This isn't about Carrara but I have come to rely on advice from the folks here and just wanted some input on a topic I know very little about. I am looking to purchase a digital camera for both professional and personal use and wanted to know what to look for in specs or if there is a model that any of you had success with. I plan to spend somewhere between $300 to 700. And to try and keep it on topic, I am sure the camera will give me excellent image references to use in model making in C. memaci

Attached Link: http://www.dcresource.com/

I see good reviews of the CanonG3 both for its software & image quality. I have an s200 but it's only 2megpixle. Great for computer stuff & email but too small of an image for "real" photos. I got it for the size of the camera & love it. Check this site for more reviews: http://www.dcresource.com/

Attached Link: http://www.steves-digicams.com/

I have used this site often for camera reviews.

Attached Link: http://www.dpreview.com

Another good resource,

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=142986&Start=25&Artist=Patrick%5F210&ByArtist=Yes

I use a Fuji Finepix 4700, had it for a couple of years. They have some newer models in the same line now. I really like this camera, Its small, easy to use , generates a 4.3 megapixel image. That comes out to a 12mg pic. It has a 3x optical zoom. The link is to a shot I did outside of Vegas, it is about 5 frames stitched together. This version is resampled way down, the original was quite large.

Attached Link: http://www.craigslist.org

Steve's digicams is amazing. I just bought a used Minolta Dimage7 5.2 megapixel camera. If you keep your eyes open you can often find some great buys. I found mine on a website called craigslist; it's specific to certain cities, but you might be lucky enough to live in one of them! - Dex

Thanks for the input everybody. The research I've done so far has been greatly helped by your input. There are a lot of cameras out there! memaci

Look for something that allows you to take uncompressed photos. Some cameras offer TIFF format and some offer RAW format (which is supposedly even better but I'm not sure why). Then you can compress the photos yourself as needed in Photoshop. I've been very happy with my Olympus C-3000 Zoom which I think takes better pictures (at least in auto mode) than my Nikon Coolpix 990. I have 3X zoom but have thought about getting one with 10X zoom. Optical zoom is what counts; I think digital zoom is bogus. The Nikon can handle different lenses (fisheye, wide angle). Digital cameras aren't very good for snapping off a bunch of photos in quick succession, though, and they burn out batteries like there's no tomorrow. I'd recommend using a little USB card reader rather than connecting your camera directly to your computer. Saves wear and tear on the camera and the camera's usb cable (which is usually a proprietary cable).