Camera Of Choice?

[GuppyDude]

I'm an art student at UW Parkside. I need a digital camera that can give me detailed close-ups, and has a good zoom that wont deminish photo quality. I dont have a whole lot of money to spend, so ill probably try to pick up somthing used. Could anyone here make a few suggestions? It doesn't need to be small, or modern, or look cool; i just need it to take the kind of shots im after. I have been useing a smaller general purpose digital camera, but it just doesn't capture the quality i would like. Im sorry if i haven't given much info, im kind of new to photography.

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

I'm an art student at UW Parkside. I need a digital camera that can give me detailed close-ups, and has a good zoom that wont deminish photo quality. I dont have a whole lot of money to spend, so ill probably try to pick up somthing used. Could anyone here make a few suggestions? It doesn't need to be small, or modern, or look cool; i just need it to take the kind of shots im after. I have been useing a smaller general purpose digital camera, but it just doesn't capture the quality i would like. Im sorry if i haven't given much info, im kind of new to photography.

Anything in the 6-8 megapixel range that has a macro mode will probably do the trick nicely. More than 6-8 megapixels in a point and shoot can give you noise problems.

Also make sure that you don't use the digital zoom on it. It just crops the picture and degrades image quality. I always disable that feature first thing.

SLC

 

[GuppyDude]

Digi zoom is probably the largest set-back regarding my current camera. There is no manual zoom, so when i need to get to somthing close i typically get a little fuzz, or the battery dies. Thnx for the information, that narrows my search greatly.

 

[divisible by zero]

i love my sony f707 cybershot

 

[juiced1300]

I use a Nikon D70. Now that the D80 came out the price of the 70's have gone down quite a bit. You might be able to find a good used one from someone who needs to upgrade everytime something new comes out
its just over 6 megapixels and has maual focus, zoom and is a real digital SLR camera, google it and see if you like it. Its also easy to use as far as menu's and settings too.
heres a few outdoor pics I took with it:

 

[andywg]

If you can't stomach the price up to digital SLRs consider the Fuji finepix F30 or F31 (both are very similar). These cameras are great and I recall the only compact cameras to get highly recommended on the DPreview website. They even shot them next to some SLRs, and while there was a clear difference, they held their own very well.

A brand new F30 is currently going for around £100, so second hand should be well cheap. The F31 was my camera of choice for underwater shooting as it can handle a high ISO rating and while there are many point and clicks with more pixels, they don't give as sharp a picture.

My best advice is to get a few names of cameras, work out what is in your price range, and then head to somewhere like DPreviews where you can look at the tests and see what you prefer.

 

[donporter]

I would recommend the Samsung Digimax i6. It's easy to use, takes good pictures & if you are on a budget it is also a PMP + MP3 player. Has a 3x optical zoom and active shake reduction (ASR). It cost about 100 GBP last Christmas so should be even cheaper now.

I've tried Nikon coolpix + Sony Cybershot but much prefer the Samsung

 

[PoptartShop]

Canon cameras (to me) are the best.
Nikon are a bit better though...but I've always used Canons, they take great pictures!!! & videos too, hehe!
I love the quality of the images from Canon.

 

[Davo86]

Canon cameras (to me) are the best.
Nikon are a bit better though...but I've always used Canons, they take great pictures!!! & videos too, hehe!
I love the quality of the images from Canon.

Agreed,
I am a Design Student and i also do stock photography in my free time, my camera is the EOS 350D, slightly dated now due to the release of the 400D but just as great, combine this with the 100m macro lense and you could photo the dust on your pencil, (i'm not joking)

 

[Underwurlde]

How much £££ / $$$ have you for your budget?

Andy

 

[bordercollie05]

I've got a Lumix Panasonic DMC-FZ8. It's got 12X optical zoom. I love it. I've had it for about 6 months now and the zoom is wonderful. It also can handle close ups pretty well. There is a manual focus, but it isn't real great so if you want to play with focus extensively I wouldn't recommend it. I got it online, don't remember what site, for around 300 US dollars. It also does a great job of taking pictures without the flash, which is great for fishy pics.


I'd also recommend looking at this site: http/www.dpreview.com/. It has lots of reviews for lots of different brands and explains all of the stats for each camera too. I used it to make my decision.

 

[nakomis90]

it depends if you want a DSLR or a Compact!
I have Canon EOS 350d
with a 18-55mm lens that does fabulous macros!
and a 80-300mm sigma lens
that has a macro mode
both these capture images well
especially fish tanks!