Camera Help
 

For my wife's 60th. birthday she gets a trip to Ethiopia. For her 65th. I guess I'll have to pay to bring her back home. No, that's just a joke.

I am going to give her a digital camera for her trip. What I need is some advice on what kind to get. I know I don't need more that about 3 megapixals capacity a large LCD, screens icons that can be read by people over 60, rechargable batteries, and a couple of 64 mb memory cards. Is there anything else I should look for?

My brother, who is the electronics guy, says that Sony Cybershot DSC-W5 at $220; Canon Powershot A520 or A620 ($325), and the HP Photosmart R817 are Consumer Report best buys. Has anyone had good luck with other cameras?

Thanks in advance.

The best image quality will be achieved with an optical zoom, regardless of the image density (number of pixels). Many lower-priced cameras have these, but not all.

My advice is to not spend a lot of money on features that you don't need today. The price of these is falling just like computers or monitors. For any electronic hardware, I consider the price as akin to rent in that if I can wait a year before buying, the price is much lower. If I can get by with a lower-priced product, I can use that and get the higher priced product for half its original cost in many cases, meaning I get decent equipment, but keep my money longer.

I would suggest the Canon or the HP for the memory card as there is a bounty of SD memory cards out there in 1-2GB capacities so you can shoot pictures of gazelles until they get tired. The Sony has the bigger 2.5" screen. The canon and the HP have smaller 2" screens. I use the viewfinder just because it sucks the life out of my batteries. The HP does have the best optical zoom 4x of the bunch which would be a bonus as opposed to the digital zoom which is just image interpolation. The Sony has a Carl Zeiss lens but I cannot verify current quality is of the same standard it used to be.

There are models with 3" screens which may be of interest.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=145&modelid=12956

I have this....
http://cgi.ebay.com/OLYMPUS-SP-350-SP350-DIGITAL-CAMERA-NEW-W-USA-WARRANTY_W0QQitemZ130032456443QQihZ003QQcategoryZ48542QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

200 bucks for 8 megapixels.....awesome camera
Mind you, I have no idea how to set this camera...I just put it on AUTO and snap away. I was never good with cameras but this one seems to work fine. All the pics were adjusted for size so they don't look as good as they should.

Pic of Peanut....

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c6...e/P8230062.jpg

Pic at Mets game from our suite...

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c6...e/P8260097.jpg

Don't fall for the megapixel gimmic, get some kind of digital SLR. If you shop the Canon Rebel can be found in your price range.

Stick with companies that make cameras if you want a good quality camera. Canon, Nikon, and Olympus all make excellent digital cameras. Optical zoom, as was stated above, is the way to go. "Digital zoom" is sales hype and does not mean anything.
You should probably get at least a 5MP camera. That will enable you to make some enlargements that are good quality. Don't scrimp on the camera for a big trip like that.
The only question I have is: Why would anybody want to go to Ethiopia for ANYthing?

Canon

Mistress, what do you think? Did you have an opinion about cameras?

Thanks for all the info. I think I will go with about 5mp or less with an optical zoom and as close to a 3 in. screen as I can get.

She is going to Ethiopia to see a long time (25 years) friend from Dubai. I think that Addas Ababa in the winter is pretty nice. Be sids it is a chance to get away from me and the S. Tx. humidity.

We had a camera with a dedicated battery that over time held less and less of a charge. Our current camera takes AA batteries. We have an 8-pack of NiMH's but should that run out we can get batteries just about anywhere.

Check out the Sandisk Ultra II plus SD cards. They fold to expose a USB connector. It's expensive as SD cards go but you can upload and download to just about any device with a USB port.

http://www.ces-show.com/2006/review/sandisk/001_sandisk_sd_plus_02.jpg

Sixto
93 300SD

I would go with more than 5mp, especially how cheap these things are getting right now.

I ended up with a Canon Powershot A540 with a 1gb memory stick. There are so many choices and price ranges. Fortunately I got a quite knowledgeable young salesman and we sort of split the difference.

Thanks for everyone's help.

A bit late, but, If it makes you feel any better, I was going to suggest the Cannon also. See about getting a set of re-chargable batteries and charger, and power adaptors (I have no idea how many volts they use in Ethiopia - I am assuming there will be voltage of some sort), so you can plug it in wherever you are/will be.

Nice choice. She'll be happy with that.

YESSSSS! excellent choice...