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Old 11-06-2004, 07:46 AM   #1
Asterix
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DIGITAL CAMERA's - Purchase advice req'd please...

Hi All,
I was hoping to take the plunge & buy a digital still camera.
Not sure yet exactly which one, but I think I have narrowed it down to 3 brands.

*Canon
*Nikon, or
*Sony

I also would like to buy a 4 or 5 megapixel.

There's a Sony DSC-P93 (5.1mp) for around $545 which is the cheapest 5mp I have seen.
I played with a friends Canon IXUS-400 (recently superseeded by the IXUS-430) & was quite impressed. They are 4mp & retail around $699 - a bit pricier. For those in the know, the size of the IXUS-400 was around that of a pack of 25's ciggies. He tells me Canon make their own lenses & are better quality than equivalent Sony's.
With Nikon, the one's I have seen are a bit bulkier in size, unless you go for the Coolpix 2mp model.

There's a theory that if you don't wanna blow the pix up to big pictures you don't need too get more Mp than you need or can afford and you should always get a better camera with less MP. A standard TV will only resolve 720x576 (0.5Mp) an excellent plasma 1024x1024 (1Mp) and a top PC monitor 1600x1200 (3Mp), for that matter a fairly good home printer is 1200x2400 (2.8Mp) so unless you get them professionally printed out and blown up you'll probably never need to resolve more than about 2 or 3 Mp when outputted onto a screen or paper!
- I just like the fact you can take a pic, then later zoom in on a particular feature without too much blockiness/pixelation.

I would like to say my budget ceiling is $500-600, & then buy a decent sized card (128-256mb) on top of that. I guess with canon, the CF cards are the cheapest media too.

I would appreciate an ideas/suggestions guys.

Thanks.
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Old 11-06-2004, 08:17 AM   #2
geetee
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hi mate,
i`ve got a fairly cheap digi camera, 3 mp max, but the software i got with it actually lets you enhance the photos to 4 mp when you download on to your computer. i`ve tested this by zooming on the same photo in 3 + 4 mp and it does work. dunno if other brands have this software or if you can buy it separately, but it might be worth looking out for. also the printer i have is an epson photo printer with a dpi of 5760 x 1200. dedicated photo printers are fairly cheap too but the cartridges are usually all separate, ie 1 cart for blue, 1 for yellow etc. as opposed to one cart with all the colours, tends to make them a wee bit more expensive. suppose it really depends what kind of pix you wanna take. my camera`s not very good for close up work but its great for outdoors pix... :wink:
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Old 11-06-2004, 08:47 AM   #3
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One thing to look out for on the camera is the zoom magnification. If you can find a camera that has at least 3Megapixels then you can print up to about A4 size prints without any loss in picture quality.
What will impact on the pictures you can take though is how much zoom you can get out of it and whether its optical or digital zoom.
Optical zoom is actual lens magnification before the image gets recorded to the camera whereas digital zoom is just the same as zooming in on your computer. Involves either making the pixels bigger or spacing them apart and interpolating inbetween them. Either way results in a degradation of picture quality = crapola.

Some cameras have both sorts too but be careful what they say. My camera has 3x optical and 4x digital which ends up being 4x total as digital is only used for the last 1x magnification. A friends camera has 3x optical and 4x digital which ends up being 12x total (3x4). Just a different way of explaining it I guess.

If you can find a camera with 3Mp and at least 3-4x optical zoom for the price range you're looking for then you're laughing.

Another thing to look at is the memory that the camera takes. Usually they come with some piddly little memory stick so you'll be looking at getting another one fairly shortly unless you only want to take 5-10 pictures at a time - especially if you're taking them at the full 3Mp size. The best place to buy memory sticks/cards is on Ebay so have a look there first and see what you can get and are up for.

My Sony Cybershot takes up to 3Mp but in reality, at 2.1Mp the pictures print absolutely fine to 4x6 prints - haven't printed any larger but should be fine for A5 or larger size enlargements I'd reckon.
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Old 11-06-2004, 12:11 PM   #4
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You sound like you've thought a lot through... Now to throw you some 'curves'.

How much are you going to print?
How big do you want to print?

Will you be sharing pics on the web/email mainly?
How much post-processing do you want to do?

You're looking at three good brands but each have their foibles.

Canon - 'Over sharpened' image off camera and good colour however lense aberation can be nasty

Nikon - Generally best 'camera' functions but less than ideal menus and user interface.

Sony - They may be schmick looking but the photos are over saturated, some detail is lost in the images and Memory Sticks are expensive and nasty.

Both Nikon and Canon pretty much are sole CF camera brands and thats a good thing.

Don't go entirely in MP, for example I shoot at 1600x1200 JPG superfine on my Canon and have had stuff blown up and printed in A3ish sizes and printed with no loss of detail.

Printer DPI has no real relation to image DPI. You could print a decent photo at 300dpi if you could get all the right colours blended ... but becuase printers do everythign with dots and ink bleed they need a much higher DPI - but beyond a point (1200dpi) it becomes fairly academic. It's more about how the printer makes its colours.

Most cameras capture at 75DPI.

Overall with your budget I'd suggest going to www.dirtcheapcameras.com.au (Yes they're a real genuine quality seller) and seeing if you can get a model above what you'd be getting from a bricks and mortar seller....

Go for a big lens, with larger diameter and longer zoom - digital zoom sucks r's hard. Olympus may be worth a look.

I would recommend trying to find a used Canon G2 or Nikon equivalent as these are really benchmark Prosumer cameras... in the case fo the Canon subsequent models haven't really advanced on the G2.... Mine will make a nice match to the D-SLR when it arrives....

A.
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Old 11-06-2004, 12:26 PM   #5
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I have a Canon Ixus V3 and it's pretty good... had no dramas with it... I have used the Ixus400 and as Aaron said, unless you are going to print off all your pics, do you really need 5mg??

cheers.
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Old 11-06-2004, 03:22 PM   #6
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Oh yeah, was going also going to mention, Ask Aaron - he's the digital camera guru :P
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Old 11-06-2004, 03:46 PM   #7
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ive got a kodak 3.2MP dunno if its any good or not but it does me just fine
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Old 13-06-2004, 04:01 PM   #8
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i've got a Canon Ixus v3...

love it. but a higher optical zoom would be nice

and it hakes really good night photos (with/without flash)

a mate has a pentax thats specs are higher than mine, but wont take night pics for nuts!
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Old 14-06-2004, 01:44 PM   #9
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I just went the 2MP Kodak CX6230 option, it was on sale as it was the display model. I wanted a camera from a camera company not an electronics company ie Kodak, Canon, Nikon etc....
Only issue so far has been the RAM, it requires SD RAM which is more expensive.
It takes AA batteries which is good. If they go flat you can buy them anywhere (now have Ni-Mh and charger).
I'll use this one to learn what I want and need to know before splashing out on D-SLR and lenses.
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Old 15-06-2004, 08:50 PM   #10
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it depends on how much you want to spend
depending on how much you spend will give you higher MP rating and OPTICAL zoom
digital zoom is ****
all it does is crop the picture to make the LCD display seem like u are closer
Id go for something around the $700 mark
less than that your prob buying a we;ll
not crap
but not as good camera
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