What cameras do you use?

[Greg G.]

For taking your phone pics?  I put myself in the market for a new one last night when I dropped my digital smack dab on the lens and busted it.  I was perfectly content with this one, it worked fine for what I use it for.  It was a Nikon Coolpix S200, 7.1 megapix.

I had bought this one for another purpose in mind, underwater photography.  The housings for these were within my budget.  But I never did get the housing for it and gave up on that idea because all the extra stuff I would need (external strobe for one) started adding up to some real bucks.

I could just get another, slightly better Coolpix, but I'm open for suggestions.  I don't want to go crazy and spend several hundred, probably in the $150-$200 range.

[Craig T]

Hey Briny, I go with Sony products. I currently own a Sony Mavica CD-500. The megapixels are lower but megapixels are just eye candy anyhow. The lens is where it is at for picture quality. The upper model Mavicas run a Carl Zeiss Lens and it take an incredible photo. The downfall is the size. It is too big.

A smaller camera from Sony is the Cybershot series. I know two people with one and they are nice and in the price range of 100-200. They sell a 10 megapixel with HD output for $200 on Ebay. My buddy paid more than twice that in a local electronic store.

Above all, Sony has the best customer support I have ever had the pleasure of using. I had one issue over the course of 6 years with my camera. They sent me a call tag, fixed it and sent it back with 10 days (10 actual not business days). They did the same with a Playstation I sent in for my brother.  I am the first to complain about cut-rate companies, but Sony has really worked great for me.

I am in no way affiliated with them in a business manner nor is anyone else I know, so not a sales pitch here.

[Phonesrfun]

Mine is a Cannon Power Shot S2 IS  5.0 Mpx

[bingster]

I have a Nikon Coolpix S630.  It seems to take good pictures without fussing over settings.  Except for closeups, which I always have a hard time with.

[bwanna]

i like the sony cybershot. i got one when they first came out. just recently got a new one. 12.1 mp. it's real easy to use.

[AET]

I've got a lovely General Electric A730, an older camera, 7 megapixels.  But I got it for 30 bucks plus 20 percent discount on clearance at K-Mart.   Works great and takes good pics.

[Greg G.]

I have a Nikon Coolpix S630.  It seems to take good pictures without fussing over settings.  Except for closeups, which I always have a hard time with.

I always had mine in macro mode, vivid color setting.  It seemed to work for all my pics.

[mienaichizu]

mine is a Nikon D40 DSLR equipped with 18-55mm stock lens.

[jsowers]

I have a Sony CyberShot too and can attest to their reliability. No problems in six years and over 7500 pictures. It takes regular AA rechargeable batteries. It was about three models up from the bottom of the line and takes fairly decent closeups in macro mode. It also seems to have no trouble with the aqua blue-turquoise thing. Colors are fairly true to life, but it does often seem to enhance the phones in my pictures and reduce the flaws. Sounds like the perfect thing for an eBay seller. 

[Bill]

Since you don't buy a camera very often, you need to list the features you want, and the ones you don't care about.

My Panasonic Lumix does the things I asked for - 12X zoom, Image Stabilizer, good macro capability, decent but not bloated megapixel count, removable memory card, available RAW output, tripod mount, and dual viewfinder.

But with use, I have discovered that it does not have a few things I would like - standard (not proprietary) battery, manual focus capability in addition to auto-focus, cable release, and interchangeable lenses.

http://www.dpreview.com/ does a good job of reviewing cameras, and reminding you of what features you might want or don't care about.

Bill

[Greg G.]

Since you don't buy a camera very often, you need to list the features you want, and the ones you don't care about.

My Panasonic Lumix does the things I asked for - 12X zoom, Image Stabilizer, good macro capability, decent but not bloated megapixel count, removable memory card, available RAW output, tripod mount, and dual viewfinder.

But with use, I have discovered that it does not have a few things I would like - standard (not proprietary) battery, manual focus capability in addition to auto-focus, cable release, and interchangeable lenses.

http://www.dpreview.com/ does a good job of reviewing cameras, and reminding you of what features you might want or don't care about.

Bill

In order of importance:

Picture quality
good macro
removable memory card
USB connection
tripod port
rechargeable batteries.  Standard batteries are nice, (AA) but proprietary are ok as long as they're rechargeable.

I went to Best Buy today and picked up a Nikon Coolpix L100.  Mistake.  CNET review says it was a mistake too (I only saw the review after I bought it).  I liked the "looks" and the fact that I was already familiar with the menu system, it used AA batteries, 10 megapix.  So why did it take such lousy pics?  I played with all the settings, best I got was soft pictures, CNET said that also, so It's going back.   Heck, my S200 is much cheaper now than when I first bought it, I was happy with it.  All my pics you see on this forum were taken with the Nikon Coolpix S200, 7.1 megapix.  But then, the CNET review on that one isn't good either, so go figure.  Even then, I didn't use 3/4 of the features on my S200.

[Greg G.]

I exchanged it for a Sony Cybershot W290, 12.1 megapix.  Much better!  Of three I wrote down after looking at CNET reviews that had best pic quality, (should have done that first) this was the only one the Best Buy near me had.  I ranked pic quality at the top, even though CNET reviews look at features and other stuff for their total ratings.  Best Buy didn't charge me a restock fee either!

I've played around with it a bit, but can only do two shots w/o a memory card.  The down side - yeah, the proprietary, but chargeable, battery, type G, so my other batteries I had for my other camera are going in the "junk" drawer, along with the two memory cards that won't fit in the new one.

[bellsystemproperty]

I have a Cannon A570IS. I like it since it takes good pictures and uses normal AA batteries.

[benhutcherson]

You need one of these





In all seriousness(although I do use the above cameras a whole lot), I'm rather partial to the Canon Powershots.

I had an A540 that I beat the heck out of, and it finally died. I'm currently borrowing my Dad's A710IS, which I like equally well. I don't know what the current model is, but when I get around to buying a replacement, that's what I'll get without hesitation.

[ntophones]

What beautiful cameras! Those beat my little Kodak Easy Share hands down, I'm thinking!