Gentlemen

I have decided that I might need a digital camera for trophy pictures and to use to various holiday events. The problem is what to get, it's jungle out there

Share your experince

/ JOHAN

JOHAN - check out these sites for good feedback on cameras - www.dpreview.com, www.imaging-resource.com, www.steves-digi-cams.com, www.dcresource.com - should be able to find a camera that works for you - I use two Fuji cameras, a 2600 and a 2800, both are basic units and have proven to be very reliable in all weather conditions - KMule

Johan, since you are in Sweden... check the prices at www.pricerunner.se

Actually, I found the cheapest one of the model of my choice in the city of Varberg...

JOHAN: I would have to agree with KMuleinAK, you can't really go wrong with Fujis. If you want something a bit more compact then try a Minolta Dimage.

I've been working a bit with a Canon PowerShot S400 Digital ELPH (probably a different model name outside the U.S.), a 4 megapixel compact, and have been very pleased with the pictures and its performance.

It's a solid piece of equipment and the ergonomics work for me (the zoom control on many cameras feel awkward to me, requiring shifting of the camera in my hands to operate, whereas on this camera you just move your index finger off the shutter button to the lever on the ring surrounding the button).

The tiny flash regulates very well within its operating range, and the macro feature seems to be easy to use and focuses reliably. The 3X zoon is limiting but typical of such (actually, most) digital cameras these days, which is why my primary digital camera is a Minolta 7Hi with a 35mm equivalent zoom of 28-200mm.

I got a "Olympus C-700 Ultra Zoom" mostly because of the high zoom power. It is a 10x optical and a 27x digital. I really like it for wild life pictures. If you want to use the flash you have to manually open it so natural light game pictures are no fuss. It also uses 4 AA batteries so if you want flash it has extremely quick recovery. One thing though is it is a larger camera if size is a priority. I bought it when they first came out at Wally Mart and it was almost $500 and then I heard it was no longer made but a friend just told me he found one on the net for $300.

I just went to a large wedding and got to try out several digitals. Based on my non-scientific sampling, I bought a Canon G3 (4 mega-pixels) as soon as I got home. It's not tiny, about the size of a small 35 mm SLR without the lens out front. The lens does stick out when the camera is turned on, and it retracts into the body when the camera is off.

I had read reviews of the Canon G5 (5 megapixels), and nobody seems to be happy with them. Professional reviewers cite persistent image quality problems. I didn't want to pay $250 extra for that, and if I stepped up that high in the compact camera range, I'd just go $1000 and get a digital SLR that is compatible with me existing film camera lens collection.

Out of the many features you can read about anywhere, I particularly liked the ability to attach macro and telephoto lenses to this camera, because I am interested in documenting small metalworking operations and photographing some live wildlife.

The other feature I didn't appreciate until I started playing with the camera is the ability to select and customize "white balance". You've seen pictures of orange-looking people under incandescent light and green-looking people under fluorecent light, right? I got orange-looking pictures of myself in incandescent light until I saw that the white balnce was set to "flash". Setting it to incandescent made me look normal . There are settings for sunlight, cloudy days, flash, incandescent, 2 kinds of fluorescent, maybe another one I'm forgetting, and 2 custom settings. You enter a custom setting by pointing at a white or gray object and pushing a button. That adjusts the camera for whatever the ambient light is.

The camera also lets you manually focus and set aperatures and shutter speeds. You can pick vivid color, subdued color, soft-focus, black and white, or sepia formats for the pictures. The camera takes short movies and records up to 60 seconds of sound annotation for each picture. Sound quality from the camera's speaker is almost as good as those old toys where you pulled a string. When you put the file on computer, the sound is great, and you don't need to "eat the mike" either. I was recorded well with the camera 2 feet from my face. Don't bother reading in aperature, shutter speed, and stuff like that. Those are recorded along with the image.

You can allegedly get one of these for as little as $440 from sellers on the internet. The reviews of these sellers tend to contains phrases such as "bait and switch", "total fraud", and "still waiting for my refund". Reputable mail-order houses such as B&H have them for $499. I bought mine at a local dealer for $549.

H. C.

I have got the Pentax Optico 3 megapixel camera and it is small and the reviews are good. They have a couple of new models that are 4 and 5 mega pixels as well.
Only difficulty is sports action shots Oh well, I'll stick to the 35mm for those!

Johan I shot the Mauser photos that I posted in the Gunsmithing with a Olympus C750 (in TIFF mode, highest resolution) to see how sharp I could get the images. If you would like I will email you a high res shot that I took that I think would be hard for the Nikon DX1 to do any better.

Johan,

The November issue of Consumer Reports magazine lists the Fijifilm FinePix 3800 as the best 3 megapixel compact camera they tested. List price is $340.
It gave excellent images and has a 6X zoom, gives 300 shots battery life and weighs 14 ounces.

Second place was another Fijifilm Finepix F601Z.
List price $450
Third place and rated their 'best buy' another Fujifilm FinePix A303. List price $220.

Their recommendation: "Once you've found the camera you like, go online to look for the best price. Unless you hit a great sale at a brick-and-mortar store, you will probably find the best camera prices at internet retailers. Check comparison-shopping sites such as BizRate.com, CNet Shopper and mySimon."

Check out their website, www.consumerreports.org.
At the bottom of the home page in the CRextra box, type in code 1106. This link will give more details and info about all 34 digicams they tested for this issue. Good shopping.

I have an Olympus 5 megapixel. Metal body 3x zoom. I use it for taking detailed pics of engraving and such. It takes very detailed pics at the highest setting and fits in my shirt pocket. I have 6 or so friends that have bought them after seeing the pic quality. $425.