Best cheap-ish digicam

[mcveighr]

I have a Leica 4.3 Digilux and Olympus 280. The Leica is spectacular, Olympus is good.

Just bought a Mamiya 645 pro too, kinda as a replacement for the Minolta.

[CaptainChops]

anybody know anything about the fuji finepix line... saw those at best buy today

[Bluestrike_2]

I own the S2 Pro, a D-SLR.

Very high quality. I also own one of their medium format rangefinders.

[Muzikman]

If you are going to print pictures the limiting factor may be your printer. Some printers may not print to the level of clarity that you will want in a picture.

Concerning the MP capability of the camera, I went with 3.2 because I was told that was good enought for 8x10's, definatly good enough for 5x7's. I figured that my printer does not take paper bigger that 8.5x11 so why pay extra for a camera when I will not utilize it to its fullest.

Yeah, but you can send them out to be printed. I will not print any photos at home. It's cheaper to have them done on a Fuji Frontier machine at 18 cents for a 4x6 and 1.98 for a 8x10 than on a home printer that would be lesser quality, lesser duability , etc.

[kenndogg]

hmm...I was really considering a Sony, but FragTek really changed my mind. What about Kodak? I can get a Kodak one with 4 mega pixal for about 250-300. good deal or no?

[fire1811]

i had a kodak and it was the worst digital camera i have had yet

[drg]

In this range I have suggested Olympus Stylus cameras to others, either the 3- or 4-megapixel models. Metal body with weatherproofing, nice imaging. But you can't go wrong with Canon A-series point and shoots, nor Nikon's Coolpix 4k series. I don't know enough about Fujis to recommend them, but I know that in the past Casio and Toshiba have made good cameras at relatively low pricepoints. I don't know whether Panasonic has a point and shoot in this range but their latest cameras are winning big praise. I would suggest staying away from Sonys, they are overpriced underperformers.

[CaptainChops]

my sister had a kodak... it was a piece of POOOOOOP

think i'm going for the Canon Powershot A85

[Bluestrike_2]

Yeah, but you can send them out to be printed. I will not print any photos at home. It's cheaper to have them done on a Fuji Frontier machine at 18 cents for a 4x6 and 1.98 for a 8x10 than on a home printer that would be lesser quality, lesser duability , etc.

Agreed. I hope to get some portrait photography going tommorrow with my new S2, and Filmet offers 8x10's at $1 for their Value Reprints (No Color Correction, just straight to print). Personally, at those costs, the archival quality, print quality, and beauty of the print is so much better than what could be achieved on all but the most expensive home printers. The machines, which I viewed in a tour of their facility, were amazing.

They scan all the film they process, and print everything digitally. Which I feel is really cool, considering the print quality is actually better than what it was before they started doing that. Nothing like two $400,000 machines, skilled technicians, and a great workflow to get the quality flowing.

Now that's really an example of how much better it can be to get your prints done at a service lab, or on a Fuji Frontier Printer, Lumina, etc.

The quality is great. Outstanding to be exact.

My experience with Kodak:

Good films, good digital backs, and good D-SLR's. In fact, I have viewed prints made at my local lab from the Kodak Pro 14/n D-SLR. A sturdy camera, very nice. Now, I have no idea what the low-end Kodak is like, but, in my opinion based on my limited experience with Kodak, they have very nice build quality. Again, not sure about the lowend.

If I were you, and could afford it, I'd pick up a nice, good quality Canon, Fuji, or Nikon P&S Digital Camera. Reviews for many cameras can be found at http://www.dpreview.com

Save up and get the best camera in your price range. If you can, pick up a 512mb card or two for it.

Please don't let me get started on Sony, although I would sum it up really qucik.

In order to meet the production requirements for the Sony digtal line, the Carl Zeiss lenses were most likely lowered quality wise. Real Zeiss lenses are NOTHING like the Sony "versions." Contax owners, like Leica and Rollei owners, have very high quality glass.

Sony cameras are lower in quality, plain and simple. Stick to a company with a photographic background. Like Fuji, Nikon, Canon, Rollei, and so on.

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mcveighr:

I also own a Mamiya 645 Pro (Manual-Focus). How do you like the system so far?


Good luck and remember that it's not the camera that matters. To quote Ansel Adams:

"The negative is the score, the print the performance."

One who does nothing but concern him/herself with the technical aspects only will never go out and seize the moment, capture the photograph...

Have fun most of all.

[FragTek]

anybody know anything about the fuji finepix line... saw those at best buy today

Yeah Fuji makes a great camera... I can't remember the model numbers, but make sure u get the S5500 at least, if not the S7000. Friend of mine uses an S7000 for taking pix to put in American Hunter.