Purchasing A Camera

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Tempestuousfury

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This doesn't necessarily fit in Chit Chat, or anywhere that I can see, for that matter, so, since this subforum is labelled "photography"...

Looking for a decent camera to take pics of fish in 45 gallon or less tanks. So what type of zoom, megapixels, etc. would be needed?

Oh, and this camera will also be used for non-fishy pictures as well. :p
 
Whats your budget?my brother brought a 5 megapixel camera with 4x optical zoon and another 5x digital zoo on top of that for £100. its a nice little camera, but make sure you get a good brand one, as my brothers camera dosent seem to focus well up close. here some sample pics:



top one shows the up close focus problem, bottom shows my ugly mug with my girlfriend at a family dinner :p click the pics for full size
 
Yep - would need to know what your budget is :) I can recommend many but need to narrow it down to fit budget.
 
The close-up thing is a very visible problem. *nods* >.<

I suppose I am willing to go up to $150. I suppose I could go a bit higher, but parting with that much money is a very sad experience for me. :/
 
The camera that I'm saving for runs about $2,000 without extra lenses and such so I can't really say which cameras at the $150 range are good myself but while you're shopping check out www.cameraworld.com. It's a store based out of Oregon, they often have great sales and S&H specials.

You can also go to stores that let you play with the cameras (around here it would be Kits or Talls) so that you can get a feel for them, how they rest in your hand, how you like the speed, where the buttons are located and they may even let you make prints from them to see how the pics turn out. Also think about the features that are important to you in addition to what kind of pictures you want to take like time delay, manual adjustments etc.

Also, once you have narrowed it down you can check out sites like www.epinions.com to see how other people liked that specific model.
 
Seems pretty good. I'll check out the first site and see if I can't find something to post about on the second site. :p
 
promithius, I meant to add this to my other post. The problem with your brother's camera is most likely one of two things:

One - it's simply not capable of focusing on something that close to the lens. Some cameras have close-up settings which helps you get closer and some have macro settings which get you even closer. Without either you are limited, check the manual to see what that range is.

Two - the camera is set up to focus from the center of the lens. When the subject of your photo is off center some cameras will then focus on what is in the center, usually the background. This is why you will often get a blurry subject when you shoot a picture of two people. You point the camera with the two people taking up equal amounts of space in the viewfinder which puts the center of the camera lens right square between their heads where it focuses on whatever is behind them. Thus a clear background and two fuzzy people. Some cameras are set up so that you can focus on anything you want, push the button half way down so that the focus is locked and then recenter so that you have the picture how you want it without it refocusing. Again, check the manual. :) I hated the camera I bought two cameras ago, I often wanted to throw it against the wall, then I read the manual.
 
Hmm, I would haev preferred lithium...

Since the camera's mostly going to be used at home, I'm thinking of getting an adapter for it if it'll run on AA's.
 
If you're mainly wanting to upload to the net, you don't need a huge amount of megapixels.
Compacts have tiny sensors, so the more pixels, the more are squished into a small area, increasing noise and degrading image quality. If you want to print, again, it depends how large you want to print. a 3mp would get you decent 6x4's.

Having tried taking pics of a tank using a compact, i'd say get something that will let you manual focus. I find the autofocus kept focusing on reflections on the glass.
 

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