Hi everyone, my dad got decided in buying my mom a digital camera for christmas, but i dont know much in that kidna stuff and him either... they have so many cams! We usualy take pics in the summer outside during vacation ( fourwheeling in the bush).(and preferably good for modeling pics:p)

so within a reasonable price, preferably under 300$ what cam would be a good buy? if you need more info feel free to pm me or write soemthing.

Thanks in advance,
frank

i nearly forgot, all those baterys adn memorie sticks and stuff ,what woudl be needed?

well, i am borrowing my grandmothers camara and it is only 4x optimal, I can tell you right now... for modeling you cannot zoom in enough to get most of the cool details. But it also hides the bad ones :-)


Well anyways I think a 6x optimal up to a 10x optimal would be great for modeling, the price range is around $300 for the 6x optimal. I have no clue, your lookin up to $600 for a 10x. Hope this helped! Good luck, happy holidays... (:-)

Hey Fran, I got this digital camera from my daughter. It's the Kodak Easyshare DX4530 including docking base and 128 mb memory card under $195.00. It's 5.0 pixels,32 mb internal memory, 3.3 digital zoom. I could go on and on. I'ts a good camara, worth looking it to. Happy shopping

For the use that you are indicating, you need a simple digital camera, between 2 and 4 megapixels. For the family snaps a camera with 3 X OPTICAL zoom is enough, but more is always better. To take pictures of your models, you need a macro setting. This allows you to bring the camera to within an Inch or so (depending on specification) of the object. That is what captures the detail of your model. A zoom lens is not good enough for this. For the zoom lens to be able too focus, you typicaly will have to be at a distance of some 70 cm, or just over three feet. You than have to zoom in, which flattens the picture, and removes all sense of proportion. Best advice I can give you is to go to a reputable photograhpic shop ( or store for our overseas cousins ) and explain what you want to do with your camera, and buy the most expensive camera your budget allows. It does depend on how much you will use your camera, if you really only take a few snapshots on a family day out and a few pic's of your models, a basic model is enough but if you would want to do more, you will quickly find that a less well spec'd camera can be very frustrating. A good shop will take time to explain the different features like aperture, shutterspeed, macro and zoom and things like the quality of the lens. It is better to buy a 2 megapixel camera with a high quality lens than a 4 Megapixel camera with a mediocre lens.
I have a Fujifilm S5000, which is a 3 megapixel camera and 10X zoom + macro. The pictures on my website and in my gallery have been taken with this camera.

Any other questions, just ask

Cheers
Henk

It's actually not that simple to suggest a brand and/or a model.
What you should look for is something having macro functionality and that possibly has got the possibility to manually set the white balancing if you "shoot" at your models in artificial light...
Ciao
Fabio

Along the same line of questioning--------
already got a digi cam.....works fine and I'm not looking for a new one... but wondering if they make any along a SLR type.....????? Also ones with adjustable F-stops???? Or are they all fully auto????

I have Kodak, I am pleased with it performance. I would recommend that or an Olympus. Nothing lower than 4 megapixel for good quality for printing.They both are outstanding. For future reference, a good printer is also a consideration when buying a camera if you plan on printing any. Many companies are coming out with good ones designed to work with their cameras. Epson also makes great printers for a reasonable price.

I have a Sony CD300 which I like, it records the photos right onto a Mini CD-R or CD-RW so no need or memory sticks, and you can just take it out and pop it in your CD-R or DVD-R drive with no need for wires or special drive slots on your computer.
Additionally memory sticks aren't cheap, and mini CD's can be had real cheap and they hold about 200 hi-def photos or about 180MB they also record MPEG's albeit small ones.

Hope this helps,
Dave

Dave,

There are digital cams out there that are a lot like an SLR. My sister-in-law has one. They are pretty pricey. She paid about $1000 for hers.

Francois,

I have had a Fujifilm for almost 4 years. It's 3.8 megapixels w/macro and zoom and, depending on the memory card size, you can take 2-5 minute videos with it. A macro function is absolutely necessary for close up model shots and I would definitely recommend a zoom lens. Check out www.buy.com. They have a reasonable selection of cameras so you can get an idea of what's available for how much $$$.

Three things I always tell people when they ask about a digicam. First is comfort. Does the ieme feel good in your hands? Does it feel like you're going to be able to use it comfortably? If not, you have an expensive paperweight. Secondly, make sure you have a viewfinder in additio to any LCD screen on the back. Bright sunlight will wash out the screen and you'll not be able to compose your pictures. Third, how easy is it going to be to get your iomages into your computer. If the CPU doesn't have accessible front USB ports, can you easily get to the USB ports on the back?
Next, will you have to lay out extra money for a dock or does the camera interface with the computer by USB cable or CD?
As was mentioned, if you want to take pictures of models, you'll need to have a macro setting, identified by a flower icon.
Optical zoom is preferable to digital zoom, since the latter only increases the size of the pixels, the individaul picture elements.
Dave, you asked about f-stops, etc. Mid range cameras should have several program modes that allow you to override the auto features. My 3 year old Sony FD-95 has a number of programs, including ones that simulate either aperture or shutter priority.

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=DSCP73&Dept=dcc_DIDigitalCameras&CategoryName=dcc_DIDigitalCameras_Cyber-shotDigitalCameras

this is the one my dad had an eye on, fits the budget... and took nice pics in the store... says it has a macro (at the botom of the page when they specify the special thigns it has)

would this be good for outside pics? and model pics :-) :-) :-) o, and inside pics?

thanks for the advice, il be using it !
Frank

Sounds good to me.

'sup

I have a Minolta Dimage at hom 4.2 megapixel.
I'm raelly reallly happy with the results!
For Example..



Here in Belgium it's abbout 300 euro... i don't know how much in dolar. (400?)

cheerz Q.

The thing about all cameras you need to remember is...it's a box with a hole in it. What you want to make sure of, is that you have the best hole around...ie. the lens....alot of camera manufacturers are using plastic optics (and there have been many advances in plastic optics over the years) but you cant beat glass. Of all the manufacturers on the market today, the four main manufacturers of camersa(boxes) , that I know of, that make their own glass are Leica, Nikon, Canon and Minolta.

The next thing is the number of megs you want...4-5 is great...i would'nt go under that...then you have options like the lens capabilities(zoom distance and macro).

goodluck and Merry Christmas (:-)

For all you need to know, go to

http://www.dpreview.com/

This is a great site with professional reviews, and most importantly user reviews, of probably every digital camera around.