The great camera debate!

[Corscaria]

I'd get a CVS camcorder and hack it.

[marshallh]

I'd get a CVS camcorder and hack it.

Quite right.




But, in all seriousness, go for a mid-range Canon Powershot. I've had great success with mine (is a good point and shoot camera, but still has advanced functionality for manual settings)

[psychotic_mechanic]

I like my casio exilim S500, optical zoom, takes SD cards, good battery life,decent size LCD, etc.

I'd spring a couple extra bucks for an extended warranty whatever you buy.

[Weebl]

I've been really looking at digital cameras myself lately, as my old one is a piece of crap. I will probably be going with the Canon Powershot S2. All the reviews rate it about the best superzoom camera on the market, and it can be had for only $330 (sure, its a little above your range, but hey). It has a killer videocamera mode as well, I think its something like 640x480 at 30 fps. Instead of ramble on and on about how wonderful the camera is, just read a few of the reviews I've bookmarked...

Dpreview.com review
ZDNet review

It really does look like a wonderful camera with plenty of manual features and great photo quality. I'm also liking the optical stabilizer, since I have incredibly shaky hands. I've tried out the camera in store, and it certainly lives up to the reviews.


If it seems too pricy, apparently the Panasonic FZ20 is also a really good camera, and I think you can get it for less than $300 on Amazon. Hope this helped!

[The Earl of Sandwich]

I have to say the Hasselblad H2D-39 39 megapixel DSLR

<a href=http://www.hasselbladusa.com/index.asp? ... d=3849>and here it is</a>

hehehe...no way in hell will i be able to afford it though

currently i have a canon powershot s30

[SpongeBuell]

I appreciate the suggestions for camera models, but could I get a bit more feedback on whether porability is worth the slight change in quality? That's the main reason I started this thread, the model suggestion was just a little extra thing, and I now have enough suggestions to last me a while

Thanks.

Mr. Earl of Sandwich: reminds me of a 111 (I think it was) megapixel CCD the navy recently developed... pretty insane

[SuperZeldaBros]

oh yeah, the A series takes 2 'AA' batteries.

My Canon PowerShot A70 takes 4 AA batteries.

I would recomend any Canon PowerShot, as they are easy to use and have lots of advanced manual settings (At least the A70 and A75 do). The quality of the pictures is great as well, and this camera was $200 two years ago. It's only 3.2 MP, but all the updated versions have more resolution. Battery life is almost always an issue with digicams, and the A70 has spectacular battery life. I use Radioshack NI-MH AAs and one set of them lasts roughly 150 pictures, less if flash is used.

One of my only gripes about the A70 is that the zoom has seven focal lengths, and one cannot zoom to between these points, kinda aggravating, but not too bad.

Just my two cents.

[Sparkfist]

I didn't want to read throught all the recomendations, so here's mine without consideration to any input make previous to this post.

Get a simple point and shoot camera, one that can fit in a pocket. Thre reason I say this is really simple and economic. Many of the point and shoot cams are over 4 or now ever 5 megapixal, putting them on par with many of the other more professional digital cams. Further the only key advantage to the bigger ones as I see it is Compactflash cards as the medium (much faster and durible), on the flip side you can buy any of the other flash cards for the same price and they work fine, the only lose is that they can't be kicked or thrown around like CF card can.

Sony's had a camera out of a while (like 2 years) that is a little bigger then a credit card, takes 5 megapixal images and most of the back area is deticated to the LCD (so its a big screen). Likely now you can get it at Best Buy/Circuit City/Other Electronics store for about $300 (guess, so don't hold to the number).

[timmeh87]

sponge, i really dont think this issue is as black-and-white as you see it. you can take pretty good, high resolution shots with a midrange camera that still will fit in your pocket. Honestly... go to a store and ask them if you can hold something from the canon A series.

[Nicholai]

My current camera. It's a Nikon D50 SLR.





Anyways.

My camera before the Nikon was a Canon PowerShot A620, and it took some pretty good pictures (7.1 Megapixels I think it was.) , and would fit inside my pocket, and I paid $240 for it, it's small, takes a decent picture, which is what a college student would use.

[Sword_Gun]

I say Small Pinpoint for one reason, I have a Digital camera thats inside a Zippo.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cameras/7886/

and there it is

[psychotic_mechanic]

I really like my "credit card" sized casio (pics above) I didn't buy it for the brand name, but I have had good luck with casio products in the past. I bought it because it was small, easy to fit in a pocket and felt substantial (metal frame) I've had plasticy feeling digital cameras before and they always felt fragile even though they never broke.

I don't think you need anything above 5-7 MP unless you're a professional photographer or if it's you're only hobby. Just about any pocket camera is going to have a good movie mode and at least a 4x optical zoom, which is pretty much all you need.

[MaDnEsS]

heres my camera its on the back of my pda not the best quality but it does alright

[xelion]

How about you make one of these, I saw it in a Popular Science magazine or something like that i think, 4 gigapixel images, pwns all other cameras, but then the film alone is like 2 grand a sheet, so it might be just a tad bit out of your price range
http://www.gigapxl.org/

heh, I said go for the SLR camera because I love crisp pictures, but to tell you the truth, most small cameras these days are just as clear as the more expencive slr's, unless you are wanting to take pictures for a magazine or somehting like htat, a small camera would be plenty for most.

[SpongeBuell]

Well, my choice has been made. First, I decided to go with a compact, a Canon one to be specific. I figure that with the reviews it got, it had to be pretty decent

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6830120174

over 90% gave it 4 or 5 out of 5, and that's with over 50 reviews! Plus, it's just under the SD630 my dad has, which he loves.

To top it all off, it even comes with a 1GB SD card, thanks to a special at Newegg