I'm in the market for a camera. Looking for a quality shooter because there are a lot of subjects I've come across, mainly outdoors. Also, for posting pics at Amorama :-) Any suggestions? Especially with periphials and neccessary accessories, software

Ryne,
I cant tell you enough how happy the wife and I are with the camera we bought... Its a Panasonic Lumix FZ20..Check out this link. This is where we purchased the camera.. The counter people were top notch.. I would expect the same service via the net as well..
Henry's


I know this looks a bit overwhelming but so far this camera has preformed flawlessly for us... The photos I have in my gallery wereall taken with this camera.. If you would like to see more, let me know and I can e-mail them off to you..

Dave

Fujifilm S5000. ( now S5500) up to 4MP's , fully auto through to fully manual, up to ten X zoom (eqivualent to 380 mm old lens!!) All the finesse of a SLR, but without the interchangeable lenses.
Highly recommended.

Cheers
Henk

I guess it depends on how much you want to spend, i have been using a Sony Cyber-shot F828 7X opticial zoom 8.0 mega pixels good macro mode for shooting models and i also have a M-150 close up lens added to the front for the close up shots you see in my gallery this was the first consumer 8 mega pixel camera every setting on this camera can be manually adjusted, shutter speeds appature flash mode white balence awsome camera. Most cameras come with some kind of user software to get you started. Also check any magazine counter for a good camera book there are dozens of ads it will give you some where to start, and check all the big name brands Cannon, Nikon, Minolta.

Whats the difference between this camara and a Pentax single reflex camara? Ive been wanting a camara like this and I think this would be a very nice camara. Im not into all the info on all of theses camaras and want to know more info about it. Since i dont really want to highjack the forum for my support, if youd like, you can PM me. Thanks alot in advance and if anyone else can help me, please feel free! TIA!

I like Sony's cybershot series. Easier to use.

I have Canons' powershot 500 now with 5mp. I don't like it that much as I did my old cybershot.

Hi,

I just bought a digital camera. When I was looking I got a few tips:
-Take a camera from a brand that makes also analoge camera's, the lenzes are better.
-Don't look at digital zoom, only optical. Digital zoom makes the photos look like their build up out of squares.
-Make sure it react activily to you pushing the button.
A friend of mine bougth a HP camera and he couldn;t take action photos with it because when he pushed the button it would take a few moments for the camera to react, so the moment is gone.
-4 MP is usualy more than enough, ask yourself how often are you going to enlarge photos. 4 MP is good enough for A4 enlargements. In a normal photo you won't see the difference between 4 or 5 MP, your eyes are not able to detect this.

I tried out the sony cybershot A75 for photographing models (macro option) and I wasn't happy with the result, very blurry photos.

By the way I bought a kodac DX6490. I'm very happy with it. It has a schneider lenz (german, very good). And it's surprisingly light (in weight that is). 10X optical and reacts very fast for a digital camera. A good alround camera.

Just my two cents, hope this helps.

Regards,
Pascal

Hi all,

Bought the S5500 two days ago. I second what Henk says, I had some great results already.
Really nice camera.

Vic

i am looking to upgrade to a pro camera. What are some good ones 1000-5000 in price range

I bought a Nikon D70 in October 2004 and it is a really great digital SLR. It cost about $1200 and comes with a 18-70 mm autofocus zoom lens. You have to use a X 1.5 factor to compare the focal length with a typical 35 mm film camera lens becqause of the differnce in size between the film apertuer and the sensor. It equates to a 27-105 mm lens on a 35 mm SLR which goes from a decent wide angle to a moderate telephoto. I do not recommend ever changing the lenses on a digital SLR because you run the risk of introducing dust on the sensor. You can spot dust spots by taking a clear sky shot at a small aperture and the dust shows up as small smudges. I had to clean my sensor twice with a special Copper Hill cleaning kit to elimitae several dust spots from the factory. No more dust problem since the cleaning. I also bought a 1 GB Sandisk Ultra II compact flash memory card that ran an extra $120. The max resolution is 6.1 megapixels (3008 x 2000) and I can get about 294 photos on my 1 GB card at an average of 3 MB each. The Nikon rechargable battery lasts forever. For action shots, the D70 can shoot at 3 frames per second till the memory card fills up with no lagging. I tried it and after 30 seconds or so of contionuous shooting I had almost 100 photos with no hesitation at all.

The D70 has now been replaced by the D70s, but it's much the same camera. For a slightly cheaper more consumer oriented model you could go for the D50.

If you are serious about doing macro work, I would suggest investing in either a 60mm Micro Nikkor lens, or the 105mm version. The 18-70mm that comes with the D70 is not really a macro lens. If you are working really close, the 105mm will allow you to acheive an f stop of effectively f45, this will give you a reasonable depth of field even when quite close. I use both these lenses on my D1x for doing close up macro work on aircraft components, photographing small cracks and other damage.