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| Hi guys,
Need advice on what type of a digital camera to buy. What features should I be looking for?
How many megapixels? What type of zoom recommended? Any advice on printers, or other misc. info? Basically looking to accomplish 2 things...
1. Instant pictures (but with better picture quality than Polaroid).
2. Upload to web
Any suggestions would be much appreciated as I'm doing the shopping tomorrow. |
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Posts: 2091
Location: Stevens Point, WI | Consumer Reports listed the Kodak Easy Picture number one. You should get something above 3.0 mega pixels to achieve photo quality. |
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Posts: 2024
| I've got a Canon Digital Elf. Sure beats the SLRs. Picture quality is unbelievable! You can view the picture as you took it, or zoom in to look at it closer. Flash is really bright and can make you or a fish POP out. Super easy to upload pictures. Self-timer. I'd recommend it. Couldn't tell you exactly how many megapixels it has, but as someone else stated, get one with more than 3.0 megapixels. Good luck! |
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| the KEY to digital cameras is optical zoom vs. digital zoom.
lots of megapixels don't make a bad picture better. just more clearly bad.
get the camera with the most optical zoom that you can afford - this is from the actual lens.
optical zoom translates into sharp pictures even at max zoom.
digital zoom just makes a small picture bigger and can result in fuzzy pictures.
you can get a camera with 10x optical zoom and 4 megapixels for under $400.
you can get a camera with 6x optical zoom and 3 megapixels for under $300.
(and get one with a timer for those shots when fishing alone!)
Edited by lambeau 12/26/2004 8:39 AM
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| Thanks for the replies, guys. What does SLR stand for? (I'm not too familiar with camera terminology)
Thanks,
"Jackpot" John Schroeder |
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| SLR = single lens reflex or what you think of as a normal/classic film camera. Check out another post on this site that went one for a while on cameras. May be some good info. |
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | I highly reccomend the Olympus Stylus 400/410 digital. Its 4Mega-pixel, water resistant, comes with a small remote control, has a self timer, and I can't remember what the optical zoom qualities are but it does have one. Very easy to use, and if you look around its possible to find one under $300. Tiger Direct recently had them for $279, almost 100 cheaper then I paid for mine. Check the Photo Album link at the top of the page and look for my album, some of the pics in there are from the olympus, specifically the sunset one and the 38" fish from november. |
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| I've got the Kodak 5.0mp model and it's great. Software is very easy to use and the pictures are outstanding. |
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Location: Minneapolis, MN | If you ever have to take photos of a subject that moves (children) make sure you know how much shutter lag time is going to be acceptable to you before you purchase. I have a ~$400 point and shoot digital that has 3-4seconds of shutter lag. That doesn't sound like much until you setup what you believe is a great shot in the veiwfinder only to watch the subject move, even the slightest, and find your image to be blurry. I also found that many of the point and shoot digitals have inexpensive lenses (when compared to digital SLR's) and therefore do a rather poor job in low light conditions. I am selling my point and shoot digital becuase I just upgraded to the Canon Digital Rebel SLR that has nearly zero shutter lag and will let me take several consequtive shots without delay.
A very good resource for both customer and editor product reveiws is www.cnet.com They also provide price comparison.
If you go with a camera that uses SD card memory you might want to check out the deal on a 1GB card at the link below. Super low price.
http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?dpno=480241
Edited by Luke_Chinewalker 1/3/2005 8:58 PM
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Posts: 15
| You guys are right on the optical zoom,shutter lag and also the Cnet reviews, I have owned allot of cameras and a couple of other recommendations I would make.
1. Go to a place that actually sells cameras, in the Twin Cities we have a National Camera Exchange, these people know their stuff, prices are about the same as anywhere else, good advice pays for itself.
2. Don't get too many bells and whistles, you pay for stuff you would never use, one of my cameras has a movie mode so you can shoot 30 second clips, it is a joke, very poor quality and we never use it.
3. Ease of use. When you catch the fish of a lifetime, your not going to shoot the photo, the other person in the boat is and chances are that they are they might not know much about cameras.
Hope this helps
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Posts: 1916
Location: Greenfield, WI | Most all the major brands make very nice cameras. You will enjoy the quality of the picture improvement with all of them.
There are a few things to consider.
1) You will likely have options available on all of the cameras to select the capasity of the memory chip. Purchase the largest capasity memory chip that you can.
2) You should purchase a back-up battery pack with a charger so that, at worst case, if your battery in the camera goes dead, you lose only the few seconds that it will take to replace the battery pack.
3) Most of the pictures that we will take are around water. I bought the smallest camera that allowed for the addition of a polarizing filter, to kill the glare off the water. This allows for awesome water release pictures.
4) A number of cameras have water proof cases that the camera can be placed in to facilitate underwater pictures, or pictures in wet weather while still protecting the camera. Most all the digital cameras that are on the market that I am aware of become unrepairable & useless if they get wet, as in "Dunked".
5) There is a camera case that IS waterproof (they claim that it floats, but I would try it with your camea first to make sure of that claim) and relatively compact. It is called "OutPack's Dri-Safe". They do have a website. I have been using it hard for three years with great success, including in heavy rain and snow.
Edited by Steve Van Lieshout 1/4/2005 12:57 PM
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| If you want the capability to print enlargements you need to look into the settings on the digital camera for that. The 3x5 pictures settings do not take up many pixels (whatever a pixil is) but if you want to enlarge more than that you need to be able to set the camera to a higher level of pixels per shot which decreases the number of pictures you can get on a card or chip. This is not a problem if you get a large capacity card as suggested above but they do cost money. Also, if have to pay attention and set it for the higher level or when that once in a lifetime fish is in the boat you will get pictures at the lower settings and will not be able to blow up the picture without losing quality of the print.
That said I am quite happy with my digital and want to say dito to the kudos above. I got a waterproof model for obvious reasons for a fisherman but I have seen models that have a larger builtin viewer since then that is a great feature, especially if you are approaching seniorhood like me and have trouble seeing some of the smaller images. |
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Posts: 1916
Location: Greenfield, WI | My camera is a Cannon G-3, with 4.0 megapixels. I supposedly have the capability of creating a 30"x40" poster sized photo without grainy quality.
I have been told by a number of camera sales people, that anything more than 4.0 megapixels are of no benefit to the human eye's perception.
My camera does offer a remote control feature plus a small screen that shows the image that will be photographed. That small screen can be turned to nearly any angle including to point forward to help you to keep your image within the frame.
Edited by Steve Van Lieshout 1/5/2005 9:44 AM
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Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | I bought my wife the Kodak 3.2 mega pixel that came in a package deal with the docking station that prints out very high quality prints immediatly if you want. It does not have an optical zoom but most of your pics will never be farther than from somewhere in the boat so you might avoid the large extra expense of an optical zoom. The package deal was like $219 at Target. A bargain for my standards and very beautiful pictures. It is almost idiot proof and has a nice software package to put them on the puter or the web as well. |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Since you are asking these questions on a muskie fishing board I can only assume you want to take this new toy out on the boat. You might look for a 'sport' model, or one that is moisture proof, water resistent, or water proof. I've had cameras get damp and get bounced around and had their circuit boards short out. Make sure when that 50 incher comes to the boat in a driving rain that you can still capture the moment.
As far as the zoom, that gets more difficult to find in a water resistent model. Still, when you see mom and pop bald eagle 50 yards out on the tree feeding the youngsters, that zoom sure comes in handy. m
Edited by mikie 1/5/2005 8:25 AM
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Posts: 185
Location: Mendota Heights, MN | One "key" feature for me that I have not seen mentioned is a remote control. Taking a picture while fishing alone is nigh on impossible without it. Any ideas?
Steve |
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| if you're supporting a fish horizontally in two hands, how would you easily use the remote?
i think a timer is an easier answer - most have 10-12 second delays, plenty of time to lift the fish for a pic. |
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