OK, I'm a very amateur photographer... and I love taking lots of pics. I'll take 400 to get 20 good ones. However, with development costs, that becomes VERY expensive. So, the perfect solution: A digital camera! You can delete the bad ones and only print the goods...<BR><BR>Now, the budget. I don't want to spend a great deal more than $100-150 for this. As I said, its a hobby, not a profession The photos will ultimately be printed on regular sized paper, nothing poster sized, so I don't demand high pixelation.<BR><BR>SO... what recommendations can you give for a new (or used!) camera that will meet my needs? I'm looking for model recommendations and any advice you wish to send <BR><BR>Thanks!

Ask at a camera store

www.cnet.com<BR><BR>and<BR><BR>www.photosig.com

have a look at dpreview.com

Try www.bhphotovideo.com<BR>I saw a Canon Powershot A300 for around $200. 3.2 Megapixel which is pretty good but it looks like it only has digital zoom which isn't as good as optical zoom. Also, never delete bad ones as you may have caught something important that may not come to light till much later.

For the price you are quoting you'd better stick to your 35mm. The resolution is just not good enough at 1MP, which is about what you can get. Might find a 2.0 for about that. Don't forget the extra memory cards, extra memory/CD burner to store images, battery charger and printer (although the printers are dirt cheap and good right now). When looking at printers look at those with archival inks and paper (Epson).

If you stick with your 35mm, you can use slide film, which is much cheaper to develop. Buy a scanner with an adapter for slide film. I don't mean the scanners exclusively built for slide film - those can run in the thousands.<BR><BR>The problem with slide film is that you'll have to spend some time cleaning up the dust on your scans.

A friend of mine just purchased an Olympus 520D zoom digital camera on Ebay for $165 ($185 with shipping). He did not bid for the camera, he chose the &quot;buy now&quot; option. Great camera, came with a 16MB smart card and I just noticed that Circuit City has the 128MB smart card on sale this week for $39.00 (after rebate). The 128 card will hold 256 pictures. Camera came Federal Express in about 3 days.<BR><BR>I have used a digital camera on my last two trips to France and I will not go back to my 35mm. The film camera is just to much of a hastle when you are traveling. <BR><BR>I have taken a couple of my digital photo's from last years trip to Sam's Club for 8 x 10 color prints and the quality was exceptional and the price was only $1.96 per print on photographic paper.<BR><BR>When I came back from my trip I put all the pictures on a CD. If I remember correctly I got almost 600 pictures on one CD and did not use more than 30% of the CD. <BR><BR>I am sold on digital cameras. If you have any questions, e-mail me at [email protected]

At that budget, I don't think it's worth it. Cameras in that range are generally below 2 megapixels, which is the bare minimum you'll need to get decent prints. Factor in that you'll probably need to purchase an extra memory card and battery, and you really only have about ~$90 to spend on the actual camera.<BR><BR>If you're serious about going digital, you should up your budget to at least $250 - $300. Trust me, it'll be worth it because you'll find that you'll quickly outgrow anything in this price range. It's better to get something that'll last you a few years as opposed to something you'll want to upgrade in a year.<BR><BR>Some great resources:<BR>www.dpreview.com<BR>www.dcresource.c om<BR><BR>In general, Canons and Nikons are the most popular. I recommend you take a look at some of the lower-end PowerShots from Canon.

I agree, for a new one, definitely spend more. if you can see fit to go to 500 you will be happy with your camera a long long time. I'd love a Canon G2, which is around that. the G3 is also out, but is more...<BR><BR>but I don't see why you can't get a fairly decent used one for around your price... and if you are truly going to ONLY email the pics, 1.5-2 mp will be OK... but if you can afford it, may as well go a little higher and have longer satisfaction.<BR><BR>my 3-4 year old camera takes really good photos, 1.3 mp notwithstanding. HOWEVER, I have yet to turn them into paper photos. I take my regular 35mm along for those...

I love the digitals. We have a little older Minolta diMage 304. I still like the camera. The pic quality , 3.3MP, and zoom are excellent. Was a bit more than the $150 range though. At times I do wish it were smaller. I can fit in my pockot, but I've been seeing nice slimline models that look so much easier.<BR><BR>I didn't think we'd be doing much photo prints either. But, some came out so interesting and unique, we had them blown up to 16X20 and they look good framed. You never know when the extra resolution will come in handy.

One thing I forgot to mention...<BR><BR>For a travel camera, form factor is very important. Flygirl mentioned the G2/3. Awesome, awesome cameras, but they're not something I'd want to lug around with me while I'm on vacation.<BR><BR>It's all a matter of personal preference though. Just make sure you get something that you'll actually take with you and use instead of leaving it behind because it's too heavy and cumbersome.<BR><BR>BTW, Nikon has some big rebates on their digital cameras right now. Also, recently Best Buy was having a clearance on the Nikon Coolpix 2500. I think the final price was below $150. You might want to check your local BB out to see if they have it. It's a 2MP camera, swivel lens, no optical viewfinder. <BR><BR>This is the camera I bought last year before I went for my first trip to Europe. Small, lightweight, pocketable, and stylish was what I was going for and this fit the bill perfectly.<BR><BR>You can see some of the pics I took here:<BR>http://www.syntheticlife.com/pics/europe

Wow, those pics ARE beautiful These were with the Nikon Coolpix? What do you mean by 'no optical viewfinder'? Nothing to look through??? (remember I'm new to the lingo!)<BR><BR>I meant the $100-$150 for the camera itself, as I'm allowing myself about $150 for the accessories (memory cards, batteries). I may push that up to $200 if its a good, longterm investment. (yes, my budget is limited, otherwise I'd be getting the $500 job) Ideally I'm looking for something that is probably at 2.0 MP, as I may end up printing some. I do want an optical zoom, and some control over exposure, etc, when I want it. <BR><BR>I will probably be downloading photos to my comp and burning them on CD (have a CDR already, as well as a photoprinter, thanks). If a 128M card takes 256 pics, can you download them at, say, an internet cafe, or burn them at Kinkos on a CD? For a one week trip, I took 400 photos... granted, many will be culled as I see them, but for the two week trip I've got coming up... well, I want some flexibility WITHOUT dragging my desktop comp along! <BR><BR>So far on my recommendation list (from here and elsewhere) I've got the following:<BR><BR>HP Photosmart<BR>Canon Powershot A70-A300<BR>Olympus 520D zoom<BR>Nikon Coolpix 2500<BR><BR>Comments? Thanks again!<BR><BR><BR>

my personal experience is that you need the specific software loaded on to the computer you are using, to download. that said, I've never tried to download anything in an internet cafe so I have no idea if there is a 'default software' on a typical computer which would be compatible with certain forms of digicams. so I cannot help you there, but, if you go to photosig.com for instance and ask, you are likly to get a lot of replies.<BR><BR>don't forget that downloading will sap a lot of juice from your camera, as will merely viewing, and then deleting the photos you don't want. if you can get a camera which will take simple aa batteries, you'll spend a lot on batteries but you won't run out midstream, overseas. <BR><BR>I have a rechargable battery, only, and have never taken a charger with me. I've been lucky to last at least a week without losing all juice, but, it's never been my only/primary camera. <BR><BR>my camera is also very small and compact. not as small as the Elph, but still pretty small. and I do think the Elph would be very easy to pop into a shirt pocket &amp; take everywhere...

Good point, I hadn't thought about the software issue. I had thought about the battery thing, and I think it would probably be easier for me to keep some spare AAs around... a charger can be lost, break, or killed easily (I'm a clumsy person!)

Yup, those were taken with the CP2500. And yes, the optical viewfinder is what you look through to frame your shot with traditional cameras. Digitals, however, are also equipped with an LCD viewfinder that you use to frame shots.<BR><BR>When I purchased the CP2500, I thought the lack of the optical viewfinder might be an issue. In usage, however, I have not missed it at all. It's a lot easier and fun to compose shots with the LCD, especially in conjunction with the swivel lens.<BR><BR>The CP2500 does not have much in the way of manual controls. In fact, most cameras in this range will not as they are in the point-n-shoot category. The CP2500 does have a series of &quot;scene modes&quot; though that have pre-set settings. Canons also have a similar feature. I'm pretty sure others do as well.<BR><BR>Practically all digital cameras nowadays have optical zoom. You'll end up with 2x or 3x in this price range. Ignore ratings for and never use digital zoom. All this does is magnify the pixels.<BR><BR>The number of pictures a memory card holds depends on a variety of factors, so don't assume that you can take &quot;256 pics on a 128MB card.&quot; The amount you can fit on a card is based on:<BR>- Number of megapixels<BR>- Resolution<BR>- Compression<BR><BR>For instance, on a 256MB card, my CP2500 can take ~250 pictures on its highest settings. However, on its lowest settings, it can fit a whopping 3600. As you can tell then, this is a huge variation.<BR><BR>With the price of flash memory today, you can easily get a 256MB card for ~$40. It's the best combination of size and cost IMO.<BR><BR>I haven't really come across many cameras these days that use regular batteries. Most use proprietary lithium batteries. While more expensive, they do make the camera lighter. I carry two batteries and the charger on trips, which I don't find to be a problem at all. I usually run through one battery a day. (Mind you, I use the camera very often when on vacation.)<BR><BR>Let's see, what else... oh yes, downloading and burning. This shouldn't be a problem at all. I downloaded and burned my pics at an Internet Cafe in Florence last year. I just gave the guy my CompactFlash cards and in a few minutes had a freshly burned CD of my pictures. Total cost was around 10 Euros, I think. (I would recommend that you bring a couple of blank CDs along with you as they charge more for this service if you don't have a CD.)<BR><BR>The special software that flygirl mentions for downloading pics is not necessary. I actually never install mine. The software only provides a few extras and a pretty interface to download your photos.<BR><BR>Your pictures are stored on flash memory. Think of it as a floppy or Zip disk. All you need is the appropriate reader to read the card. These readers go for about $20. The most common memory type is CompactFlash, with SmartMedia also being quite popular. You shouldn't have a problem finding an Internet cafe with readers for one, if not both.

hmm, just a reader? wonder if that would be faster than the one I've got that came with my camera.<BR><BR>I no longer have anything other than picture shuttle, I got rid of the computer I had put all my software on, and you need the license numbers for some of it. so I can download, but not manipulate anymore. <BR><BR>time for a new camera!!

Just thought I'd throw this out for you to think about. I was just showing some friends (most of whom own good digital cameras) my pictures from our recent trip to Spain. One of them immediately said to me, &quot;you took those with a 35mm didn't you?&quot; They all commented that the only way they would be able to duplicate the quality of the images (and I had my film developed at Costco) was with professionally printed images at 30 cents a copy. I do have a nice 35mm, but I am certainly not a pro using a professional camera. I too had been thinking about a digital, but now have discarded the idea.

A 3 mgpixel camera will take pictures that print out larger than 8x11. I've given people permission to use photos I've posted on http://community.webshots.com/user/kathcoll<BR>They've been reprinted by colleges, tour group leaders, &amp; a school of Irish dance so I guess others agree that they are worth printing!<BR>I use fuji finepix s602. There is some manipulation of data that they say interpolates data to 6 mgpixels, but the hard data is 3 pixels. I love the convenience of NO FILM to get through radiating scanners at airport; no development except of those I WANT to print; easy sharing of pictures with out-of-state relatives and friends; batteries that are cheap and easy to find. I bought a gb memory and can take literally thousands of photos - absolutely love my digital camera!<BR>If you go digital, be sure to get the most mgpixels as you can afford - the quality of your shots increases exponentially!

My husband and I recently bought a Minolta Dimage 7i which we've taken on a couple of holidays now.<BR><BR>Whilst I love being able to download the pictures to my computer when I get home and then post processing them and uploading them to a website I am definitely not as happy with the quality as I am when using my (inexpensive) SLR 35mm camera.<BR><BR>As for downloading during the trip - we didn't want to search for internet cafes etc and rely on outside sources to empty our cards - it's not always possible - so we bought an X Drive. It's small enough that we usually carry it with us though those preferring to really travel light in the day can leave it in their room safe. You need to put your owh laptop (small size) hard drive into it - we had an old one lying around. <BR><BR>Then we have two 128 cards and just download them when we stop for lunch or coffee into the X Drive.<BR><BR>When we get home we download the whole lot in one go onto our PC.