Could you give me some good recommendations for a digital camera? My Sony DSC-F717 has given up the ghost. It’s taking crappy green and pink photos and the screen flares at random.

This is a work camera and I’ve been asked to come up with a replacement. I use this primarily indoors in industrial conditions under fluorescent lights. Sometimes I can’t use flash or a tripod so a fast response time is a help.

A short focal length is necessary. I take pictures of parts on my desk or squeeze into places where I have less than a foot (1/3 meter) between the lens and the object. It’s also nice that I can rotate the screen when the lens has to point a different way.

I sometimes take pictures through glass so a way to bypass the sonar focus and go to manual, in fact manual control of all settings is helpful.

I take pictures inside boxes or pipes. Self illuminating and IR mode is useful.

I occasionally take movies up to a minute long.

The current 5 mega pixels is plenty though I’ll take more, I’m usually cropping or shrinking now.

I dumped all my card readers from the camera before this and like my current USB access. I’m not set up for IR transfer. I have a 128MB card now and would like ½ to 1GB in the next camera. Swappable memory is not necessary because I’m always around a computer to dump to.

It would be good that the camera keeps sequentially naming photos so I don’t have to keep track. What I mean is the old Mavica had a floppy and every time you dumped the pictures the next picture was numbered 001. The current camera is up to DSC03720 and I know this photo was taken after photo DSC00100 without thinking about it. I don’t have to rename photos to keep them from overwriting.

So what’s your favorite?

I hate to ask the classic question, but budget?

I currently use a finepis s5600 which I've outgrown, I'm looking at DSLRs (the click and wait seems to have disappeared with going to a DSLR) After a couple of months of musing so far I've narrowed down to the 2 Nikon's - the d40 and d80 although the canon 350d is tempting at such a low price. As it's shared with my wife and she's uses in a home studio the d80 is actually the most likely....

It sounds like you have some pretty specific needs. If you haven't already, go do some homework over at dpreview.com. The Buying Guide has a Features search that would be useful to you. Good luck!

Is your current camera beyond economical repair? if it met all your needs the cost of repair may be worthwhile

when you know what your budget is..I would suggest the same as Kort did...DPpreview..

a DSLR isn't going to take movies for you..so..

throw us a price range and it will be easier to help you

I'll jump in on this one...i too am on the look out for a new camera, so many to chose from, i just want a decent priced camera with all the mod cons on it!  I like the Canon brand and SLR if possible ...any suggestions boys
cheers sue

I'll recommend the Canon A620 or A640.  If cost is too be considered, either camera can be had for a decent price if the idea of replacement is for another P&S.  Both are capable of full manual use.

I'd like to keep the price under $1,000.

The high cost of doing business here makes repairs for items impossible. I could easily spend $800 to fix a camera that originally cost $450.

Sue, my wife's Canon A710 is a fine little P&S with good image quality and lots of features. The wait while the flash recharges can take several seconds when batteries are low, but aside from that I enjoy using it from time to time.

Today, for under $ 1000, Canon XTi is the best choice, IMHO!

well, a DSLR isn't going to shoot movies for you..

Let's see what else we can come up with

Here's a few idea...Not a recomendation.(because I don't own one of these)..just ideas..On the page you will find links to the prices..All three are under $500, which will allow you to stay under your budget, and buy some accessories that will help to fit your specific needs..They all offer a manual mode, except the OLY..but it does have a "behind glass" mode which should help you..

[Canon PowerShot S5 IS

](http://www.dpreview.com/news/0705/07050703canons5is.asp)

[Nikon Coolpix P5000

](http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikonp5000/)

Olympus SP-550 UZ

[

](http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikonp5000/)

I like the Oly...but they all have their good points.

I really like the Olympus myself. But I really do a lot of reaching over stuff and taking pictures with the viewfinder turned at an angle. Some of this is because I can't focus as close as the Olympus is able to. I guess I could click then preview for the rest. I tend to snap three or four pictures then choose the best anyway.

Can someone give me a little more info on the Olympus night shot mode? The Sony removes a filter so the camera can pick up infrared. There is also an LED mounted above the lens to light the shot. Is Olympus night shot IR or just different aperture and focus settings?

I'd have to look, but I doubt it's IR...usually a camera has to be modified to do IR work..

Not sure if this would help you in your work, but Oly is offering a package deal for the Tele-conversion lens and adaptor

[ https://emporium.olympus.com/innards/empproddetails.asp?sku=PPR999913-410

](https://emporium.olympus.com/innards/empproddetails.asp?sku=PPR999913-410)