New Camera

[luvtahike]

I have really enjoyed all of the pictures posted here. My kids have tried to identify the birds. I think they have gotten most of them right too! We have a mystery bird at our feeder. All winter I have tried to take pics of it. My p&s just isn't cutting it. We think it is a Carolina Wren. But I have wanted to take better pictures for a while. So I came into a little money and am considering buying a new camera. I am looking for recommendations.

I have about $250 - $350 to spend. I know it is not a lot but I'm willing to look at used cameras too.

Now, any ideas?

This is one that I was looking at. My friend bought one last year. It seems like a really nice camera. I found it for $369. Sony CYBER-SHOT DSC-H7/B 8.1MP It is a little bigger than what I wanted but does take great pictures.

Thanks in advance for all your help! Hopefully soon I'll be posting some great pics too!

Denise

[UncleFester]

I've had three Sonys in my digital camera lifetime and all of them take really greaty pics for point and shoots..I'm not sure about that model, but as a side note, this site here gives extremely in depth reviews about all digital cameras.

dpreview.com

[Brad]

You might check the discussion on this thread.

http://www.mountwashington.org/forum...ead.php?t=4354

[BlueDog]

I get daily news feeds from a gadget site called gizmodo.com. I remember seeing a whole handful of new P&Ss getting ready to hit the market. IIRC, Canon is going to have a rugged one that's shock, water and freeze proof.

[hikergrl]

I recently bought a Panasonic Lumix dmc-tz5. So far I love it. It's 9mp with a wide angle lens. It also does high definition video. It ranges in price from 250-300.00 depending on where you go.

[billysinc]

I second the Panasonics. I have a DMC-LZ7K which I've had for about 2 years. When I was doing the research I always found good reviews on them but most people tended to go with the Canons. I took a chance because the price was right and I haven't been the least bit disappointed. I've had a few pictures end up in the MWO website photo journal that I took with it.

[Brad]

A part of the answer is - what do you want to do with the camera? If it is for very cold weather, then maybe few moving parts like the lens. Want to use it while kayaking, then maybe the Canon G9 because it can be housed in a waterproof case. Do you want to have to flip an LCD door open in the cold with gloves to see the viewfinder?

Think about what you will be doing with it, then select the features you want.

[Brad]

Cameras are great - photos are wonderful. But, a new camera is priceless. I did a lot of network troubleshooting for my son when he was setting up/adding to his home office. I mean, many hours. So, the nice son just let me know a new camera will be delivered to me - tomorrow!

It is a Canon Rebel T1i - the specs are amazing and it will be fun to learn how to work with it. He did overnight shipping since he knew I could not wait. And the town fireworks were delayed to tomorrow night!

[mtruman]

Cameras are great - photos are wonderful. But, a new camera is priceless. I did a lot of network troubleshooting for my son when he was setting up/adding to his home office. I mean, many hours. So, the nice son just let me know a new camera will be delivered to me - tomorrow!

It is a Canon Rebel T1i - the specs are amazing and it will be fun to learn how to work with it. He did overnight shipping since he knew I could not wait. And the town fireworks were delayed to tomorrow night!

Can't wait to hear how you like it. I've been considering the idea of getting a new DSLR and the Canon Rebels have been at the top of my list. Hadn't seen anything on the T1i yet. Looks great! On the other hand the cost of the new transmission for the van that we just got hit with may put off the camera purchase for a while...

[Brad]

Mark,

I have not been looking at new cameras since it was not in the budget. So, in checking this one out I am floored at its capabilities. For shooting sports (waterskiing, windsurfing, white water kayaking) or air shows the ability to shoot a burst of 170 JPG files before the buffer fills will be wonderful. For most things I will probably save both RAW and JPG file formats. So, I can upload the JPG files and only process the RAW files I want to. The RAW files will be 20MB each though!

The 15 megapixels will be nice for cropping and still having nice quality. Low light, high ISO, fast shutter - all make this an interesting package. Will give me more things to think about when I am shooting though.

It supports the WFT-E1A adapter which is WiFi to a computer (ad-hoc network) or through a normal router off to an FTP site (home network disk system or my Fotki site). I have a lot to learn.