What digital camera should I buy?

December 14, 2007 8:37 AM

New digital camera purchase help!

Heading out to California where the grandparents will meet their granddaughter for the first time and the crummy, old digital camera dies!

Normally I'd do all kinds of research and dpreview.com and all, but I've got to get packed and clean up and run a bunch of errands in about 24 hours. I'm hoping to mine the hivemind and hit B&H.

I'm a novice who likes to take snaps of family, friends, nature, etc. I'm looking for: something around $500 or less, takes sharp pics, fast shutter speed (babies move fast), point-and-shoot with more advanced features that I can dig into, probably no less than 6 megapixels, and connects easily to my iMac. Size isn't really an issue. I don't care if it does movies. Firewire or USB2.0. I like the look of SLR cameras, but am pretty sure I don't want one.

Thanks for any help

posted by papercake to media & arts (19 comments total)

There are hundreds of cameras which would fit in your broad criteria so I can only recommend one that has worked for me - the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3K : the selling points for me were a 10X, pretty high quality and very compact zoom lens - plus anti-shake processing. On the basis of 6 months use with a few hundred shots taken I can still recommend it. It will do very much of what an SLR camera will do yet still fit in a pocket.
posted by rongorongo at 8:47 AM on December 14, 2007

How about the Canon S5 IS. Or the S3 which is pretty similar for 100 dollars less.

It looks and feels like a DSLR, has lots of manual features, quite the zoom, and an incredible macro mode.

I'm planning on getting one for Christmas, myself.

Here's the Flikr photo pool for the S5
posted by odi.et.amo at 8:48 AM on December 14, 2007

rongorongo -- yeah, I know it's a broad question, but I appreciate the feedback. I'm just looking for suggestions from personal use to help me narrow the choices. Thanks!
posted by papercake at 8:50 AM on December 14, 2007

I just went through and did a ton of this research, with the caveat that I was looking for a camera slightly more compact and easier to use than something like the Canon Powershot S5 IS, which is what I would recommend to you based on your criteria ($329 on Amazon).

For me trying to keep it simple as a gift for a novice like yourself, I came up with the Canon Powershot 720IS for my purposes.

But I think that whatever you get, you should probably go for something that has optical image stabilization. And you may not care about the movie mode, but being able to take 90's videocamera quality movies with you camera can be surprisingly useful.

This buyers' guide might be a good place to narrow your options down a bit, in case they don't have exactly what you want at a nearby store.
posted by Pastabagel at 8:51 AM on December 14, 2007

I've got a Canon SD870 IS which I got for under $400 and which has several features that you would appreciate for your needs. It has 8 megapixels, a 'fast' f/2.8 lens which will help to freeze motion, sensor-based image stabilization to help you shoot in low-light interiors, face-detection which makes sure all faces are in focus, movie capture (with sound), and (my favorite) a time-lapse function which I use to make videos of clouds rushing by, the sun setting, and anything else I can point at out my office window. You can recompress the video files with Avidemux for YouTube. It's USB2, Mac compatable.

On preview: I'll 2nd the S5 if you're not worried about portatability. (Which is very important to consider. I have an SLR but don't haul it around everywhere I go. So I got my compact and I'm very happy with it).
posted by cowbellemoo at 8:51 AM on December 14, 2007

I got the Cannon S3 a couple months ago, and LOVE IT. (Didn't get the S5 only because it was $100 more.) Does everything you want, and also takes movies (which is nice, and may come in handy for you if there's a baby around).
posted by dpx.mfx at 8:55 AM on December 14, 2007

Seconding the Lumix TZ3. Great camera and very flexible. If you have a Costco membership, I know they're selling them for a good discount right now.
posted by j-dawg at 9:27 AM on December 14, 2007

I used to teach photography. And I would "third" the Panasonic TZ3. I did my research before buying. I decided against an DSLR because I didn't want to be burdened with the weight of extra lenses for varying focal lengths (the TZ3 has an optical 10x zoom --one of the longest in its category).

The quality is good. They even have a preset setting or two for babies and the wider angle than normal for most digicams will be good for family snaps (starts at about 28 mm comparable to a film camera rather than 35 mm at the lens' widest angle). It's 7 MP.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 9:59 AM on December 14, 2007

My problem with the Lumix is noise. I think the best thing on the market and also very speedlight savvy (think strobist.com savvy) is the Canon G9. Whistle clean images, great range of control, aforementioned external flash suppleness and with great optics. Oh, and it's 12.1MP and shoots RAW.
posted by bz at 10:06 AM on December 14, 2007

I recently bought the Canon SD870 IS as well. Love it. My last Canon, a Powershot, lasted me years. Unbelievable for something I expected to toss after a couple of months.
posted by phaedon at 10:38 AM on December 14, 2007

I just bought a Cannon G9 (+ 8gb card), and have been using it for about 2 weeks. I am in heaven. It is AMAZING.
posted by R. Mutt at 10:51 AM on December 14, 2007

Though the only bad thing about the G9 is you can not uses AA's as a back up battery. (I plan on buying another of the cannon batteries.)
posted by R. Mutt at 10:53 AM on December 14, 2007

the Lumix is good -- great lens, long battery life, VERY simple interface, excellent movie-taking capability. the only con: very bad noise if you take photos in poor light with no flash, you'll see the image all grainy and soft

Canons are mostly very good P&S, choose on the basis of your budget and you'll be fine
posted by matteo at 11:27 AM on December 14, 2007

I'm planning on getting a Canon G9 in the next week... but only because size is an issue. Otherwise I'd be looking at a Nikon DSLR. You say you're not sure you want one, but the D40 can probably be found in your price range (or very close to), and has been mentioned as a beginner's level DSLR - suitable for someone who just wants to point and click but with the image quality of DSLR.

Otherwise I've only owned a couple of Canons over the year and they've all been great.
posted by backwards guitar at 11:41 AM on December 14, 2007

The Nikon D40 is a pretty amazing camera (even better considering the price + competition at that price), and the lens it comes with is surprisingly good. It's designed as a beginner's SLR, but it also does 90% of what a professional would need it to do. I waited a long time to jump from film to digital, and the D40 constantly surprises me with how capable and awesome it is.

6.1 megapixels is probably all you need. Anything above that and you're probably just wasting bytes with pixels you aren't actually using. (Unless you're doing poster-sized prints or lots of enlargements.)

One thing that *really* helps a beginner take great indoor photos is a flash you can bounce off the ceiling. You're just not going to get natural-looking skin-tones with a flash pointed straight at the subject. Nikon's got the SB-400, which is another $100, but believe me, it's worth every penny for the pictures it enables you to take.

Of course, and SLR might be overkill for you. If you just want something compact and easy that works in a pinch and takes mostly great photos, get a Lumix or a Canon compact point and shoot.
posted by sportbucket at 12:30 PM on December 14, 2007

If you have a local Costco, see what they have in stock. If you buy it and don't like it, you can always take it back.

I don't advocate abusing their return policy, but it is there for a reason. I bought my digital video camera and my last digital camera there, and was very happy with both of them. I researched the hell out of them first, but you never know until you see the results, so I figured buying there was a smart move.

My camera is an Olympus (don't have it with me, can't remember the model number) that takes incredible pictures, but has a crappy interface. It does RAW, which you learn to appreciate if you ever make large prints. Not everyone's cup of tea though, since it requires a lot more effort.

Oh, and you can do much better than 6 megapixels. I wouldn't think of buying anything under 8 now.
posted by bh at 3:20 PM on December 14, 2007

bh - ummmm no
posted by pjern at 3:40 PM on December 14, 2007

Thanks, everyone, for your feedback. I ended up getting the Canon S5IS, although the Nikon D40 was intriguing.
posted by papercake at 3:40 PM on December 14, 2007

solopsist - It isn't just a function of the megapixels. The CCDs have improved in quality. How old is that CCD on a 6 megapixel camera?

The poster wanted some quick information, and pixel count is one of the easy numbers to find when you are buying a camera. I would much rather have a good lens, good RAW results, and a triple CCD at a lower resolution as opposed to a small lens, full of JPEG artifacts higher megapixel count camera, but finding the right camera with those qualities takes a lot of research, which is something the poster did not want to do.

All things being equal, I would still go for the higher pixel count. Then again, I shoot everything in RAW, and I want every pixel I can get. You can't go back and add pixels later.

Unless you work for CSI, then you have unlimited resolution. I want those cameras.
posted by bh at 4:22 PM on December 14, 2007