Call for advice!
I'm in the market for a digital camera. What I'm thinking so far is that I want something that has a respectable amount of optical zoom and is willing to occasionally let me adjust a setting or two myself instead of always doing it all for me, because I'm pretentious and artsy and like taking strange pictures of normal things. I'm also thinking that I'm willing to spend a few hundred bucks on something nice that won't be instantly obsolete and/or broken, but would hesitate to go over, say, $400.
Take note: this is one of only a small handful of times in the history of Snoqualmie that I've actually asked for advice and expressed a desire to take people's suggestions to heart. More often, I'm beating off unwanted advisers with a stick. So take advantage of the opportunity! If you know things about cameras, be it about brands, features, retailers, or what they think about in their spare camera-y time, tell those things to me. Danke.
Try checking out:
http://www.photo.net
http://www.steves-digicams.com/
Beware of trying to get a "good" camera and end up with one that's too big/heavy to carry around during daily life. Unless you plan on making very intentional photo-shoot outings.
Posted by: Elliot at April 26, 2007 12:30 AMCameras are something that I can comment on, to a degree. My Canon brand loyalty might be showing, though...
I used my Powershot s400 for a number of glorious years before I upgraded. If you want something small with astounding color I'd say go for one of their mid-range Powershot Elph cameras (SD700, for example). You can expect 3x or 4x zoom on those.
If you want something with a little more 'manual' potential, then their Pro Series S3 is pretty nice. Voyeur-ready 12x zoom, plus all of the manual exposure settings you could hope for. The only flexibility that it doesn't offer would be interchangeable lenses, which you'd be hard-pressed to get sub-$500.
They both have image stabilization (which is nice for super telephoto, like the S3's 432mm :-O) and both use SD memory cards. They can also take movies, if you're into that sort of thing.
In any case, make sure you save some cash for a huge memory card, cuz 6 megapixel photos fill up memory cards (and, hell, hard drives) pretty quickly.
One or two last plugs before I get off of my soap box: check out B&H. Their prices are really quite amazing. Just don't bother trying to buy from them from sundown on Fridays to sundown on Saturdays; possibly the only e-commerce site that I can recall closing for Shabbat. If you happened to be in The Valley for some reason, you can also get a heck of a deal at Canoga Camera, without all of that nasty waiting.
Posted by: Erik at April 26, 2007 12:40 AMBoingBoing loved the Lumix FX07. The silver one is $263 at Amazon (though other colors are up to $100 more for some strange reason. A pool of all the pictures on flicker taken with that camera is here. Speaking of those kinds of pools, I've found the Flickr CameraFinder to be a great way to compare picture quality for a variety of different cameras. For example, the Canon PowerShot SD600, which is currently the most popular camera on Flickr.
Posted by: Jacob at April 26, 2007 08:37 AMStar light, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, figure out why the fuck comments aren't showing up on this entry.
Posted by: Dianna at April 26, 2007 12:47 PMFor some complicated reason I can't quite remember, I seem to have a Consumer Reports online subscription that I've never gotten rid of. If you'd be interested in checking out what CR has to say, I'd be happy to use it as an occasion to try to remember what the hell my password is and email it to you.
Posted by: katie at April 27, 2007 12:38 PMMovableType Fairs says "Dianna, I heard your wish and instead of granting your wish, I'm going to provide a wish workaround. Those comments weren't showing up because MTBlacklist set them for moderation because they had over 5 links in them (automatically requires moderation at that point). I don't however understand how MTBlacklist works with registered user comments. So I've fixed these 2 comments but there's till the possibility until I figure this out that future comments will get suck as needing to be approved (due to to many links for example) and there will be no "approval" user interface to do this. I'll look into this. Oh and also, if you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything. And even a nobody can be a hero. Ok, ya that's all."
Posted by: gene at April 27, 2007 03:25 PMThank you, Movable Type Fairy! And now you know: more than five links gets you detained indefinitely without appeal. Try to be helpful, get sent to Gitmo. Be less helpful, guys.
Katie: I would indeed be interested in making you go on a wild goose-chase for your password. Jacob and Erik: I will now follow your handy and newly accessible links. Thank you. Elliot: I will now follow your devastatingly Movable-Type-compatible but tragically unhip non-links. And I want one of those old enormous box cameras where you put your whole head under a big black hood and can't move the camera itself not only because it's so big and clunky but also because it takes three minutes to finish exposing the film.
Posted by: Dianna at April 27, 2007 03:42 PMOh my goodness. They're so tiny and fuzzy and glum! Don't they know that the cuteness factor of small things is increased dramatically by their being mildly unhappy? My ability to objectively evaluate the quality of the photographs is dissolving in the face of this big-eyed ennui. I have no choice but to buy whatever camera took that picture in the hope that it will result in me having puppies to photograph.
Posted by: Dianna at April 27, 2007 08:27 PM