Digital cameras forum: New Digital Camera Suggestions??!!!

Nice but too expensive. Anything cheaper? and smaller?

I still think that the FZ20 is a little to expensive and big. I was thinking more along the lines on a Nikon 7900 or a Panasonic LZ series. How bout the Fuji F-10 or the Casio Z750

The Nikon 7900 would be a good choice, but it may be a bit over $300.
The Nikon 5900 is the same camera with 5 megapixels and costs under $300.

The Panasonic LZ offers more zoom, but it does suffer from a long shutter lag time (0.8 second).
The Panasonic FX7 or FX8 has only 3X optical zoom but has half the shutter lag of the LZ models.

The Fujifilm F10 is getting good reports and it works better in low light situations than other small cameras.
Fujifilm just released the F11.
It is the same as the F10 but it has manual controls.

The Casio Z750 is a good choice and it does have manual controls. It also has a very good shutter lag rating (0.1 second).

...
..
.

Kodak makes a large line of digital cameras. There IS one thing you will want to check on, whatever camera you get. We had an HP, and it took about 3 seconds from when you pressed the button until it actually took the picture. Now is you are standing around or the subject is still, it's not a problem. The Kodak takes less than 3/10 of a second! And I believe they have a 4 MP for around $200. You also might want to check out the Canon Sure Shots. Another nicety is if you can see the preview screen outdoors or not! If you take a picture outside in bright light, you can't see it in some cameras. Go to a store that has them and look at them. THEN go to the web and find your best price.

The Olympus C-770 is worth a close look. You can get it on the web now for under $300. With a 10x optical zoom, 4 megapixels, a decent MPG4 video mode (with sound), this camera is (believe it or not) VERY compact for what it is offering. There are lots of manual controls available, but the auto mode works very well for the novice user. One of the more outstanding and little discussed features is a POWERFUL built-in flash. This camera has actually 2 built-in flashes in one, and the camera automatically chooses the best for wide angle or telephoto shooting. This yields amazing outdoor flash photos at night.

Biggest drawbacks: No built-in infra-red focus assist for low light focus, and no digital image stablizer. If these are a priority, take a close look at the Canon S1. You don't get the good flash, and drop to 3 megapixels, and the camera is more bulky. One additional drawback for the Olympus is it uses propriotory batteries instead of AA cells. Olympus batteries are about $50, so I bought additional (new) batteries from e-bay. Two good batteries (I would avoid the cheap, under $1 offerings - I read the negative feedback!) including shipping were about $25. Another drawback is you will definitely want to pick up more camera memory. It only comes with a tiny 16meg xd card.

For a well-done review of the Olympus C-770, go to http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/olympus/c765uz_770uz-review/

Happy shopping!

The rating for Olympus camera images is usually Outstanding rather than Excellent.

hey Pat,

How about a 5.2 megapixel with 7 shooting modes , a lithium rechargeable battery , incamera red eye removal, adaptive lighting, two inch lcd screen 3x optical X 8x digital zoom. It comes with included software for storing and editing you photos..FREE..This camera is great for outdoors...and it comes with a portable photo printer attached. The printer prints 4x6 photos for about 24cents/ photo and 4x12 for about 60 cents/photo....all for under $300.
If this sounds good then try out the HP PHOTOSMART 425, or the PHOTOSMART 428. they are both brand new products.

OR

You could try the HP R817 camera that gives you over 12 shooting modes a 40X zoom all the other great features as the camera above ( without the printer) and the ability to take great panaromic shots which the camera actually shows you how to line up for the next shot so that you would not miss any of the scenery and the included software automatically joins together for you....for only $299. it is also light and designed for outdoors...one more thing there is the optional underwater case that makes the camera waterproof for over 50 feet....WOW underwater pictures.
I think you should consider these two products.

Quite a few readers of this forum have given MPSuperstore.com a very bad rating.

If you search this forum for mpsuperstore you can read their complaints.

A merchant rating site has this to say about mpsuperstore:

http://stores.tomshardware.com/rating_getreview.php/r=34//

...
..
.

Thanks for all of the input everybody, but I am afraid that you have made my decision only harder. I want something that is compact and around $300. I have looked at the others but some are too big or way to expensive! ($800)!! Im not taking pictures for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (however, I would spend alot of money if I could)

What do you mean by ''quality pictures'' ? How large an enlargement do you want ? Do you want your pictures printed and hung up in photo frames ? If you limit your budget at $300.00, your choices are limited. Any of the $300.00 and below models mentioned or suggested will be appopiate for you. What come out of the camera depends on the person behind the lens. It take some time to get used to a camera, and shortcomings can usually be overcome by different adjustments and photo editing progams ( even with XP's MS Photo editor )

I read your message concerning buying a new digital camera and I know that you said that you were wanting suggestions on what TO buy but I just thought that I would say one thing. I bought a Kodak CX 6330 with the Easy Share printer dock and I really like the idea of being able to print my own pictures right at home and I've actually been pretty satisfied with the camera. The one complaint that I do have is that when I bought the camera, probabaly about a year and a half ago, I paid about $450 for the dock and the camera and the camera is only a 3.2 megapixels which I thought would be plenty for what I was taking pictures of. However, now days you can spend $300 and get close to 5.0 megapixels which is what I really recommend doing!! As I said I am still happy with the 6330 but I just wish that I would have gotten more megapixels and more digital zoom. If you are taking close ups only (within about 100 yards) its a great investment I just feel that you can get more bang for you buck now days. Camera prices have dropped ALOT since I bought mine.
Hope that will help you out a little bit!!

Jay