Hi guys.

I'm thinking of getting a new digital camera, and not realy sure on what I should be focusing on. Anyone that can give me some tips?

Thomas, in my opinion you might look into a Sony Cyber Shot... Any of the models that they have in the cyber shot line are great... We have one and are truly impressed with it.

Yesterday, after much deliberating I finally bought myself a digi-camera.. it's the Sony P72.
I took a fair amount of consideration as looking at some of the other models of a similar price, they simply don't have the specs. that Sony offers....Macro, 3.1 megapixels,all the cables and software necessary for uploading images it even includes a battery charger.
It is a pretty complex little beast though. So far I have managed (after consulting the extensive manual) to open the box, remove the camera from its wrapping and take the batteries out.... Today i might put the batteries in the camera.... #:-) Jim

As an update on the previous post, I have just taken some test photos of my Tamiya Centaur, looking good so far....I've even saved them to disk...Jim

Just started realising that the camera I have already isn't that bad. Have a Canon Power shop S30 3,2 megapixels. But I have found another that wouldn't be to bad, a Canon EOS 300D, 6,3 megapixels, only problem is that is costs about as much as I make in a month...

Check out my post here - https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/11911&page=1

I go over some of the basics when it comes to digital photography as well as reccomend a couple of cameras. To truly be able to accurately qualify you for a camera, the salesperson needs to know a few things about how you plan to use the camera, size of pics, manual control, etc.

to tell you the truth i run with my hp 850 digital camera 4.1 Mp and 7 x 8 zoom which till now is great , very easy to use with good contro good flash very good use of batterries and with an extra memory stick i take a lot of pictures of superb quality, download them in a min in the computer very easy .Cost me about 400 euros which is about 400 uS$. Think about it . For the Cannon and the sony's theyre very good cameras but you also pay some for the brand name. For regular camera i got a NIKON F 80 with some lenses macro , tele ,,,,
Hope this will help

Hiya, ThomasB.

There's only one or two really important things to be sure about, and that's a "macro-setting", and a possibillity for white-balance correction.
Megapix numbers and brands are some personal points of consideration, for example: are you going to use only for modeling pictures... 2 Megapics will be more than enough.
But if you want to take holiday-pics, and so on, and planning to print them out, I'd say you need some more MP's.
I'm working with a Sony p-92 now, and I'm very pleased with it, but it is not said you're gonna use all the features on a little beast like mine, so find out where you are going to use it for, and then make the dissision!

Good luck, John.

We're planning to get one next year. The Canon A70 or A80 is on top of the list. It's got a lot of options that can be manually set. It's a bit heavy because it uses 4 AA batteries.

I have yet to take the plunge and buy a digital but my vintage Pentax is on its last legs so I have been looking.

Apart from Mac compatibility (because I have an iMac!) I consider max pixel and max optical zoom as important. If you are only viewing pics on a CRT then the resolution is not so important, but to make printable copy the higher res is essential.

When I invest in hardware it has to last - the Pentax was purchased in 1964 - so I tend to look at top of the line and then work down eliminating the features I am unlikely to use.

Regards Dave

FWIW
I bought a Kodak in late August, and in many ways I regret it.
It isn't warrantied for drops, and has already been dropped once, (broke the shutter to the point it wouldnt open, waaaaaaaaaaaaah)
That wasn't warrantied and when i bought it, the lady didnt mention the extended warranty which would have covered drops. (Probably would have declined it anyway, but new buyers might want to think that over beforehand.)
Their "EasyShare" software is BUGGY. Crashes regularly and all you can do is reboot, doesnt close with Task manager, or anything, works half-assed if you dont dump to many pics into the PC at once, though.
Also it requires a USB "base" like gizmo to seat the camera into to dump the photos into a PC.
(It came with rechargeable batteries but I could have bought them anyway)

I'll probably look at other brands whenever this ones time ends.

The pics in "my gallery" were taken with it, and it seems to be "wife friendly" so I'll say that good about it.
I recommend you think twice before going Kodak, anyone in the market.
Not bad, but not great either.

I have the A70 and can't really find any complaints. A nice to have feature would be a wireless remote control (you can "remote control" it from the computer via the USB cable). Don't worry about it being heavy: the battery compartment shape is very ergonomic and makes a good handle. I use re-chargeable batteries and bought a fast charger designed for digital camera use. IMHO it isn't too fast, takes at least 3 hours to fully recharge but they do last several days and hundreds of shots then.

The macro mode works well enough, haven't really used it much as I don't have any worthwhile models yet (just about to return to this wonderful hobby). The few freehand test shots I took of my watch (~5 cm distance) were impressive enough.

I haven't read anything about the A80 yet but I saw it in the window of a camera shop one day and it looks delicious. Seems that it has a few more modes and options and maybe a bigger lens. It can't be worse so go for that model if you got the money.

Hey ThomasB.....if you already have that camera, you are all set up to take pics of your models...depending on your macro lense. I have the Canon A40 which is only a 2.1MP and a Macro of 6", and I can get great 8X10 pics out of it with no distortion or grainyness in the pictures. My only complaint with this camera is the macro lense, as its only 6 inches....any closer than that and the auto focus won't work....in most respects....6" is enough, but there are times when you would want to get closer in an engine bay or something to pick up the detail....otherwise it works great!!

My other complaint....would be for all digital cameras in general....when you take a pic and see it on the LCD screen it doesn't look that big or you think you need to be closer....and its hard to see if the camera focused properly as the picture is so small....but once you get it on the computer the screen a 17" or 19" then the detail looks amazing.....but I guess I shouldn't comlplain too much as old film cameras.....you couldn't see the picture until you developed the film!!

I have an Olympus C-2100 UZ that I bought in 2001. I actually bought it because it was similar in function to an SLR film camera. It is 2.1mp but I have printed out 8x10 photos that are as crisp and clear as a film camera. (plus it has a 10x zoom built in.)

Just my $0.02

In my modest opinion, I got an Pentax Optio 550, with 5 megapixels... Great lenses (as we know Pentax makes great lenses) and a supermacro function that is the best I saw in the market: can take pictures from 2 CM from the motive!!!! most of digital cameras can take macro pictures from 10 cm so you can see what kind of detail I can get with not too much work... the drawback is that it costs 800 € ( at least in Portuguese stores) which is a lot for the common portuguese salary!!
But It's worth the prize....

See yaaaa

I'VE RECENTLY BOUGHT AN OLYMPUS STYLUS 4MP.
SO FAR I'M DELIGHTED WITH IT.
IT'S TURNED OUT TO BE BETTER THAN THE SONY CYBERSHOT I USED BEFORE.
CHEERS
PETER :-)

Finally got the A80 last weekend! It's just the right size, just the right weight, almost idiot-proof and wife-friendly to boot! Kinda expensive here because it costs around 100 USD more than what they're going for in the US. The swiveling LCD is great for self portraits and very high or very low shots. Single use Panasonic alkaline batteries last for more than 100 shots even with the LCD and flash on. The 32MB CF that came in the box is big enough for me mainly because I can download pics to the PC everyday. I still have my old Nikon EL2 film SLR for backup though.

I've yet to see a picture I didn't like. The "camera shake" indicator is a very nice touch especially when shooting in low-light mode. The orientation sensor keeps you from getting a stiff neck from all those vertical shots since it automatically reorients them for LCD viewing. The manual settings for aperture, shutter speed and ISO really sold me to this camera. Max aperture is f8 and that'll be fine for most of the shots I'll be taking.

Three thumbs up so far!

Nice to hear that the A80 continues the tradition. Got any sample images up yet?

Test shot

My oh my. I like the depth of field effect and the macro capabilities seem excellent. :

All I can say is dont get the 'HP photosmart 320: 2.1 MP/4x digital zoom'. Its a great camera for photographing real people, tanks, ect. but when it comes to models, I guess it doesnt work that great.

Try Canon Powershot G2. My dad just bought me one today with the 128 CF card to boot. Oh yeah!

Test Pic.


I've just tried that shot today and it looks cool. Still, I prefer my dad's old Sony 1.3 MP videocam. It has the manual focus setting which can be used more for focusing very small items.

Hi I can reccommend the Olympus Stylus 4.
and my brother has the Cannon like Shonnen...recommended too.

Cheers
Peter
:-) click

I had been using a Kodak DC4800 3.1 MP with great success. It has a PC socket so I can plug a studio strobe into it directly.

I recently got the Nikon Coolpix 5700 5MP and am very happy with it. It does not have a PC socket but has a hotshoe. I have an attachment that allows you to plug a strobe sync cord into it once it is attached to the hotshoe.

The difference in sharpness of the images is pretty marked and I like the electronic viewfinder. It gives more of the feeling of a regular SLR.

Digital is definately here to stay but they will have to pry my 30 year old Nikon F2's from my cold dead fingers!!!

I use a Canon 10D with a 550ex flash and a 24-70mm f2.8 lens as well as studio strobes... Thinking that an extension tube might be of use for close ups of 1/35th scale faces though... If you have the budget, a set up like this will do most anything you want it to do... But it will put a big dent in your bank account... I'm a freelance photo journalist, so it was required for my work... As well as a nice tax write off...

The hot shoe attachment that STM mentioned is probably called a Safe-Sync... Wein makes one that I use... It allows you to plug into your studio strobes as well as limiting the voltage that can enter the camera to 6 volts... Digital cameras are vulnerable to power spikes from strobe units... A safe sync is a very good investment... Think I paid about $50 for the Wein Safe Sync...