Digital Camera Help

chevy4x4trucks · March 28, 2002

I'm looking for a new digital camera, something from the 400-500 dollar range that can take great pics of the truck and also take pics of other stuff as well. The one I've got now is a HP215 and it's fine for still shots, but for everything else it blows. The cameras that I've been looking at are:

NIKON COOLPIX 885: 3.21 Megapixels, $430

Minolta Dimage 5: 3.3 Megapixels, $495

Olympus C3020: 3.2 Megapixels, $397

The price on these are pretty much comparable. And the only thing that I don't like about the olympus is the fact that it uses a different card than the others. I prefer the flash cards, they are by far the easiest to work with. Does anyone have any experience w/ any of these and can shed some light on it for me? Right now I'm leaning towards the Nikon because of the price, ease of use, and more compact size than the Minolta.

I've used a Minolta and Olympus digi cam before and they take great shots, an olympus E-10 was used for all the bodylift shots (yeah, I know, that's out of my price range and then some).

pacodiablo · March 28, 2002

i would steal your friend's camera...but thats just me

chevy4x4trucks · March 28, 2002

i would steal your friend's camera...but thats just me

It's a thought, I've already got his USB card reader that he forgot over here about 4 months ago. I think he pretty much gave it to me now. I keep reminding him and he said forget it.

Shaners · March 28, 2002

Jon, I have an old Epson PC600 and it's been beat around for over 3 years now... and I mean beat!!! It still takes decent pics and is simple to use.

I told a guy at work about it, and he bought Epsons newest camera then for his daughter. I don't remember the model # but he said it got rave reviews in all the mags. I think it is 3x or 4x optical and 10x digital. He tried it out before he gave it to his daughter and said it was the easiest camera he ever used. Totally auto if you want, but if you don't want it, it does everything your big $$ 35mm will do and then some (f stop, shutter speed etc...). He said the price was close to $500 but there was a rebate to make it more reasonable.

Epson seems to bundle "Image Expert" with their products and that is a great piece of photo mgmnt software too...

LarryE · March 28, 2002

get a sony you wont regret it, I have two a mavica and a dsc and they kick butt big time. I use them for all my webpage shots.

Shaners · March 28, 2002

From what I understand the Epson is around 3.2 Mp but it has an interpollation feature or something like that, that will take it over 4 Mp.

gandolphxx · March 28, 2002

Might want to check out this site - they have been reviewing these for years:

http://www.zdnet.com/

Snacky · March 28, 2002

check out

Steve's Reviews

and

Digital Resource

SteveSierra · March 28, 2002

I got the Fujifilm Finepix 2800. Let me say, that for less than 400 bucks, it packs alot. I bought it before there were any reviews out, so I didn't have that benefit of seeing pics before I got it, but I am soooo glad I did get this one. It is a 6x optical zoom, 2x dig(never ever use dig zoom myself, so no biggy for me there).

I found a review of this camera at steves-digicams.com here http://www.steves-digicams.com/2001_reviews/fuji2800.html

Check out the pictures. I think this camera has very sharp detail and true coloring.

chevy4x4trucks · March 28, 2002

Thanks for the responses guys. I'm looking into all those cameras and sites.

I was leaning towards that Nikon one, they make great film cameras, but anyone know how they are digital camera wise?

I'll probably be ordering one today or tomorrow depending upon what I hear, I just don't want to regret it.

Also, how are these battery power wise? The HP215 I have goes through batteries like nothing.

carguru · March 28, 2002

The Nikon Coolpix 885 and the Olympus C3020 are decent. I have tried both. The Olympus is a little better is you are taking people pix IMO. I don't think you would go wrong with either choice. I have the Sony DSC-S85. All of them eat batteries. ???

Zane · March 28, 2002

I PM'd Jon this link, but i thought everyone else would like this also.

Great site, i used it when i bought my Sony S-75!

DPreview.com

chevy4x4trucks · March 28, 2002

I'm looking at the dimensions on these things and all these cameras are so small. I don't know about you guys, but if I'm getting a complicated camera w/ a lot of buttons I want something bigger than 3"x2.7"x1"

I'm looking at some of the Sony's now per Mervz and LarryE's advice.

Anyone else have any recommendations?

Another quick question. I'm guessing more megapixels the better as I've been told. So, how come you get some thousand dollar cameras w/ 6 megapixels and some w/ just 1.8?

chevy4x4trucks · March 28, 2002

I ended up going w/ the olympus C3020. From the looks of it, it's a great camera for a great price. It's only 430 w/ shipping via UPS Ground. So, now I can get some good pics of my truck when I get it.

Reason I choose it over the other two was because:

Best Price, That Nikon seemed too small, Nikon has issues w/ bad looking reds for that camera (not excatly a plus for taking pics of a red truck), Minolta was nice but more than I needed.

Here's hoping I picked a good one

CMNTMXR81 · March 28, 2002

I only buy Sony. I have three in the house, Two Mavica FD-85's and an FD-91.

I'll give up a slight amount of picture qaulity (if it's even discernable) for the convienence the Sony offers. No need to hook another device up to my computer, no need to install another software program on my computer to interface with the camera, etc, etc.

It saves everything to disk or CD (newer ones) all I do then is copy and paste in my internet explorer.

Doesn't get much easier than that. John, all my pics were taken with these.