Ok I have an old 3 megapixel Kodak camera that recently pissed me off.

We had this incredible lighting storm about 25 miles outside of town I could see beautifully. There was a constant barrage of lightning on a gorgeous black cloud background. The lighting was ripping through the clouds about every 1-2 seconds leaving a brilliant white to orange glow throughout the black clouds.

I ran in and grabbed the camera and headed off to take some pictures. Turns out my camera is a PoS. All the images just plain sucked. To top it off it took almost 5 seconds per shot to store to the ultra flash card and about 5 seconds to AutoFocus on the image.

It still works great for family functions and all but I would really like to start using it more and more.

So I started looking for cameras and at first I thought I would go with Olympus Stylus Verve because it was so small and portable but figured I would just be right back in the same boat. Not a real upgrade to my current camera.

Next I found Nikon Coolpix 5900 but decided that I might as well spend an extra $50 and get the 7.1mp Nikon Coolpix 7900

Then I started thinking for another $300 or so I could have Finepix S7000 and am pretty sure that would set me for a long time to come…

Now I am not partial to any brand name what so ever, but Kodak is out at the moment due to my frustrations with my current camera. I just listed a lot of Nikons because it have a great review at Steve’s and I kept looking at theirs.

I would really appreciate any help, hints, suggests or whatever you feel I might need.

I would totally recommend just about any Canon digital camera. Their picture quality is superb and they have really nice features.

Check out http://www.dpreview.com/ They have the most extensive reviews I've ever seen for anything.

If you want to compare cameras side by side (Like a model of Canon vs. a model of Sony vs a model of Nikon, etc) you can go to Buying Guide -> Side by Side and select multiple camera models to see which features suit you more.

But still, I really recommend getting a Canon Camera.

Olympus fan here. I have had several of their digitals and currently use an E-10. It's great for it's ability to control every aspect of the photo, but weighty and a battery killer.

I got More a Stylus Verve for christmas last year and she loves it. Very compact and takes fantastic snapshot style pictures. Not what you want for taking long exposure pix though. It's very small and hard to hold steady for any type of low light pictures.

It sucks that you lost your chance at that picture. It sounds really cool.

Buying a camera all depends on what you'd like to do. I researched DAPs for about a month before I eventually made the jump to Olympus (which had a macro feature--as you have seen--that I really enjoy. I would have loved a Canon Rebel, which is miles easier to take artistic shots with, but I didn't even have a fraction of what those cost (typically $700-800 for the low end model).

There are settings on a camera that affect speed. For instance, the camera took a long time to auto-focus because you had it pointed into a open area. When taking landscape shots the camera should always be switched to landscape mode, or at least manually adjust the focus so it's up to infinity. This will always give you clear images when things are further than 15 meters away from you.

The resolution setting is usually a big factor to card write speed. If it's turned up to max it will take awhile. I usually shoot in 1024x768, unless I'm doing macro, which I set to max.

Finally, if you want to take rapid succession shots, turn the "picture review" setting to 1 second or off completely. Most camera models won't take pictures while it's reviewing.

What did you have in mind for your shots? Do you plan to do cool field of depth pictures? Those are very difficult to do with point-and-shoot cameras, and either require a camera with rim focus (like digital SLRs such as the Canon Rebel) or a lot of patience and guessing.

Tell me some of the things you plan on doing with your camera, and I'll give out a few suggestions.

Actually I had turned off the LCD so the light didn't affect my night vision.

I don't have any setting that let me adjust camera speed, but I did find a manual focus although the live picture is almost impossible to tell if it is in focus or not.

I have a 20" LCD and run at 1280x1024 so that would be the min resolution I would want to shoot at.

I really would like to get more into photography and to be honest the canon rebel has been my drool factor camera.

I am fairly new to digital photography and am not sure if i should spend the$700 once or spend $350 now and maybe more later...

I think taking pictures of lightning would be much like fireworks, although much more unpredictable.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...n/CIMG0232.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...n/CIMG0234.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...n/CIMG0252.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...n/CIMG0264.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...n/CIMG0240.jpg

that was some fun I had with my new Casio Exilim Ex-S100, smallest digital camera in the world with optical zoom and the first product on the market with a ceramic lens. It's got 23 preset modes (some are pure novelty) but the whiteboard mode is probably going to be my favorite part of the camera. It autodetects the edges and realigns the image so that every part of the board looks as if you took the picture from the perpendicular. At only about 200$ it's extremely pocketable, I got this for college, so 3.2 megapixels wasn't a big deal. I wind up taking pictures at 1600x1200 anyways, more then high enough quality.


http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_...s/ex-s100.html - Review on the camera, reliable, and after using it I agree with the reviewer. Also a great site on digital cameras in general... give it a browse before you buy.

Those are some nice pictures.

All the links in my orginal post are from steves, been reading a lot there... but a lot of stuff that is over my head.

How versitile is that camera in your opinion? Point n Shoot or do you have some options? What is your rating on the camera? How deep are you into photography?

BTW a new version of that camera comes out in August that is a 5.25mp that also shoots 640x480 video at 30fps...

You sound like you’re in the same boat I am in, Biggwin. I would suggest going with a medium level point and shoot C-Series Olympus Camera (similar to the one I have). Here are my reasons:

Digital cameras are generally in three categories: portable point-and-shoot, which are small, lightweight, take great pictures, but unfortunately lock you out of ESSENTIAL control over things like aperture and focus. Medium point and shoot, which are small, take great pictures, and let you manually adjust things like aperture and focus distance. Then of course there is SLR, which let you do everything after you pay for it with a pint of elven blood.

Almost all medium level point and shoot cameras are identical when it comes to picture quality/settings (that you'll never really use). The reason that Olympus comes ahead over the others is that it has an awesome feature that zooms in when you start adjusting the focus. Without this, it is impossible to tell what is in focus and what is not. Not all Olympus cameras have this, so if you decide to get one, make sure it does. I know all the Camedia line does (at least I think they do).

Being able to manipulate the focus manually and easily while "out in the field" will allow you to take nice looking field of depth shots easily without having to shelf out big bucks for a rim focus camera. Just be prepared to sit there awhile getting it down.

In addition to a nice zoom-focus feature, Olympus C-Series cameras also (usually) have a super-macro mode, which lets you focus in on something that’s only 0.8 cm from the lens. Most cameras will have a 8 inc inch or more min focus distance. You have to check with the specifics of the camera to tell for sure what it has, but if my five year old camera has these features, I don’t know why they would remove them for newer cameras.

Avoid being taken in my “mega-pixel” jargon. All this really affects is how large your pictures can be. A 3.2 MP camera can take 2048x1536 pictures, and a 4 MP camera takes 2288x1712. I only take pictures at this high of resolution when I want to blow up on a specific part of it (like when doing macro).

Get something that is Canon, Olympus, or Nikon. Avoid Kodak altogether. Some other makers, like Casio, are starting to produce nice cameras, but I don’t have any experience with them. I recommend Canon SD line for point-and-shooters, Olympus C-Series for amateur photographers, and Canon Rebel EOS for professionals.

I have it set up with a grid and multipoint autofocus, I can change the shutter speed from near instant to 4 seconds, manually focus (it zooms in like the olympus). I'm not a huge photo nut, I just wanted something metal, sturdy, small, cheap, and functional. The voice recorder mode and whiteboard mode just sealed it for me as I'm entering college this fall.
Settings I can see now (I carry this camera with me everywhere)

EV shift, Quality, Whitebalance, ISO, Autofocus Area, Auto Pan Focus, Sharpness, Saturation, Contrast, Flash Intensity, Flash Assist, Grid, Digital Zoom, Review, Icon Help, and customization for the left and right arrow keys.

I noticed that it was pretty hard to keep my hand steady with such a small camera, and the lack of an optical viewfinder made taking pictures of the fireworks difficult (due to the very close proximity to them... I was only about 30-40 feet away). Another annoying thing is that the autofocus is really loud, audiable clicking... but it's quick so I can't complain. As long as the flash isn't recharging there's about a second or two delay between pictures.

One of the neater features is I can select as many photos as I want, and it will generate HTML for a photo album, including resizing the pictures and arranging them automatically... if I had a webpage I'd use it :P.

Then of course, the wow factor... my friends are used to me getting small technology, I had a panasonic "keychain phone" for a while (piece of trash :P), and a sony little 2 megapixel stick camera (nice, but no zoom SUCKED.), and of course, my computer's a shuttle :P. It's a conversation piece when I'm at parties, or go to the movies, definately impressive. I'm so far satisfied, especially for what I paid (I got the camera and an aluminum case from casio for 250).

One MAJOR Flaw... Ditch the software, get picassa 2. The software is utter garbage, and without the software, when you press the USB button on the recharger/cradle it pops up as a USB drive.

For the every day photographer, I'd give it a 4-4.5/5, some flaws, but that newer one looks nice... orange :D.

Again, the lack of an optical viewfinder may turn some people off, the only time I wished I had one was again with the fireworks.

Casio really has something going with bestshot mode, I press right on the 4way keypad, press the center button and I have the bestshot menu; selecting everything from candlelight portrait, daytime portrait, portrait with scenery, fireworks, flowers, pets, sepia, black and white, whiteboard, buisness card, children, coupling (lets you take a picture of your friend, switch, then merge them into 1 with the same scenery), even a "collectables" mode with macro focus and special grids to take an appealing picture. You have 9.3mb of space to set your own presets too. Ok, done rambling :P

Forgot one of my favorite features, onscreen histogram for proper exposure of various colors and brightnesses. I'm not sure how to use it properly, but I'm working on figuring it out... a very neat feature.

Also, I took some movies of the fireworks, if you'd like to see the movie mode just give me a yell and I'll host it somewhere.

Pick a model you like Bondori what would you buy?

I have been reading all I can on the camera that Jaesin has. Lots of cool features and as he mentioned it definately has the cool factor... but I would live without cool for kick ass features.

That Casio sounds like a really great camera. However, it has a pretty big min distance, 2cm Olympus super-macro versus 14cm Casio macro focus. It's also a bit pricy.

If I were to walk into a store and buy a digital camera today, it would be the Olympus Camedia C-5500 sport. It has 5.1 MPs, has all of the same features of other Camedia cameras (super-macro mode, focus-zoom, etc). It has USB 2.0, which is nice when you're transferring a gig of pictures over. It is also very portable (not credit card size, but pocket size. It's also pretty cheap too, at just $279.99 retail. It's hard to beat that combination.

It can do time-lapse, which sounds really neat, although I've never used it. I wish mine could do that :P

Newegg has it on sale for $236.99, and for that price I wish I would have waited on my Camedia 4000 on ebay and bought this one.

OK guys I have been reading a bunch of stuff about cameras and I am now more confused than ever.

I have been reading over at steves and found that his reviews are VERY in depth. Some times it seems like reading a manual.

So I would really love it if some others popped in and told me about their cameras. Love, hate, would never buy, can't wait till v2... kind of stories...

Slickdeals has Dell's special on the Cannon Powershot G6 for $389

If you can get the G6 at that price youd be a fool to not..

in fact im going to try.. That is an AWESOME camera..

Wow that is a good deal... here's a sample shot at the max quality of my camera, I know some people had been asking for this photo too. I can't remember if I had tried to use any of the digital zoom in this pic.

Tornado!

If I were to get a new digital camera, it'd be a Canon G6. Its battery fits my Canon Optura Xi digital Camcorder/Digital Camera combo. The quality of the Canon G6 is astounding. The G-line of Canon cameras has always been fantastic. The only problem is they aren't a pocket camera if you're that type of camera person.

For a REALLY in depth review on it, check out the reviews at Digital Photography Review

Here's the Canon G6 Review

At least check out the quality of the picture samples they have: Canon G6 Photos

Hmmmmm, my wife is overdue for a new camera....

Hmmmm.........................

now that is the kind of stuff i like to hear!

Just ordered one for the wife. She looked at it and said no.

Then looked some more.

Then asked how much.

Then looked again.

Then said O.K.

Happy 10th anniversary

Now to order some memory.

Biggwin, I would definitely jump on that G6 deal. The G6 is a really beefy point-and-shoot camera. It has many things that other point-and-shoots don't, like a status panel and flash bracket. It can also record images to RAW, which is useful later on. Really the biggest thing that seperates this from a SLR camera is a removable lense.

You'll really enjoy the flash bracket and remote if you decide to do macro shots Mine camera doesn't have either of those!

although it isnt an SLR there are a number of add on lenses for the G6.. and they work quite nicely

It has removable lenses, like a wide-angle or telephoto zoom lense, but you won't be able to attach an SLR 35mm rim-focus lense on to it. This will probably be the reason you decide to upgrade the camera to a SLR later on, because I know it's the reason I want to upgrade now.

Most of the time it won't be a big deal. But when you're fiddling with the buttons to adjust the focus manually, you realize how tedious it can be (as opposed to just twisting your wrist a couple of times).

But don't take this as bad talk to the camera, which is fantastic for the price.

Ugh. The website says ships within 24 hours, but my e-mail says two weeks (!!).

So I decide to cancel the order. Of course now, I can't get ahold of anyone to cancel the order, even though the hours posted says they are open.

I feel a gigantic **** you Dell coming on.

*edit*
Fishing around locally and I am choking on the price. I guess I can wait until Monday and see if the order moves along or not. Hell, I may even drive up to NJ or NY and pick it up direct from Beach Camera or something. That's a 4 hour trip one way, though...

WtHFH? I just double checked my Dell account to see what was going on, and lo and behold they claim that they shipped it out today and I should see it Monday.

Until I actually see an update on the tracking number, I am not holding my breath. Let's just hope that they aren't just jerking my chain.

Or someone will die a horrible, bloody death.

Just took this beautiful panorama shot today with my crappy Sony DSC-P72 (3.2 megapixel). I need a new camera so I can take even more uber shots than this.

*WARNING big ass file, about 5 megs.*

Oh and when it loads you will need to resize it to see the true glory. Also I won't leave it up for long, cause I'm not sure how Splash FM is gonna like me hosting it on their web page hehe. Not sure if they want me to take liberties such as adding photos or not. They just gave me a CD and told me to get it hosted for them. So enjoy it while it lasts.

http://www.splash899fm.com/images/park_pano.jpg

That's one friggin' huge file, Rag! I resized it and rehosted it for you:



I like panoramics, but my camera doesn't have a "panoramic" option on it, so I have to take several pictures with it on a tripod and run it through a stitching program that works fairly well.

That's what I did, 6 pictures, no tripod and a stitcher. Thanks for the resize/rehost. The full size looks great tho huh? =)

EDIT: Spelling.

Yay! The tracking information has updated and it does look like Dell shipped it on Saturday, so it will be here Monday.

I still haven't received a "it's been shipped" e-mail.

Uh-huh.

Last few times I ordered from amazon, I got the shipping confirmation email after I had recieved the product... x_x Thanks I really wasn't sure if it was shipped yet!

Yeah, I have had that happen too. The only thing I can think of, besides incompetence, is since their costumer service is closed on the weekend, I won't get the notification until Monday.

I am very happy we will get the camera before we go on the cruise, but I am still a bit irked at the craptacular communication from them.

*edit*
Yeah, amazon never seems to e-mail me accurate information. It is pretty sad, actually.

Just had it delivered. Guess what? They didn't even bother ringing my doorbell. Nice of them to drop a $600+ retail price item and run.

I took a couple of quick pictures before I threw the battery on the charger, and they look really nice just using the AF. The digital zoom looks meh (at least through the LCD viewfinder), but I won't know for sure until I transfer a photo or three. It is not a huge deal, 4x optical is good enough for us, and if the wife wants more, she can order a telephoto lense.

*edit* Just added LCD in front of viewfinder

Even though I own a 10D, I am really tempted to order one of these.. of course I have probly already missed the great price.

Nope, the price is still good. . The 25% off does not have an expiration date(EDIT: According to Chromite in the post below, the 25% off expires tomorrow), and the $60 off expires the 28th.

You still have time

Canon G6 @ Dell

25% off Canon/Kodak/Olympus/Fuji/Konica DigiCams Code: 3$JFJ?K8LHNH44 [Exp 7/26]
$60 off $500 Electronics and Accessories Code: C07TR1WFGJ18SF [Exp 7/28, 10k]

Found at Ben's Bargains: Deal: 25% off select Digital Cameras + Coupons at Dell Home

I just ordered mine today and it was definately still valid!

So tempting....
but if I get it my new computer money goes bye-bye.

Can the G6 use the CF Microdrives? Just wondering as it doesn't say specifically. 6 gig microdrive is a hell of a lot cheaper than a 4 gig CF card. (the microdrive says it is CF Type II so shouldn't it basically be the same as a CF Type II card? altho it would then be mechanical and be a lot more prone to failure.)

Also looking at the Cannon site is a beautiful Macro Ring Lite.

It can use CF type I and II cards (type II is the microdrive).

pg 195 of the manual in the specifications section.

Rawk!

Ordering.

shipped via DHL... now lets hope those bastages at least knock on the door!

Don't count on it. They didn't knock or ring my doorbell when it arrived this morning. Obviously, no signature was required, either.

****ers.

*edit* I have this fixation with typing the instead of they.

now see that is weird becuase Dell has a blanket "get a sig, or dont deliver" policy..

and its a tuff one.. I have actually had shippments go back because I was unable to get to UPS to sign for the package...

Couldnt route to another address, couldnt have a proxy sign for it..

Pissed me off

Just ordered mine. My sister is looking at it too.

hehe, it's gonna be the safehouse g6 club

So this message was normal right after ordering?



I am not in a huge rush or anything.. I just hate paying for 2 day delivery when its going to be 3 weeks before it ships

Yes, their estimate is all screwed up. I placed my order Friday night (picked next day shipping, $20 for next day is pretty damed good and wanted it before we leave for the cruise), got the e-mail.


It arrived this morning around 10:30 A.M. (see earlier complaint about no signature). I believe the website currently claims 3-4 days before shipping.

So if my wife freaks out can I blame Biggwin for bringing up the damned topic?

hehe, sure blame it all on me!

I never looked at my estimated ship date but i did place my order this morning and this afternoon got a tracking number

We're all waiting for fun toys from Dell, which means our weeks are going to go by disproportionately slower than others.

So, since you've all gone and bought cameras.. you'll be posting some pics you've taken with them, right? Right? :)

I want to see how they are when it's not a professional photographer or digital photography geek taking pics. If a camera can take an outstanding picture without much tweaking, well you know you have a good one!

The ability to tweak and muck around with all the whizbangs on the camera is just icing on the cake!