What is the best value in digital cameras?

Question

Our Kodak EasyShare CX4230 is dead. It was a 2.0 megapixel camera and we have the docking station and the memory cards. I need to replace it and am not sure what to look at. This camera worked great and was easy to use. I liked the zoom on in but hated the delay from when I pressed the button till when the pictures was taken. Any suggestions? I'd prefer to keep in under $200. We are using it primarly to take pictures of our adorable and quick toddlers.

Answer 1

I LOVE my Canon PowerShot A620. It's a 7.1 mp camera which takes awesome still shots, and just as awesome video. Great for home and everyday use. Easy to take on vacations and you can really take some artistic/creative photos too. A great all-around camera. My 35mm cameras are Canon too, and I still love and use it. Sony makes good stuff also.

I had a Sony, and I gave that to my daughter, and purchased the Canon PowerShot A610 for my teenage son. The Canon A610 is exactly like my A620, but is a 5 mp digital camera. They both take GREAT pictures, but my favorite thing about the camera, is the vari-angle LCD screen. It is very easy to use, and a camera you can grow with.

Our A610/A620 has a setting, call "kids&pets". Typically you use these on the subjects that usually has a hard time keeping still. But I also use this setting when taking pictures of my soccer team during game play. I've also taken pictures of my kids, nieces and nephews jumping in the air, a la cheerleader jumps, with great results. Lag time is very, very, very minimal. (i.e. delay from pressing button to actual camera capturing the shot). This is just one of the many settings the camera has to offer and you can also manually set and program your own settings.

For ease of point and shoot, just choose the setting in which you're taking pictures of, (i.e. indoor, outdoor, nighttime, portrait, fireworks, snow, beach, and 'auto' [automatic]), and it'll adjust accordingly the proper exposure/settings. If you get more experience or for the experienced, you can manually choose exposure and settings like the old 35 mm.

I'm a bargain hunter. I purchased both NEW Canon this late spring 2006 on line. My son's was under $200 and mine was $204. Just Google or Yahoo! Search any Canon model, and then see which merchant has the best price with those lowprice websites and order on-line. The price is waaaay better than going physically to the stores. If you need it right away, just upgrade the shipping. It's still cheaper than buying at the stores. No matter what model camera you're searching for, better prices are on-line.

I don't know if you'll find this model (A610) at the stores. They have newer models, the A630 (8mp) and the A640 (10mp), they boast more mega-pixels and ISO settings. But 5mp, more than suffices for most users. What I did was physically touched and feel the camera at the store, then go on-line to purchase. But if you prefer to purchase at the stores, some good places are Best Buy, Wal Mart and Target. Suprisingly enough, they have good selection at Wal-Mart and Target.

Here is the link if you'd like to check out the specs on these Canon cameras: http://www.usa.canon.com
and go to 'products' to 'consumer products' to lead you to the cameras. it tells you what the camera has and what it looks like up close.

While you're searching on-line, you'll also find many reviews on these cameras. All with many positives things to say about the camera. You'll also find information on these cameras in Yahoo! Tech http://tech.yahoo.com/rc/digital-cameras...

Hope this helps in your hunt for a new digital camera!

Answer 2

This question might be easier answered from Hewlett Packard or HP.

I recommend going to www.hp.com and looking at the newer models out there. Your 2.0 Megapixal Camera is now nearly obsolete. I had a similar experience and last year purchased a HP photosmart E327 which is a 5 Megapixal camera and is very easy to use.

Kodak also has good digital cameras and they too are easy to use -- visit www.kodak.com for more information.

Before you buy though do the following.

1. List what you want in a camera. Megapixal size may be important if detail is. the more megapixals there are the more detail and scale you'll get in an image. Zooming features differ from camera to camera and there are two forms of zooning. Optical zooming is where a lense focuses on an image. Digital zooming is where there is no lense and the image is focused on by the camera's image receiving chipset. Digital zooming and optical zoonimg combined is always better becase the optical zooming will optically get you closer to the object and the digital zooming enhanced it.

2. Consider how much money you have. Choose according to your budget.

3. Research the customer service rating for the product's production company. You could have a great camera but when it breaks terrible customer service for when you need the help.

4. Choose according to ease of use. But don't skip out on quality. Both are important.

5. Because you have a docking station and memory card choose according to the type of memory card you have. The older cameras had Compact Flash cards or CF cards that today are almost never used. Most cameras now use the SD card which is both smaller, and much higher capacity. They are also in some cases cheaper. Cards now go from 256 MB to 2.0 GB. For 5 MP cameras, a 1 GB card will hold 938 images at best quality. Yours - 1,976 images. There are CF cards up to the 1 GB type however they load slower from transfers to your computer.

6. Other than a docking station you might want to consider a card reader - writer. Prices range from $40 to $60 depending on what you want. They transfer images MUCH MUCH faster than camera software and can be treated as a removable disc. You just take the card out, put it in the reader, Windows often reads the card for you and asks you a few simple questions so it can name the files, and that's it.

Start there and research also the following sites. below.

Brian R Cross

Answer 3

Well the answer could very well be a camera I'm advising my ex to buy. Since we are still good friends, I rec a decent camera. Under $200- more like around $120 at Best Buy Fugifilm FinePix A 500. 5 MP, 3X optical.

Answer 4

You can get a new digital camera from http://urlx.org/directtrack.com/b327d and all you have to do is enter in your zip code to see if they mail it to your area. My uncle got his camera from that site and it arrived at his house a few weeks later. You can choose between three different cameras and they are all free of charge.

Answer 5

i love my Cannon Power Shot A430, its my first and great to learn with, and grow with using many of the advanced features.