter from Panasonic or a reseller.

[finnbay]

Whoa! That's a mean lookin' machine, jonny! The Sax-Zim Bog is gonna take a beating now!

[Dbl]

Good for you jonny, congratulations on the new camera!