I've come to realize I am a terrible photographer, I need a dummy camera. Non-digital (I still don't think the quality is as good but I'll be glad to be proved wrong) and Non-SLR. Something simple, load it on monday and fire all week, point don't focus just let everything happen. When it takes pictures of my models while I'm asleep I don't want it to wake me up either. I'd like to get some detail photos, do they make macro or powerful enough zoom lens for autofocus cameras?

Does anyone have some good suggestions?

Thanks

Jeff

In a way, it depends on what you plan to take pictures of. if you're going to use it for primarily model photos there are a number of digicams that will work great. Going digital also has a number of advantages over 'traditional' film cameras. - No developing time. If you want to find out how that last picture turned out, connect the camera to your computer and find out. -No film costs. You can use a memory card that came with you camera and use that. However, the memory cards that maufacturers include with their cameras usually are small (16 to 24 megabytes of storage, that means less pictures fit on a card).
As far as options, film cameras are the way to go. On most of them, it's simple to change shutter speed, film speed, fstops, flash, etc. I'd still like to get one of these someday. That way I don't need to worry about the possiblility of a grainy image (as with digital), dead batteries, etc...
In short, there's a lot going for both types of cameras. For the serious modelbuilder and casual photographer, I reccommend the Fujifilm Finepix 2800 Zoom. It's got a good macro mode, a 6x optical zoom, and 2.0 megapixel resolution... here's a review

I bought my wife one of those "dummy" cameras a while back - and it turned out to be one of my favorites. I take it whenever I'm going to shoot military vehicles in museums or collections. It's the Kodak Advantage 3600LX, and has turned out to be a great camera for people like me who want to point-shoot-and-scoot without thinking about it...

Gunnie

I have a HP Photosmart 215. It does a nice job, but now that I have Windows XP, it won't download pics. I need to send HP $10.00 for drivers to a camera I've had for less than 6 months. No free downloads, just shell out more cash. So, if you are still in the marlet, stay away from HP.

You may be looking for Sasquatch here. The simple point 'n' shoot autofocus cameras can't be adapted to macro unless it's built in. You can get a good auto-focus SLR that will just about take pictures for you. Your best bet is to high thee over to a photo store, a real one,not a photo department at MegaMart or one of the mall shops, but a real, free standing specialty shop. Explain waht you want to do and they'll point you in the tight direction.

For the record, I've found that my Sony FD-95 digital is far superior to my Canons for model photography. The macro gets in way close, the camera color balances incandescent light automatically, image quality is moer than adequate, especially at higher resolutions, I get 33 or so standard pic one a regular floppy disk (4 at highest resolution) and literally hundreds on a 16 mb memory stick. As was mentioned, I don't have to wait to see which shots came out and pay for them as well, since they can be viewed immediately in the camera or on the LCD screen. The floppy allows me to download to any PC immediately.