My Camera is Broken

[CdnChelsea]

Time for a new one.

I only have $250. to spend and would like to be able to play with the shots like Ron does.

Does anyone have any suggestions on which camera to buy?

*thank you in advance.*
: )

[Lulu]

Need a new one too,,so,,will watch this thread for some ideas!

[CdnChelsea]

Sorry your camera is broken, Lulu.

If I forget to ask an important question, maybe you could jump in and ask it for us?

I'm so excited to get a new camera!!

: )

[davefrombc]

It would be pretty hard to find one with interchangeable lenses in the $250 to $300 price range......but... there are some very good "point and shoot" ones out now that would fill the bill. Most now offer high megapixel rates, so they lend themselves to cropping and enlarging. Do a search and compare on various offerings by Canon and Nikon.. Look for a camera that uses the same type of memory card as your old camera. Most have gone to the SD cards, but some models of Olympus and Fuji use a different card and Sony has its own proprietary cards. Kodak has gone out of the digital camera business so you may find some real bargains on their models.

Pretty well all of the point and shoot cameras store their files in the jpg format so you can't do as much playing with the images as you can with ones that offer raw format; but you can still do pretty much anything you want to with the jpg files .. adjust colour, contrast , brightness... crop and enlarge areas, and stitch into panoramas. The higher the megapixel count in the camera image, the greater the cropping and enlarging you can do.... but megapixel count isn't the only thing to consider.A high megapixel count with poor optics still gives you poor pictures.

[CdnChelsea]

Good information so far, Dave. Thank you.

I should say, I am digital camera illiterate. I know very little about digital cameras and how they function.

In regard to your post, you mention megapixels...the more the merrier. How many megapixels should I have?

Luckily, my old camera has a SD card so I can use that one. Good to know.

Also you mentioned optics.
What would you consider good optics?

I have sooooo many questions...

[Marsher]

As to optics stay with a name brand and you should be fine.

If you want to get into a digital SLR camera but have a limited budget check with a camera store. With the rate that new and better cameras are being released you may find a slightly older model with in your price range that some one has traded in on the lastest model. ( I have traded up twice)

[davefrombc]

You can't go wrong with Canon or Nikon; and all the big name brand cameras have decent optics. The megapixel count only really comes into play when you are cropping and enlarging crops. The higher resolution, the more you can crop and then enlarge before the picture starts to show the square blocks ( pixelation ) the image is made up of. There are other considerations you'll see mentioned in tutorials, but so much is gobbly - gook. Suffice to say, some 5 to 7 mega pixel cameras will take better pictures for cropping and enlarging than say .. one with 12 to 16 Megapixels that doesn't have as good a lens or internal processing.
Look for a camera you like, then research it to see what kind of reviews it has been getting.
Hopefully Ron or Kat can point you to some specific models to look at since they are both into photography a lot more than I am and belong to some photography forums .

[CdnChelsea]

Great suggestion, Marsher!

Thank you : )

A Canon or Nikon SLR would be my first choices.

[Marsher]

As an example.....Henry's website shows a Canon Xti ( 10.1 MP) for $99.

Just beware price does not say it includes a lens.

[bluewillow]

I'm finding this post extremely interesting. I need to update my very old digi (Canon PowerShot A430, 4.0 mega) which my son gave me as a learning camera long time ago.