digital camera for travel
May 27th, 2002 | 06:00 PM
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
digital camera for travel
My son is graduating from college and I would like to buy him a digital camera. I have not used one myself and I would like to know what I should look for when making a purchase. I would like to spend about $400-600 total. He will be doing some traveling soon and enjoys taking landscape pictures. Any good information out there? Thanks for your help.
May 27th, 2002 | 06:37 PM
#3
Guest
Posts: n/a
Definitely look for something small and light - some can be heavy. It's also great to have an LCD screen, so you can see your pic as soon as it's taken. Mine has a removable memory cartridge, which is nice because they usually hold more data.
Not sure which brands are good, but I have a Canon PowerShot and I love it.
Check this website : epinions.com - there's a ton of great info so you can educate yourself before shopping.
Not sure which brands are good, but I have a Canon PowerShot and I love it.
Check this website : epinions.com - there's a ton of great info so you can educate yourself before shopping.
May 27th, 2002 | 06:51 PM
#5
Guest
Posts: n/a
No need to spend that much money.. the Olympus 700 is a very fine camera..just comparision shop..it does have a zoom. My husband is on his third digital camera and this is the one he chose several months ago and loves it. One of the pluses is when traveling it fits in your pocket, not to mention it takes great pictures and as he says the software that comes with it is great. We have thousands of pictures up on the internet of our travels and family. You will find that in all sorts of comparisions that Olympus comes out on top.
May 27th, 2002 | 07:03 PM
#6
Guest
Posts: n/a
Questions to ask:
Will he want prints, or just pictures to put up on a web site?
Is he willing to sdpend hours at a computer, with a good printer, making his own prints?
If not, is there a local service that makes good prints from digital cameras?
If not, buy a film camera.
If yes (do it himself or knows where to have it done)...
Dollar for dollar, digital cameras are twice as expensive, give or take, as real cameras with similar features.
So ...
a 3 megapixel camera will let him make excellent 5x7 prints, and pretty good 8x10 prints, and excellent web pictures.
More megapixels means bigger prints are possible.
The lens of almost all $400-$600 cameras is a zoom. The numbers on them make little sense, so you need to ask for "35mm equivalent" numbers.
Typical ranges are 28 - 85, or 35 - 70, or 35 - 105 or 50 - 150.
The low number is how wide angle the lens is. 35mm is "standard" wide angle and 28 is "extra" wide angle. At the other end, 80 is slight telephoto and 100 or 105 is a great portrait length, and 150 will reach across a road and make a small building fill the frame.
If he's a people-shooter, lean toward the high number; if he's a scenery guy, lean toward the low end (28 rather than 35)
He'll need some extra memory cards to save his images on, and, if he's going to take lots of pictures, maybe a laptop computer to transfer files to after a day's shooting.
Digital cameras hate batteries, and eat them up, so a spare rechargable battery and a charger would be a great accessory.
If it was me (and I';m a professional photographer and I write a magazine column about cameras) I'd buy, for sure, a camera from a real camera company -- Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Fuji, Minoilta and others -- rather than one from an electronics company, such as Panasonic, Casio, Hewlett-Packard, etc.
Is he going to be a serious photographer, making this a hobby that will grow, or is he just going to be a snapshooter?
If serious, just go get him a Nikon Coolpix 995, although you might have to stretch the budget.
As a happy-snapper, your choice becomes harder, and simpler. If you are willing to not surprise him, the best way of buying, when you come right down to it, is to buy the most expensive camera you can afford (in your price range) that feels best in his hands. At each price point, other than the lens range, features pretty much match each other, so it is the feel that matters.
BAK
Will he want prints, or just pictures to put up on a web site?
Is he willing to sdpend hours at a computer, with a good printer, making his own prints?
If not, is there a local service that makes good prints from digital cameras?
If not, buy a film camera.
If yes (do it himself or knows where to have it done)...
Dollar for dollar, digital cameras are twice as expensive, give or take, as real cameras with similar features.
So ...
a 3 megapixel camera will let him make excellent 5x7 prints, and pretty good 8x10 prints, and excellent web pictures.
More megapixels means bigger prints are possible.
The lens of almost all $400-$600 cameras is a zoom. The numbers on them make little sense, so you need to ask for "35mm equivalent" numbers.
Typical ranges are 28 - 85, or 35 - 70, or 35 - 105 or 50 - 150.
The low number is how wide angle the lens is. 35mm is "standard" wide angle and 28 is "extra" wide angle. At the other end, 80 is slight telephoto and 100 or 105 is a great portrait length, and 150 will reach across a road and make a small building fill the frame.
If he's a people-shooter, lean toward the high number; if he's a scenery guy, lean toward the low end (28 rather than 35)
He'll need some extra memory cards to save his images on, and, if he's going to take lots of pictures, maybe a laptop computer to transfer files to after a day's shooting.
Digital cameras hate batteries, and eat them up, so a spare rechargable battery and a charger would be a great accessory.
If it was me (and I';m a professional photographer and I write a magazine column about cameras) I'd buy, for sure, a camera from a real camera company -- Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Fuji, Minoilta and others -- rather than one from an electronics company, such as Panasonic, Casio, Hewlett-Packard, etc.
Is he going to be a serious photographer, making this a hobby that will grow, or is he just going to be a snapshooter?
If serious, just go get him a Nikon Coolpix 995, although you might have to stretch the budget.
As a happy-snapper, your choice becomes harder, and simpler. If you are willing to not surprise him, the best way of buying, when you come right down to it, is to buy the most expensive camera you can afford (in your price range) that feels best in his hands. At each price point, other than the lens range, features pretty much match each other, so it is the feel that matters.
BAK
May 27th, 2002 | 07:41 PM
#7
Guest
Posts: n/a
An issue we had when traveling was securing enough of whatever memory cards/sticks the camera uses. If you are taking a laptop, no problem. If not, you need to buy enough to cover the whole trip. They have become a lot cheaper, but for a big trip, still an expense. Also, for a trip an extra battery is important - as is a place to recharge it (with converter/adapter if necessary for overseas)
Trending Topics
May 28th, 2002 | 05:57 AM
#8
Guest
Posts: n/a
some main considerations (besides relability, etc.) are resolution measured in megapixles (the more the better) and storage...usually on some type of card. these cards can be expensive ($50-$90 for 128 megabytes). i bought a 4-megapixle olumpus d-40 using smartmedia cards....my laptop has a built in smartmedia slot so thats a main reason i bought this camera....along with the high (for now) resolution.
May 28th, 2002 | 06:03 AM
#9
Guest
Posts: n/a
Select a camera that uses Compact Flash media. It's the cheapest memory storage, offers the most capacity, and widely available. You can get a 128 megabyte card (good for ~60 high quality 2-megapixel pics) for around $40 these days. A laptop compact flash reader that attaches to your PCMCIA port is $8 on ebay. By all means avoid cameras that use Sony's Memorystick memory media, it's the biggest rip off around.
