scully

This will be my husband and my first trip to Ireland the last two weeks of Sept. We don't want to haul our old Canon 35mm with film along with us and have decided to try a digital camera. Does anyone have experience with a simply operated point & shoot type digital camera for first time users? Somewhere in the $250-$350 range if possible. Thanks.

pandaschu

I found this website (see below) extremely helpful when I was searching for a digital camera. Especially the forums. I wound up with a Canon and love it. I think you will be able to find a great camera for that price with a little research.

http://dpreview.com/

wojazz3

I just purchased a Canon s410 for my wife to carry with her on trips. It's a 4MP camera. I have a Minolta Dimage that I use that I like very much, but it's more expensive.

I haven't used the Canon yet, but it has lots of features for a tiny camera. You can carry it in any pocket. The down side to most small cameras is that the optical zoom is pretty minimal. The s410 is 3x. One of the reasons that I purchased the Canon was that it was small and used the same memory (CF)as my minolta. It goes for around $300. dealtime.com will show you where to get the latest best deals. So far, the best deals I've found on CF cards were at amazon.com. I found 512MB cards for $85.

Be prepared to be told that you and or your camera choices are "souless", but I'm on your side.

Bill

wojazz3

Pandashu is right. That is a very good site. Also try stevesdigicams.com.

Bill

nonnafelice

I love my Minolta Dimage X. Mine is the first generation of the camera that is now (I think) the Konica Minolta Dimage Xg. What is so wonderful about this camera is that it is so compact that you never have to think about whether to take it with you anywhere. I always have it in my purse no matter where I go. It weighs about 4 oz and is approximately the size of a credit card (only thicker). The zoom lens is completely inside the camera (it's all done with mirrors) so it doesn't protrude.

You can read a very complete review of it here:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_.../dimagexg.html

I bought my original Dimage X about 2 years ago. I think I ought to get a commission from the company because so many people who have seen mine have gone out and bought one of their own.

I've been very happy with the photos it takes -- it will also take short movies, and record audio. I really like the audio feature, partly because I can use it to document photos when I'm shooting -- rather than forgetting exactly which Italian hill town that shot was in! Also, sometimes it's nice to have sounds to go along with your photos -- check out this one on my web photo album, for example:

http://www.rozault.com/Paris2003/sou...angrinder.html

Itallian_Chauffer

There are a number of excellent digital cameras out there. Here's my two cents worth of advice:

I've been taking digital cameras to Ireland since 1999 from raggedy old 480 X 640 resolution on up. For my money, you can't beat an A-Series Cannon. It's about the same size, weight and layout as a cheap 35 MM point and shoot, but it will give you excellent 5X7 (2 Mega Pixel) or 8X10 (3 Mega-Pixel)photos. While this is generally true for all brands, and most will also offer the three times OPTICAL ZOOM (the only zoom that matters!), there are three compelling reasons to chose the Cannon.

1)The Cannon uses CompactFlash memory cards. These are sturdier, more forgiving of abuse and CHEAPER than most other formats. Cameras NEED memory. Unless you are the type of person who finishes a roll of film every second Christmas, you'll want AT LEAST a 256 Meg Card - any combination will do- buy what's on sale (2- 128 Meg, 4- 64 Meg or 1- 256. Always shoot at MAXIMUM resolution, too. You can always 'print down', but you can never 'print up'.
2)Rather than a proprietary (read expensive) rechargeable battary that is only available from the mfgr, the Cannon uses four (4) AA battaries. You can buy 4 NiMh recargables and a 110VAC/12VDC carger for about $30. An extra 4 pack of battaries will run about $10 more, BUT -- in a pinch, you can always find AA battaries almost ANYWHERE in the world, so you never have to miss a photo op. The recharger can plug into an AC adapter, or into a cigarette lighter in your car.
3) Value- A complete package, memory card, camera and dual voltage charge should be readily available in the price range you quoted, but you may need to shop around a little to get all the items at good prices. Best Buy, Circuit City, Office Max and Office Depot put the Cannons on sale regularly. WalMart will probly have the best price on the charger and on-line, you can't beat www.tigerdirect.com for Memory Cards.

Cannon makes a good, durable camera. I've abused my A20 in a wide range of environments over the last 3-4 years and it has never let me down. I'm sure other people have their own favorites, too, but...

We bought our daughter and son their own Cannons. Guess that says it all.

awbaker

That is so cool, nonnafelice! How is the quality of the printed photo from the Min. Dimage-X? I'm so unhappy with my Sony Cyber-shot because of the wretched print-quality.

Gretchen

You can probably get a 4 or even 4MP camera in your price range. Shop CompUSA (even online) for their weekly sales. Get a camera with the most OPTICAL zoom that you can. Pay NO attention to digital zoom. It is nothing. I love my Olympus and am a bit prejudiced about getting a camera from A CAMERA maker--better lens quality.

bx3

i have the casio elixim and am very happy with it.

http://exilim.casio.com/

it is very easy to use--all aspects: taking pictures, transferring pictures, etc. i would recommend it highly. also it is one of the smallest digital cameras for all the features. i paid just under $250 for it, but i think prices may have actually gone up. look on pricegrabber.com and make sure you are looking at new, not refurbished. best of luck.

nonnafelice

re: "How is the quality of the printed photo from the Min. Dimage-X?"

It is 3.2 megapixels, so if you take shots at the highest resolution, you can get decent 8 x 10 prints. Most of our shots we take at a lower resolution, since we generally use them just for web and email. However, even the lower resolution makes good snapshot prints (4 x 6). We usually print our own photos on our color printer and get excellent prints.

A friend of ours just got an Epson photo printer, which is a fantastic little machine if you want to make prints. I don't remember what the model is called, but it uses 4 x 6 glossy photo paper and prints snapshots that look exactly like they came from a film camera developed at a photo shop.

FlyFish

My first digital was (is still) a Canon G3. I love it. Then they came out with the S45, essentially the same camera - fewer bells and whistles - in a smaller package. Of course, I had to get one. I love it, too. Then they came out (this is all happening over a span of perhaps a year) with the S400, pretty much the S45 in an even smaller package. Yup, had to get one of those as well.

They're all fantastic machines and I can't recommend them highly enough. I probably use the S45 the most but the current incarnation may be a bit out of your price range - however, the S410 (which will likely be the S420 by the time you read this, and the S430 in another day or two . . .) should be just about right price-wise.

europhile

I use the Canon S400, and love it. Actually, I bought it just before a trip to the Amalfi Coast last fall, and didn't totally trust digital cameras at the time (I didn't really know how to use it and I was paranoid about the quality of the images compared to film), so I brought along my Canon Elph, too. It's the non-digital version of the S400, and looks almost exactly the same. Well, the quality of the pictures on the digital version was actually better than the regular Elph. I was sold on it at that point, and I haven't used the regular one since!

Mucky

Look at Olympus mju 400 or 410, even lord lichfield carries this one around in his pocket.

Muck

Gretchen

I will put in a small word of caution--the same one I always gave for film cameras also. Small cameras are very attractive but they come with a price. You must be extra careful to hold the camera still which is more difficult for small cameras or people with large hands holding small cameras. And to compound this with digital cameras there is that lag time between the time YOU take the picture and IT takes the picture. That is the single most irritating thing about digital cameras--and I think it is improving.
Epson printers are excellent and come with the extra added attraction of using archival or near archival inks.

Graziella5b

Hi Nonna Felice, thank you for your impute , I am in the process of buying a Konica Minolta Dimage Xg.
let me tell you that the Wall Street Journal agrees 100% with you they compared 5 digital cameras from Casio,Sony, Konica, Minolta and Pentax.After comparing similar pictures from the cameras side by side on a computer screen
the WSJ found consistengly that the images from the low end Konica Minota Dimage Xg to be the best overall.
May be because I am also a Nonna Felice I loved your posting.
Now I must WARN everybody, I did go to www.dealtime.com to compare prices, and the best deal came out at
Digital Photo, but when I was going to place the order the model was changed !!
So be ware, instead I am going to buy it from B&H who have a better price aprox 250 than most of the stores listed in dealtime.com Well ,
Digital Photo had it listed only at
178.85 but as I said at the end of the day it was another model. Good luck and good pictures to you all. We shall be on our way next November to Europe so I am sure it is going to be an asset . ciao.

nonnafelice

I just wanted to add that when I was looking at the review for the Konica Minolta on Steve's Digicams site (posted above), I noticed that this most recent model -- the Dimage Xg -- has apparently removed a couple of features that were in the earlier Xt model. The missing features are audio / video out (I assume this means the ability to connect the camera to a TV set for picture playback) and the camera cradle, which recharges the battery while still in the camera.

So if you were interested in this camera and those features were important to you, you might want to see whether you could get a good deal on the earlier model, perhaps on a closeout somewhere. I recommend reading the reviews of both models on the Digicams site, since they go into great detail.

I don't personally think the camera charging is a major deal, since it's very easy to remove the battery for charging. I don't know what the advantage is of leaving the battery in the camera. It is a good idea to have two batteries though, especially when traveling.

jeffery

For these type of purchases, I love the info and forums found at www.cnet.com. It recently guided me towards the cannon powershot A80. It's still a new camera to me. But, so far I like it a lot. good luck

ira

Hi scully,

If you are willing to pay as little as $109, you can get a Canon A60.

I like mine.

jpichicago

A few months ago, I purchased an Olympus Camedia C-5000 and absolutely love it. It's 5.0 Mega Pixel camera that has a number of auto-point and shoot settings or can be manually adjusted. It has all of the same features that are found on your Canon 35mm (e.g. red-eye reduction, timer, etc.), plus a lot more options that can only be offered in the digital world such as erasing bad shots and view a picture immediately. The camera is compact but is ergonomically designed so it's easy to adjust. If you hold a number of digital cameras I think you'll find that not all of them are 'friendly'. This camera should be avaiable for between $250-$350. Try www.bizrate.com for good reviews and pricing from online retailers.

Two final thoughts -- it is possible to buy digital cameras very inexpensively; however, typically you will have to settle for a lower pixel count, which translates into reduced picture quality. For web viewing this isn't really a problem, but if you'd like to print the images don't settle for anything less than 5.0 mega pixel. Also, most cameras come with a small memory card. Upgrade the card to at least 128 mb or 256 mb is you can afford it. Either way, they are < $100 and well worth the extra storage capacity.

N2it

I second the Cannon A60. Our daughter used it in Europe for almost a year with great pics. I just bought one for my wife and myself. It's a close-out product replaced by A70 and A80. It's 2mp but that doesn't matter unless you want a 8x10 picture. It sells for $149 and less on the web. It's highly rated. Don't spend mucho $$ because prices are going down, down down!!