Cheapish digital cameras

I'm really liking my Fujifilm F20.

Small, cheap, very good pics and best of all, it will do motion with usable sound quality.

You can actually get good live band sound out of the thing. No kidding.

 

I wish I could tell you about those 2 cameras, but I don't have any experience with them.

But honestly, to get a great bang for your buck, you really should consider Canon's PowerShot SD series. I really think those are some of the best Point-and-Shoot cameras, especially because of the image quality. Those things have excellent image quality. My SD1000 has taken some very excellent pictures, and I'm way below even a novice photographer.

 

Maria Sharapova DOES help them sell cameras, doesn't she?


Actually, I'm a Canon fan too. My dSLR and half my lenses are Canons.

ON the P&S side of the coin, I also bought my son an A710IS last summer and I'm really impressed with its image quality. It doesn't do well at higher ISO settings, but not many P&S will give you sharp, noise free pictures at ISO 800 and above, so that's not a huge issue to me. I'm also impressed with the video clips it captures. I think they look pretty good (not digital camcorder quality, but great for a cheap P&S camera) and I've found it to be a cool feature to have.

But there are two key features that sold me on that camera. First, it has a 6x optical zoom, which is HIGHLY unusual in that price range and class. Almost every other camera will have only a 3x zoom. But to me the biggest reason to buy that camera was that it has full manual controls. Being able to override camera settings has gotten me better pictures than on any other cheap P&S I've had.

That model has since been replaced by the A720IS, which has the added "advantage" of a few more megapixels. I'm not convinced that more megapixels is actually a good thing in this type of camera, but I still asked for one for my birthday. I think it would be great to carry around for times when I want a small camera to just "take pictures" rather than carry the bulk of my dSLR to "do photography".

I've also had one Fuji (the S9000) and one Panasonic (FZ-30) but they're older models now. Both took fantastic pictures but they were nearly as bulky as a dSLR and it doesn't sound like that's what you're looking for.

 

I've also appreciated the two budget Canon digital cameras that I've had.

bc

 

I had to google Maria Sharapova...

I don't really keep up with news or sports, unless it's something I feel will directly impact me.

But, maybe she does help sell cameras, lol.

 

Oh, she impacts me QUITE directly ...





But seriously, I do like their cameras. I'm an even bigger fan of their lenses, which is ultimately why I bought a Canon dSLR.

 

I have a Canon Powershot A630 (8MP), and it takes great pictures. No image stabilization, though. Get the A710IS or A720IS. Very nice cameras.

The thing I like most about the one I have is the AA batteries. I bought the Energizer rechargables, and I can get somewhere between 400 and 700 pictures on a fully charged set of the 2450mAh batteries (depending on flash usage). It's also pretty quick for a cheaper camera, and it has the super-duper-awesome LCD screen on a pivot arm. That helps for taking pictures over a crowd, or the classic camera-on-the-ground-looking-up shot. At first, I thought the pivoting screen was unnecessary. Now, I couldn't see purchasing a camera without it.

 

I've got an older Canon Powershot A80. great camera... I'll buy buy a newer one from them when I feel the need to upgrade.

The pivoting screen is a cool feature!