Camera Suggestions

[RyanbabZ71]

Well my 3 yr old Sony digital camera is starting to show it's age. Anyone have any suggestions for a new one. Biggest stipulation is taking quick photos the current camera takes forever and with a 1 yr old we miss a ton of photos because he is so fast

[slapshot]

We had the small, quick shoot cameras for years and finally got tired of the lack of zoom. A couple months ago we bought a new Nikon D5000. All I can say is wow, am I impressed. With many lenses available, you can find one to zoom easily. The internal chips are from the more expensive D90. It has many different modes to customize the settings for the photo. I've taken many pictures at my sons high school hockey games and they are crystal clear. The D5000 is a full body camera, so it isn't a small pocket camera, but I think it's well worth it. Nikon has some smaller and cheaper cameras also. I bought it at Ritz camera and was very happy with the purchase. They really know their stuff, which I did not see at some of the box electronic stores.

[oldmann]

Anything sony. Those small point and shoots are great. Just get one with some real zoom. Sorry no specific models. Stay away from kodak. I hate those.

[RyanbabZ71]

Wife wants an SLR but man the prices are crazy

[GasHog369]

Best advice i can give is look for one that allows you to turn off the digital zoom.. Any camera i own i turn it off right away since when you zoom in digitally , it distorts...

 

My latest camera i bought is now 5+ years old .. 8mp , olympus sp-350... At the time it was excellent .. Now its a battery hog. Still takes great pics but the batteries die quick.

 

Look for something that is fast , but battery friendly!

 

edit- SLR is the way to go... Pay more at first, but remember you can always upgrade after a few years and get something out of the slr instead of it being disposable.

 

canon rebel or nikon d3000 / d5000

[MikeNH]

http://www.steves-digicams.com/

 

That is a great resource I've used in the past to help me choose a camera. I have a D5000 SLR right now and I probably have $2k tied up in it and still need at least one more lens to complete that. I'm guessing since your kid is still little, long distance shooting (ie sports) isn't an issue so the base lens that comes with it would probably work ok. But, to make the SLR shine, you need to invest some serious time in learning it's controls. I've had mine a year now and still have mixed luck and end up getting the best results running automatic mode (someone whose educated in photo composition could do considerably better in manual mode of course). The full-featured non-SLR cameras from Canon and Nikon are probably my top picks, I had a Canon S5 prior to this and it took terrific shots and was responsive too. I don't have kids of my own but over the summer visiting friends I used their kiddos to practice because kids are fast and are a good skills test. Sony makes a good camera but I try to stick with cameras that use SD memory cards only. SD is common enough most newer computers have an SD slot built in and if you're in a pinch, an SD reader will probably be easier to find.

 

And like Jerry mentioned, do not consider digital zoom when picking out a camera, it only lowers resolution. Optical zoom is all that matters.

[pistonslap]

I recently bought a Kodak camera. I don't care for it because if if you want to change the shooting mode you have to bring up a menu on the screen and go through four different steps.My last camera was a Sony and was much easier to use with a dial on the top to change your picture modes. Another thing i liked about the Sony was that it had a actual viewfinder as well as a screen. It is getting harder to find camera's with a viewfinder.

[dirtfan21]

I bought my girlfriend this for chistmas. Gave it to her about a month ago because she turned 21 and I figured she would want to use it.

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Canon+PowerSho...999145300050018

 

She loves this thing. It can single out a color in black and white shots. Has all kinds of settings for photos. I don't know much about them, but I do know the camera takes a shot and can take another one pretty quick.

[pwall]

DSLR all the way....

[cbxeric]

Push the shutter release button on a DSLR, it takes the picture almost instantly. There's too much lag in the small digital cameras, you'll miss too many moments. I've had a Nikon D-50 for many years and I'll never go back. Don't go for the big$ high end camera, there's too many buttons and unless you're a shutter bug, you'll never use them. Only Nikon or Canon.

[renegadeking]

my dad has a panasonic Lumix. its a nice camera not sure about how fast it takes the picture but the nice thing that i like about the camera is that the shutter speed is insanely fast. ( im not sure if thats the right term) for example - if you take a picture of a fan spinning extremely fast it will take the picture as if the fan was not spinning. so there is no blurry pictures.

[ryan_hermanutz]

We have a DLSR and it's great. It takes great pictures inside when it's kind of dark with no flash and the picture is not blurry at all.

[Wingnut]

Ryan, if you're nervous about the $$$ on a D-SLR, buy a used one off of Craigslist that comes with the body and a couple of lenses (maybe even a flash). Less money output, same result. The only thing you'll be missing out on is some of the latest whizbang gizmos. My D-SLR is probably close to 5 years old, and takes phenomenal pics.

 

I'm buying used next time, that's for sure. I bought this one new, and the camera body alone was something like $1,400. I won't be doing that again.

[RyanbabZ71]

This is what we are leaning towards

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+A390+14...d=1218238309129

[Wingnut]

This is what we are leaning towards

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+A390+14...d=1218238309129

 

One of my buds just bought the Sony D-SLR model a couple of steps above that, he got the body and a couple of lenses for about $750 or so. It takes GREAT pics.

 

Couple of good things about that camera. 1- The image stabilization is in the camera, not the lens, so you always have it and 2- If I'm not mistaken...Every Minolta auto-focus lens for the last couple of decades will fit it and function perfectly (needs to be an "A" mount), because Sony's D-SLR cameras only came about as a result of Sony buying Konica-Minolta. I know that the lenses I bought about 15 years ago for my Maxxum film camera will work on it.