Where to find a cheap digital camera?

March 11, 2005 4:52 AM

Where to find a cheap digital camera? I want to sell some accumulated crapola on eBay, while keeping the overhead as low as possible.

I am not a camera person, and likely would not use it much outside of this. I'd like to find a digital camera that would produce useable results for this, at the lowest cost possible, and also keep the likelyhood of getting scammed low. I want to at least stay above the level of the kind of thing given away free as a premium, and could surely cope with obsolete technology, as long as its not too far gone. Any ideas?

posted by ackptui to technology (14 comments total)

Define cheap... I saw a new Argus 3640 for $70 recently at the local consumer electronics store. Not a great camera I'm sure, but probably decent for les than $100 camera.
posted by raster at 5:26 AM on March 11, 2005

Well, your _cheapest_ route is just to buy a disposable film camera, and then have the developed photos delivered to you on CD. If you can't have that turned around in just an hour, you can definitely get them back in a day from just about any photo outlet.
posted by LairBob at 5:30 AM on March 11, 2005

Two words: pawn shop
posted by punkfloyd at 5:32 AM on March 11, 2005

I have a excellent Casio 1.0 MP camera I can sell you for $30 plus $5 shipping. I will not scam you. My email is dwisdom AT g mail dot com. I believe I have the original box and all relevant software/cables. Email me and I will send you the specs.

OR:

Smartbargains.com (I've bought $200 worth of Stereo equipment from them - great seller) has a decent 2.0 Megapixel Fuji Finepix for $89... I used this camera for a year, and it is great. Easy to use, great pictures, uses SmartMedia cards, which are crazy cheap, as they are being phased out.

I pulled the rest of the below suggestions using a Froogle search. I searched for digital cameras from $0-$100:

Here's a super basic Vivitar 1.3 MP camera for $39.88...

If you don't mind auctions... Here is a 2.0 MP Kodak EasyShare for $60 (auction)...

OR you can do the whole disposable Kodak camera with digital pictures on a CD thing, which will cost you about $20 per camera with development.
posted by wonderwisdom at 5:33 AM on March 11, 2005

Try eBay :) and cnet.com for reviews.
posted by nitsuj at 5:35 AM on March 11, 2005 [1 favorite]

A scanner works well for anything scanner size (and takes much better close-ups than my Pencam Mega Mini, unless I just don't know how to use it)...
posted by Shane at 5:59 AM on March 11, 2005

Computergeeks.com has some new and refurbished cameras on the cheap. New 3.2 MP camera for $64.
posted by hootch at 6:58 AM on March 11, 2005

By one of those $20 webcams and capture the pictures straight to your PC. They produce reasonable results with decent lighting and you don't have to worry about transferring them.
posted by cillit bang at 7:26 AM on March 11, 2005

I keep my eyes on these sites for such prices/deals:
- DealNews
- Hot Dealz Club
- TechBargains
posted by tpl1212 at 7:27 AM on March 11, 2005

If you're unscrupulous, you could buy a digital camera at Fry's or some other store which everyone loves to hate and which has forgiving return policies, use it for this project, and return it the following week.

You might hate yourself in the morning, though.
posted by cactus at 10:08 AM on March 11, 2005

Caution: cactus' idea could work, but check the store's return policy before you do it. Many stores charge a restocking fee on digital cameras so that people won't "rent" them for a wedding, etc.
posted by Coffeemate at 11:25 AM on March 11, 2005

If you still have a floppy drive, pick up a Sony Mavica on ebay. Most of the older ones take 640x480 pix only, but you do not need anything more than that. Tho it's gathering dust now, I got a lot of use out of my FD-71 (10x optical zoom) back in the day. Mavica fan site.
posted by omnidrew at 2:16 PM on March 11, 2005

Yep, pawn shop, absolutely.

I also like the Mavica from eBay option.
posted by krisjohn at 3:04 PM on March 11, 2005

Creative Cameras -- I've been through two of them, and they are great for the price (under $100).
posted by davidmsc at 7:25 PM on March 11, 2005