Well, for my birthday, I'm buying myself a digital camara. I've got a CHEAP $40 walmart one, it's junk...

I'm in the market for something around $100.

I work at farm and fleet, and we've got a Sony DSCS40 on clearance for $99.88... I dont get a discount... nobody does...

For Christmas we bought one for my sister, and she's happy with it... 4.1 megapixals, 3x optical zoom, 2x digital zoom, video capabal.

But yeah, I also looked at walmart, but the camaras there had depleated batteries (OK it was 2am...but still).

I didnt see anything that stuck out, and thoose little "information" cards arent worth the paper they're printed on...

Can I get some help deciding what I should get, or even what I should look for in digital camaras?
I'm under the impression that more megapixals, and optical zoom are better. I want something with a decent sized LCD screen, but it's gotta be able to fit in my pocket. Easy to navigate menues would be fantastic, but I can usually figure that stuff out eventually. I also need it to be reasonably tough...

Any suggestions would be appreciated
Tks alot
~Nate

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95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

The article on this website might help.

Pick Me!

You might be able to find some of their sub-$200 on ebay for 1/2 price.

Best of luck and let us know what you find.

Thanks for the link, but I'm kinda looking for personal experiances...

There's gotta be more cheapskates on this board then just me... Right?

tks
~Nate

__________________
95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002AHQKK/ref=olp_product_details/002-2818766-0447235?ie=UTF8&seller=

I like this one, I'll probably buy it or a Cannon.

Check amazon there is probably something decent for $100.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

We've had extremely good results with a Kodak Easyshare. Ours is 6MP, and it was within budget. At the time, it was on sale at Wallyworld on their site for $129.
About a year later, I was at a family event where a relative who worked for Kodak asked to see my camera. He snubbed his nose at it as a piece of junk they don't sell anymore.
Nevermind that the price was right, it's taken some amazing pictures, and I only print what I really need from the local drugstore when digital printing is on sale.
Oh, and it works well with no trouble.

I do think the Easyshare series come and go quickly, so if you're considering one, don't count on getting it fixed easily or cheaply, should something happen to it.

Then again, I take care of my toys.

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85' 300D No inspection, No registration fees, Cheap insurance
"If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're going to see some serious %$&^."

Canon powershot.


I have a A75 and love it. It's going on three years old now. Still takes quality shots.

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-1983 VW Rabbit LS Diesel (5speed, VNT/Giles build)

As an ex amatuer photographer I can tell you ;

"There is nothing more expensive then a cheap digital camera!!"






...

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'87 924S
'81 280SEL

Sold ->

81 300SD -
93 300E w/ 3.2
85 300D-
79 300SD
82 300CD
83 300CD - CA
87 190E 5 spd
87 Porsche 924S

"..I'll take a simple "C" to "G" and feel brand new about it..."

Lens quality is more important than megapixels. More optical zoom is better, digital zoom can be done later. Look at the batteries and memory chips as well as the camera. Also look at the interface to upload the pictures.

Better-half dropped our camera off of the float at Mardi Gras yesterday, we are in the same boat. It was several years old, 6+?, Olympus D510. I have tried others since then and always went back to the old 2.1 megapixel. Almost all of the pictures we take are a half megapixel, they look great on a 32 inch HDTV.

Canon Powershot- you can get them for around 100.00 user friendly and good quality, if you get stuck you can actually get a person on the phone to help you!

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

I'd also vote for an A-series Canon Powershot. I don't know if they have any current offerings that would meet the target for price, though; maybe one could snag a leftover somewhere.

A few months ago we bought my daughter a Canon A410 as her first camera. At the time, one could be had for $100 with a house brand 512 MB card included. For the intended application - no regrets! We normally use NiMH batteries we already had, but we can always chuck in a pair of fresh AA alkalines in a pinch - and it's not all that hungry.

Newer entry-level Powershots have of course raised the bar - more megapixels, more optical zoom, and sound with the video, for starters - but I don't think that one can be had for $100 at this time. If it's a first camera, then one probably would want to figure in a larger card than the dinky 16 MB one that comes in the box, too.

the flip open face thing looks flimsy, are all Canon Powershots like that???

I dont like cheap, complicated things, because of the principal... Cheap, Complicated... Disposible....

something tough is what I'm looking for...

tks though, but, any more suggestions are still appreciated
~Nate

__________________
95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

You lookin for a camera or a hooker? Both are cheap and easy. Most point and shoots are plastic. Nate look at the Canon powershot A540. No plastic flip up thingy. Only way to break it is if you launch it.

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

I know this is a little off topic (question - is it possible to be off topic in OD), but the NY Times had an interesting column a few weeks ago on the unimportance of pixels in how good a camera is. The author used 5 meg, 8 meg and 13 meg cameras to take the same picture. By and large, people couldn't correctly identify which was taken by which. Then a professional conducted a similar test using 7, 10 & 16.7 megs. Same result.

So the lesson was, to a great extent ''megapixels don't matter'' in most cases.

The article is at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E1DD113FF93BA35751C0A9619C8B63.

For me - I'm using one for dummies - a Kodak Easyshare 4 meg. Plenty good for me, and cost $100 last year. Probably $60 if you can find it this year.

By next year when the better cameras come down in price again, I'll upgrade. Or not.

Go to circuit city and ask oif they have any open box items.

They are ususally 50% off and carry the same warranty as as one in a box/

I bought a casio 7.2 megapixel for 165.00 down from 270.

There are usually a few of them.

.02

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Enough about me, how are you doing?

I ran across some favorable reviews of Toshiba's cameras at epinions.com. Theirs is not a name that comes up right away but they get good reviews.

I bought this one on e-bay for about $100.

If I was buying one now, I'd hold out for this model, the next generation at 4.2 mp.

Here's a good deal on what's supposed to be a slightly used one of those:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Toshiba-PDR-4300-4MP-Digital-Camera-w-2-8x-Zoom_W0QQitemZ140087961116QQihZ004QQcategoryZ30018QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I've been happy with mine.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K