Digital Camera

[Dave]

You can pick up a fuji S5000 for under $500

I have the s5000, great camera for the price. There is now a s5500 out which has 4mp and some other extra features, the Fuji's are great cameras I just wish I had waited until the s5500 came out.

[xflow]

Originally Posted by Dave

I have the s5000, great camera for the price. There is now a s5500 out which has 4mp and some other extra features, the Fuji's are great cameras I just wish I had waited until the s5500 came out.

Or got the S7000. I've had the S7000 for a while now, bought it from Singapore via EBay. Awesome camera and cost me $425 delivered.

[Wooders]

I nearly bought the Fuji5500 - but when I directly compared to the Kodak DX6490 - it won....which was a shame because I really didn't want to buy a Kodak....But I have been really impressed with the DX6490.....

[Dave]

Originally Posted by crossflow

Or got the S7000. I've had the S7000 for a while now, bought it from Singapore via EBay. Awesome camera and cost me $425 delivered.

Doh! I paid more than that for the s5000...

Originally Posted by wooders

which was a shame because I really didn't want to buy a Kodak....

Working in IT support the worse cameras I have to help clients out with is Kodak ones and that difficultshare software.

I hate cameras that you cant just plug and play and a drive comes up in explorer. I hate being forced to install annoying software... WORST OFFENDERS: Kodak, Sony & Canon

[Willy]

Been looking into this as well. Main things I wanted was fast startup, quick recharge, small in size and fast shot taking. Camera I found that seemed to cover most of that was the Casio Exilim EX-Z40. I have also read some great reviews on it as well. Priced under $700. 4MP and 3x optical. Wanted to spend under $1000 all up inc extra card.

Only other thing I was looking for was one that I could just put AA batteries but they seem to be difficult to come across. Maybe I am just not looking in the right place.

[CrazyNuts]

It all depends on what you want Matt.

I've been researching digital cameras for about 2 years now and have owned quite a few in that time too. I needed something with good zoom without compromising image quality (Barrel Distortion associated with optical zoom greater than 5x)

I ended up getting a Nikon CoolPix 5700 (5MP 8x OPTICAL Zoom). I bought mine for $1700 about a year ago. They are now obtainable for Sub $1000 if you can bargain a little.

If you are after a good point and shoot camera than i would not go past Canon. They have THE best CCD's in their cameras.

I am yet to come accross a compact digital camera that can beat a Canon.

Also...spend the money on something proper. I would say look at the $1000 range. You can get yourself an excellent Canon G6 for that cash.

If you want to read about different models and professional reviews go to www.dpreview.com

Just some points to remember

If you want zoom you will NOT get the "wide" shots due to the lens being equivelant of about 35mm - 280mm (8x optical zoom)

To be able to get more into a picture (wider shots) you need a lens that has a 28mm (or 25mm) equivalent. Only cameras SUB 4x Optical Zoom can achieve that. You can't have best of both worlds unfortunately.

So....if you want zoom, you aren't going to get the "wide" shot.

The list of Cameras i recommed are as follows:

Nikon Coolpix 5700
Nikon Coolpix 5400 (If you can still get this)
Canon G5 or G6
Canon A80 (if you can still get these) DO NOT get the A75 or A85
Canon IXUS 500
Minolta Dimage A1

Of if you are really keen and want to go the pro-sumer way...get the Canon 300D Digital SLR.

A good cheap place to get all these is www.camera-land.com.au

By the way...if you want a list of cameras by RATING have a look here

[BlackCat]

I recently replaced an older model Nikon Coolpix with a Sanyo Xacti for snapshots. It's only 3.2megapixels but for what I want, the pictures are great. It also takes excecllent MP4 video in various sizes which means it's good for web clips.

If I were looking for something to take professional type shots I would go for either a Canon or Nikon digital SLR (Most of the Sydney newspaper sports photographers these days use digital Canons.).

If you want a real bargain, buy a film SLR and just have your pics burned onto CD. These days they are dirt cheap and there isn't a digital camera under $15000 that will match them for speed and flexibility. I also think film still has the edge for image quality.