Time to buy a camera.

[cadhla]

All right, so after ages and ages of not having a camera of my own (and hence periodically borrowing the cameras of others), I'm finally going to obtain a digital camera. This is My One Extravagance for the season, although it can be argued that it's also sort of a business need -- people may start hurting me if I don't provide pictures of the

Comments

[greenmansgrove]

Alyse and I have had very good luck with the Fujifilm f40fd. However, it's getting harder to find. They're still out there, but Fuji's no longer making them.

One of it's biggest advantages is that it takes really good shots in low light, so getting good shots at (for instance) a con, where the lighting is iffy, doesn't necessarily require the flash. It's also very small, so fitting it into a bag or purse is not a problem.

It's only got 3x optical zoom, but for it's size, you're not going to see much higher zoom in similar models.

There are a couple of really good sites for comparing digital cameras. We've done a lot of looking to find what we were looking for, and both of these sites were very useful:
http://www.dcresource.com/
http://www.dpreview.com/

Good luck!

[tamena]

I'm going to second the Fuji recommendations
we've been using Fuji cameras here in digital form for at least 10 years here and love them.
Daughter wanted a camera and bought her own - a Canon - and within a year it was dead. Not a cheap on either. The Fuji's we own and use take wear and tear like champs (they get - dropped, sat on, slid off car roofs, chewed, humped by cavy, peed on by same cavy...not that I suggest trying any of these but this is some of what's happened to our camera and it survived)

There's also a J12 Fuji available at Best Buy - it's like $90 and if you order it online you can get in store pick up really easily. And it's blue LOL
Good Luck! can't wait to see Lily pics...

[kyrielle]

If you're getting a camera with a card of any type - and if you aren't you'll be very limited in number of pics you can take before returning to a computer - you will be better off with a card reader. That way you don't use battery power when getting pics to the computer. If your computer doesn't have a reader already, they're very cheap.

Couple features to maybe look for: anti-shake, and low-light focus.

[kyrielle]

Other notes: Nikon does really good digicams (my experience and my friends'), but they are spendy, so probably not on your list

[weezerscaddy]

Yes, but on higher end cameras, I don't notice a huge difference. I think I have like, 8 point optical zoom on my Kodak and it's enough for almost anything I do lol. I seldom use the digital zoom.

[kyrielle]

As I said, "optical zoom is all that matters" - a high optical zoom is a benefit, a high digital zoom is useless crap. As long as you don't use the digital zoom it's harmless, but it's not a useful feature, IMO.

[billroper]

If you haven't heard this bit before, let me add that the only zoom to be concerned about is the optical zoom. Most of the digital cameras also have digital zoom, but it amounts to blowing up a small section of the sensor to make a larger image so you don't get a very good picture.

I like the Canon Digital Elph cameras, as they fit in my shirt pocket. :)

And the advice about getting a cheap USB card reader is good.

[nimitzbrood]

If you're looking at a simple point and shoot I'd also suggest the Elph models but if you want a decent optical zoom but not changeable lenses I'd suggest the A590 series or almost any of the other PowerShot models.

Like this one:

http://shorterlink.org/4420

Depends on how much money you want to spend and what kind of pictures you want to take.

Finally - invest in some rechargeable batteries (nimh or Lithium Ion if possible) and a good charger that has capacity to charge four of the model battery that the camera uses. Otherwise you'll be taking out stock in Duracell or Energizer.

[allisona]

Yay, Seanan photos!