digital camera advice

[ap0the0sis]

Hey peeps,

im in the market for a digital camera. Im looking for something that is of good quality and not to expensive. Looking to spend around $200.00 or so. I would like something that i can use to take pics of "screen shots of my projector". By this i mean it should take good pics, i used a HP camera (cheap) and when i went to go take pics of the screen they came out all blurry and out of focus.


What do you guys recomend? Brand, style, features, price...

thanks,
ap0

[tiroth]

Since we are all electronics folks, maybe we could also solicit opinions on cameras that give good close-up shots for circuitry detail.

[LaMa]

Check http://www.dpreview.com It has lots of information.

[peranders]

I have used a Minolta F100 (F300 available now) and it's quite OK. Minimum object is 40 mm in order to fill the picture. The lens has some distortion (you can see it at my amp pictures). Every picture with white background is taken with the Minolta.

Here you have some cactus pictures taken with the Minolta
http://home5.swipnet.se/~w-50719/kaktus/mprolifera.html
The cactus is 15 mm in diameter.

Bad things:

Somewhat slow from pressed trigger to actually taking the picture, 1-2 secs

Switching white balance all the time in "Auto".

Lens distortion, but the lens is very sharp though.

Have difficulties to focus in low light.

Everywise I like the camera, easy to learn

[zardoz]

Fuji S602 Zoom, Smart Media and Compact Flash slots. Great images, versatile (but will be buying the wide angle and telephoto add on's) learning curve is fairly high. I'm just scratching the surface on it's functions and have owned it for a few months. Slow "recharge" between flash's (need to use external flash of good quality)

Over all I'm impressed with it...it's a big step up from my Sony Mavica FD7 floppy camera.

zardoz

[ezmeralda11]

I'm trying to get rid of this one:

http://www.photogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.p...683&class&3&4&


I swear its mint--it's still got the sticker and tags on it. I'm flexible on the price. I'm not a camera guru but I was impressed with the quality, although a film-based would still be better, I think.
If interested just email. Hope this doesn't violate forum rules.

[haldor]

I bought a camera for my wife for Christmas and the Nikon Coolpix 2500 was the best choice I could find.

Pros:
- Very cool swivel lens system. Protects the lens when you aren't using it.
- Very compact, easily fits in shirt pocket. I use a cell phone case to hold mine (they are really that small).
- Decent quality images (2 M-Pixels)
- Zoom lense.
- Lots of scenes (picture taking modes). Makes it easier to get a good picture under different conditions.
- Compact flash (least inexpensive memory card), comes with 16 Meg card.
- Rechargable battery
- Macro mode (great for taking pictures of PCB's)
- Consumer Reports Best Buy (if that matters to you)

Cons:
- Flash is right next to lens so Red eye can be a problem (you will get practice removing red eye with your photo editor).
- 2 Mega pixels pretty much limit you to max 5" x 8" enlargements.
- No optical view finder, you have to use the LCD as a finder.

Local retailers are selling this for around $280 now, I bought mine on-line for $240 plus $10 shipping.

One big warning about buying cameras on-line. There are a number of retailers that are scam artists (most of them seem to be in the New York City area). They will have the lowest prices (I saw as low as $210 for the Nikon I bought). The problem is these are grey market goods and do not have a US warrantee. Plus they open the box and take out the compact flash card which they will then try to sell you to as an accessory. And after you order they will often call you up on some pretext and use high pressure tactices to try to get you to buy some very expensive accessories. Do you homework, is there a real address and phone number posted anywhere on their website? Check them out with some of the on-line retailer rating services.

These bad apples tend to reopen as new companies on a regular basis. If you notice several companies that have the same contact info (address, phone number), be wary.

Phil

[Eric]

Be sure to ask about shipping costs before ordering from the lowest priced vendor on the Internet. Often the place that beats everyone else's price by $50 will charge up to $30 to ship!

Also, nearly every point and shoot camera (digital or film based) will produce red eye. The 'red eye' feature on many cameras is next to worthless. Red eye is caused by the flash bouncing off of the subject's retina back onto the film due to the close proximity of the flash and lens. The only effective solution to this is to move the flash farther away from the lens - typically only possible with SLR or pro-format cameras with a flash mounted on a flash bracket. The nice thing about digital is that you can manually correct red eye using your photo software!

Eric

[peranders]

Originally posted by Eric
Also, nearly every point and shoot camera (digital or film based) will produce red eye.

Red eye is driven by a optical law!

When the angle between the flash and the lens is under a certain value, then you will get red eyes! That's it!

How to reduce?

1 Use wide angle lens, the object near (object for away and/or use tele lens not good)

2 Move the flash away from the camera!

This is facts. Red eyes "reducer" is tjurbajs, only marketing BS.

[zardoz]

"This is facts. Red eyes "reducer" is tjurbajs, only marketing BS."

How come the "red eye reducer" works on my camera then? I can certainly tell when I have forgotten to turn it on when I am photographing people (even my dogs).

zardoz