Digital Cameras - What To Get?

Principessa

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  • Ignore optical zoom it means nothing.
  • Digital zoom matters a lot!
  • Buy the camera with the highest digital zoom you can afford.
  • If you want to enlarge the prints, digital zoom is what allows you to do this and retain picture clarity.
My camera is an HP R817 - I'm not sure if they make it any more; because so many people complained about the fact it has no viewfinder. It does however have a 2.5" viewing screen which works fine for me.

All the pics in my gallery have been taken with this camera.
 

viking1

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Mines an Olympus 5mp and on the highest resolution the photos are massive.

You mean on your computer screen which is set to a max of 96 dpi.

When you print pictures you want 300 dpi for best quality, and those pics that look huge on your monitor won't be be but 8x10 in print.
 

viking1

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  • Ignore optical zoom it means nothing.
  • Digital zoom matters a lot!
  • Buy the camera with the highest digital zoom you can afford.
  • If you want to enlarge the prints, digital zoom is what allows you to do this and retain picture clarity.
My camera is an HP R817 - I'm not sure if they make it any more; because so many people complained about the fact it has no viewfinder. It does however have a 2.5" viewing screen which works fine for me.

All the pics in my gallery have been taken with this camera.

I'm afraid you've got that backwards. Optical zoom is far better than digital which crops out part of the sensor to magnify the pics. Digital zoom is okay for pics in good light, but when printed at high resolution the difference can be seen. In low light digital zoom is all but useless.
Optical zoom is done all with lens, and makes for quality pics.
 

D_Gunther Snotpole

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I'm afraid you've got that backwards. Optical zoom is far better than digital which crops out part of the sensor to magnify the pics. Digital zoom is okay for pics in good light, but when printed at high resolution the difference can be seen. In low light digital zoom is all but useless.
Optical zoom is done all with lens, and makes for quality pics.

Exactly, viking.
Digital zoom is basically useless.
 

SpoiledPrincess

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Yeah I was told optical zoom is the thing to go for and digital zoom was rubbish.

I have no idea Viking, I'm rubbish with computers, but the techy who showed me how to make my photos smaller (I couldn't even do that) told me they would print out at a massive size, it's quite possible I could be misinterpreting what I was told though.
 

B_ScaredLittleBoy

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I resize pictures in Paint by percentage. I have photoshop too though, just for show :redface:

Picture printouts also depend on paper quality. Theres proper glossy photo paper that gives good print outs.

And I think what Viking means is after a certain point once you stretch an image it starts to get blurred. The higher the original resolution, the more you have to work with. And its always better to have too much than too little. Isn't it? :confused:
 

D_Gunther Snotpole

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I've been told digital zoom was the way to go by a number of tech people.:confused::rolleyes:

There's no way to explain their saying that, nj.
They would have been using 'digital' and 'optical' in the same sentences, and I have to wonder if they had a glitch in their explanations or you have a memory glitch.
I have them all the time.:tongue:
 

B_ScaredLittleBoy

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Its a card reader, you plug it into your computer and it reads SD cards and loads of other memory cards. Might not even be a good present but it'll be a surprise :tongue:

The person I'm giving it to needs it because his PC doesn't have an SD card reader and he uses SD cards a lot :smile:

Always thinkin :biggrin1:

Maybe the next present I'll spend a whole pound :tongue:. This was just a chance buy though hehe. Now if only I can get a camera for 26p :cool:
 

Not_Punny

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Hello SLB, when I'm camera shopping (for myself or as a gift), I always, always, always check out a camera at TWO places:

Steve's Camera Reviews (where they have in-depth reviews of cameras going back many years, so you can look up newer OR older models)

And.... Amazon.com where real people give real experience with many cameras. Again, the reviews go back quite a few years.

Good luck!
 

B_ScaredLittleBoy

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Hello flim!

I think I'll get either a Powershot or a Lumix...but not sure lol. They seem kind of high end? Or at least more than what I need.

What camera are the milfs using these days?
 

viking1

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I resize pictures in Paint by percentage. I have photoshop too though, just for show :redface:

Picture printouts also depend on paper quality. Theres proper glossy photo paper that gives good print outs.

And I think what Viking means is after a certain point once you stretch an image it starts to get blurred. The higher the original resolution, the more you have to work with. And its always better to have too much than too little. Isn't it? :confused:

Yes, when you print photos and go below 300dpi they don't look as crisp.
Go way lower and they look horrible. There are calculators that you can download for free that will show you print sizes at a given resolution.
Yes, "too much" is alwasy better than "too little". Not just with photos...
:tongue:

Yeah I was told optical zoom is the thing to go for and digital zoom was rubbish.

I have no idea Viking, I'm rubbish with computers, but the techy who showed me how to make my photos smaller (I couldn't even do that) told me they would print out at a massive size, it's quite possible I could be misinterpreting what I was told though.


You can print photos at less than 300dpi (which is considered the standard for film quality prints), and they will print bigger, but not be as sharp.
I printed a photo of my dads tulips a few years ago from a file that was taken at my camera's lowest resolution. I didn't intend to print it, but it came out so good. Compared to another print of the same tulips (different day and angle) that I took at full resolution, you can see the difference.
Both were printed at 8x10 and on the same printer and paper. Unless I know I am going to print something at large high quality I keep my camera set a low resolution. I can get more pics on the flash card that way, and they take up less hard drive space. I use most just to display on my monitor or as wallpaper, or show them to friends on the TV screen using a DVD player. For those purposes low res. is fine, but for quality prints it's not.
 

D_Gunther Snotpole

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Hello SLB, when I'm camera shopping (for myself or as a gift), I always, always, always check out a camera at TWO places:

Steve's Camera Reviews (where they have in-depth reviews of cameras going back many years, so you can look up newer OR older models)

And.... Amazon.com where real people give real experience with many cameras. Again, the reviews go back quite a few years.

Another good place is Digital Photography Review.
 

Not_Punny

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Cool, Rubi! I've bookmarked that one! (The more the merrier.)

- - - -

I have three cameras, but am looking for a new one because I want to take more/better night shots.

My newest camera is the super-compact Casio Elixim 1000, but the flash is so feeble that it's no good for indoor shooting.

I mostly use my Nikon CoolPix S4 because it has a pretty good flash, and one of those flippy viewfinders that SP is talking about.

But I really want a FASTER camera than my Nikon -- I can't tell you how many pictures I missed because it didn't "start" in time or because there was such a lag between shots. If you're just shooting yourself, no problem. But at family reunions and birthdays, etc. etc. etc., it's not the best camera.
 

D_Gunther Snotpole

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But I really want a FASTER camera than my Nikon -- I can't tell you how many pictures I missed because it didn't "start" in time or because there was such a lag between shots. If you're just shooting yourself, no problem. But at family reunions and birthdays, etc. etc. etc., it's not the best camera.

Some of the Nikon CoolPix cameras did have a lengthy 'lag time,' the interval between the moment of tripping the 'shutter' and having the photo actually taken.
I don't know if they're all like that.
SLB has been mentioning the Lumix cameras ... and some of the people I know who work in camera stores say the best of that line are almost like digital SLRs. (SLB correctly notes that these cameras are on the expensive side, however.)
I have a Pentax K-100 D, a digital SLR with two lenses. Nice camera, and I can't account for the way I've neglected using it.
 

B_NineInchCock_160IQ

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I have a Kodak Easyshare 1253. Just bought it. You can find them online for $260, pretty brand new so I doubt you'd find many on eBay. It shoots awesome-quality video for such a cheap camera, nothing else in the price range even comes close. 720p HD video, has a stereo mic jack in the front. Very compact, almost super-compact, though it has a huge LCD screen that takes up virtually the entire back side of the camera. Pretty simple to use. Lens is so-so. 3x optical zoom. It shoots 12 megapixel pictures, which is HUGE... something you would only really need if you are printing out life-sized posters. It also shoots in panorama, but then the best resolution is 9 MP. decent battery life. Startup time and picture capture times are both fairly quick.

Some problems I have with it... it performs pretty poorly in low-light conditions. pointing and shooting in the club or at dimly lit parties or night-time football games is probably going to result in a lot of blur. There is digital image stabilization built in but it doesn't work all that well, and no optical image stabilization which I think is supposed to be better. I think the hookups to my laptop are proprietary, always annoying. memory cards are standard, though. the built-in mic works okay but sometimes sound can be distorted. It's also hard to shoot things close-up.

If you want to buy my old Sony Mavica I'll sell you that for $100. My cousin just bought it on eBay for $150 about six month ago. Great camera for its day, a little bulky now. Good resolution. It uses mini-discs for picture storage and has a built-in CD burner.
 

gimme_another_inch

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I've been told digital zoom was the way to go by a number of tech people.:confused::rolleyes:

ajajajaj, with the "I've been told you never go too far..."

Man, go give a look at dpreview.com there you find all the infos you want regarding digital photography, reviews etc etc

dg