I am looking for a good digital camera at a good price(around $100.00). What should I look for in a digital camera? I bought a cheep one ($38.99) today and it is going back tomarow.
Olympus, Sony, and Nikon all make good digital cameras. I'm not sure how good they'll be for $100. You might want to look at spending twice that depending on what you want to use it for. I own an Olympus 2020Z. I think it's about 2.2 megapixels with 16M ram. It takes great pictures but I spent a lot for it. They've come down a lot in the last few years but are still an investment. Hope this helps.
Before I bought mine, I went and researched cameras at several sites. I found what I wanted, then looked to see how much they were running at other sites.
Then I went to Ebay and waited until I could get it even cheaper. You have to be patient, but you can get a good deal.
I bought a Ricoh, but it was more than $100. Prices have come down quite a bit since then.
what factors should i look for in a digital camera
When we were shopping we looked for the most pixels. Olympus had 1.3 megapixels. The more pixels, the sharper the picture.
I also wanted a close-up feature. (Macro function)
A low light capability, a built-in flash and as many options as I could get that allowed me to use them "or not".
I like having AAA batteries because I'm not anchored to a recharger.
I like having a "smart card" because they hold more than a disk. that is something that owners of disk cameras may argue with me about. The Disk cameras seem to provide a sharper image but the smart card is sharp enough. It allows me to shoot 240 pictures at low quality, 72 pictures at good quality(the one I use most), 32 pictures at great quality and 1 picture at the greatest quality of all. (I've only done this once, playing.)
The smart card allows quick downloading, downloading with a cable which is provided, downloading with a smart card reader(my HP printer has one on it) and the use of the smart card as an extension of the computer. With the HP printer, the smart card can be used to print directly from the smart card. No computer involved.
I'm sold on the olympus camera and the HP printer both.
Digital cameras are real hogs when it comes to batteries. Being able to go to a drugstore and buy some more has saved me some real hassles on trips.
I don't use zoom too much because the software on my computer allows me to select even small portions of a picture and print it with pretty good clarity. That is almost as good as a telephoto lens. Wide angle and Macro lens capabilities have been the most used.
:The camera is small, easy to operate, has a view finder as well as a screen on the back(uses lots of batterypower). Lets me select macro and flash at will and easily erases pictures or the whole smart card if I so desire.
My olympus D-340R was about $300 in 2000
Most cameras will allow you to take pictures at different quality. I have a 16M smart media card and can take 240 at regular quality, 64 at high quality,and 8 super high quality. Regular quality is more than sufficient for most cases. Built in flash and zoom comes with most cameras. I use nickel metal hydride batteries in mine and they last a long time as long as you don't use the LCD display to much. Most stores that carry a large selection of consumer electronics will let you play or at least show you examples of the quality. The best thing to do is go on line and research features and prices.
The Flash Card I have in my HP camera will hold 65 pix's at 3.5 megapixels, 130 or so at 1.8 megapixels, 200 or so at 1.0 megapixels and with JPEG compreshion can hold just about 1000 photos. It was the bigest and badest card/stick 8 mounths back when I got it but I see thay have a beter one out now, not for mine you know.::) The HP camera was about $200 at Wallmart then the Flash card was $135 or so, the camera will work without the card for 1 to 35 photos at a time, then thers the cace, rechargable AAA nickel metal hydride batteries, charger and things when you are in the money but use the cheep stuff to start with. I do like it but now I want to go the bucks for the Sony with the 10Xopt zoom and 5X dig zoom so I can get my Alaska criters and thay cant get me, it's about a grand over the budget you want thow. I would start with somthing in the $200-250 range that you can add stuff to later like I did with the Flash card and things. I think somthing cheeper will just keep you unhappy with it so I'd save up a bit more.
Andy
I just stumbled across this offer:
http://dealmac.com/articles/43280.html
It is for a 2.3 megapixel for $110 I believe.
I am right with Tom on this one. My olympus 360 takes pictures like the big boys even though it is only 1.3 mega pixels. For printing I use an HP photosmart 1000 and it is superb on photo paper. Go to cnet.com to find current reviews and tests before you buy anything. I decided on both the camera and printer but waited till the companies came out with newer models and the price drop was dramatic.
It says 8M internal memory. That might mean that you can't up your memory? It doesn't take much to eat up memory especially when you take higher resolution pictures.