What digital cameras with still and movie/video modes take the best or professional quality pictures?

Answer 1

that's funny. for those that responded that a DSLR such as the Canon 350XT as the choice are wrong- as no DSLR takes videos.

So- you're left with a 'digicam'. There are a wide selection of high quality digital cameras. And- it depends on how 'professional' you want your photos to look. Almost all of them are pretty dang good these days and it's mostly the user and post processing that makes photos look 'professional'.

There's used to be a 'prosumer' class of cameras- which included fine instruments like the Minolta A2/A200 and the Olympus 8080. But every since the low priced DSLRs came out, those are no longer produced. Now there seem to be three categories of digicam left (excluding the DSLRs-)

1. tiny compact ones: My favorites being the Canon SD700IS, Fuji F30, Panasonic FX01.

2. Regular (reasonably small) cameras. I like the Canon A' series, such as the Canon A700 or A540.

3. Ultrazoom. Such as the Panasonic FZ30/FZ7, Sony H5/H2, or the Canon S3IS.

None of these are really 'professional' quality- but all will take very nice photos.

Answer 2

Tricky question. A pro would generally want a very responsive camera. That means a (digital) SLR. All of the compact and prosumer models use electronic viewfinders that transmit the image to the eye-piece and screen with a 1/10th second delay. All of them. This makes these cameras a poor choice for action photography. They also use tiny sensors, which are terrible for creating shallow depth of field (to blur the background and isolate your subject). And finally, they're pretty poor in low light situations.
On the other hand, dSLR cameras can't record video - they only take still pictures.
You'll have to compromise.

Answer 3

you cant get everything that you want in life, including cameras. there is no professional digital still camera that takes videos. also, there is no professional digital video cameras that take good quality photographs. you can only get the either one end of both, get both ends separately or get somewhere in the middle, which is consumer digital camera.

Answer 4

A minolta may be good baring in mind that they've now been bought buy sony so a sony may be good too.

If you go for a canon be wary that the camera lenses in them are more expensive than the usual because they put the motor in the lenses and not the body in quite a few of their models that being why the bodys are so small.

Answer 5

Canon digital rebel xt and canon eos 20D

Answer 6

Cannon camecoders are the best.