Hey folks. I would like to get a Digital camera. It seems like there are sooo many to choose from. What would be the best buy for around $500? Somthing that is good for macro work and landscapes. Ray

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

Everything you ever wanted to know...

Thanks.I have spent many hours reading different sites that rank cameras. Problem is there are just sooo many. By the time I am done reading about them all, there does not seem to be one that is best. Maybe there just isn't a perfect one:)

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

Another great site to learn. The camera you will want at $500 will depend on the features you want. I use a Sony DSC-F707 and I love it. It is a little slow for sports photography but I keep trying. For everything else I have been more than satisfied. I love the camera. The f717 is basically the same camera but updated. Outside of a rearrangement of the controls I am not sure of the difference. YOu can get a new, but leftover 707 on eBay for about $500-$650. Also www.cnet.com used to have a questioniare that help whittle down your options. Magick Michael

Welcome to the forum, Razorcut. It depends on what you need. What resolution will you be working on, for starters? (I should have a bunch of follow up Qs but my 5 am brain stopped working hours ago, sorry.) (* (ey nplus, nice to see you on board again!)

Thanks Magick Michael. I have used a couple of cameras here at work and noticed that some do not take good pictures up close. and some do not take good pictures from a distance. I really want to take still pictures up close. 1 inch or so but still get good quality at further distances.

even though I just got this digi for Christmas- it has been rated as the best camera for the $$- I really wanted a digi SLR but couldn't afford it, so I did a little research & came up with this one- Olympus Camedia4000Z- 499$ retail- great macro, zoom, manual control & quality! the downside on it is attached lens cap, noisey zoom & slow start up but the pros outweigh the cons on this one... Reading the manual is a must! Ask me again in a couple of months...

oh & that OlymC4000Z is a 4 megapixel & can use 4 AA NiMH batteries

shoulda known you'd want a sample- k- here's 3 of my very first shots, no cropping or editing/enhancing, only resized here's a closeup, & no not macro, just figured that out today & those are still on the card- but let me give a shout out to anyone else who has this camera?

& one of our house without the zoom- again no cropping or enhancing

& finally the same shot but with 3X Zoom- & remember guys, I was just test shooting don't expect to see too many of my digi shots yet, I just 4 rolls back today on my Pentax, meanwhile I'll be learning all the fun features & more of what this baby can do :) hope this helps you Razorcut

those were just using the auto., so I don't know if they could be better with manual adjusting- uh, someone? help me out here...

Seems like the latest rage in digital cameras is changeable lenses with zoom in the optics. I would think that to be the ticket. I have a toshiba 3.2 mpixel and love it, but it doesn't have the changeable lense option. Best I can say is get the highest resolution you can afford. Its way easyier to cut down an image than to increase it. Also, if you do get a high resolution camera, you'll need a farely large card. I have a 32m card that holds about 25 images at 2048x1536x72. If you're going to shoot that size, or larger to get it converted to 1024x768x300, etc, then you would want at least a 64 if not a 128 card. Since the cards cost money, and you are bugeting, sounds like you'll want to not buy one of the 5mpixel cameras and merely get a smaller one with a larger card. I did see some camera that hold a mini cd in them so that's worth looking at, but I havent tried them yet. To recap, three most important features are 1. large mpixel ability, 2. Lense options and 3. card size/upgrade. Have fun.

Oh, and I'll post a new thread above for some stand alone editing programs and filters for your camera. And you can use them for any digital image you might have.

Age old question: "What is the best camera?" It depends so very much on what you want to do with it. I can't give an opinion about the digitals, but it seems that anyone in that competitive price range will do a fair job at landscapes and macro. But some may be better suited towards a specific task than another. One strategy is to look through the Gallery and find the types of images you'd like to do, then ask those people what they use and what they would get to improve. You are not going to go wrong with anything in that price range for general purpose, but there may be some speciality things about any of them that could make you very happy, (or unhappy). There are places, I guess, which will give you a definite answer to your question. But they are likely less honest than what you've heard here.

A few pointers (from experience) : Don't play the "Megapixel game" : more is not necessarily better. You have to ask yourself what the maximum printed size of your photo's is going to be... A friend of mine owns a 6 Mpix camera and consistently shoots at lower res to cram more photo's on the memory cards (which are still expensive). IMO you can't go wrong in the 3 - 5 Mpix range. Also remember that a megapixel is NOT a quality measurement unit ! More important is the "glass" : the quality of the lens determines the quality of the shot ! Whether you buy a $ 5.000 DSLR or a $ 500 digicam... On www.dpreview.com, you can easily compare the qualities of different lenses. DON'T consider the "digital zoom" when comparing camera's : digital zoom is basically unusable (I always disable it) when hunting for quality photo's. So try to find a decent optical zoom system (that should eliminate some of the competition) Functions : personally, I find video capabilities obsolete (when I want to make a video, I'll buy me a videocamera), but I know that for some users this may be quite important. For me, digital photography is all about learning the various concepts of lighting, white balancing, focus, aperture, etc... so I prefer a camera with lots of manual controls available "on the fly" (as opposed to selecting them through a myriad of menus). That's why I bought myself a Minolta Dimage about 9 months ago. Now I'm saving to get my dream camera : the awesome Canon D60 DSLR...

I have 2 agree with cynlee! If u want a good camera but cant afford an SLR then go for an Olympus I found they had the best features and value. Just check out my gallery if u wanna c what it can do! Mine is a Olympus c-3020 zoom 3.4 mega pixels WICKED!!!!!!!

I am with peterke on this issue. More mega pix's mean nothing if you have a itty bitty crappy lens. There are 3 basic things in my mind about digitals. Mostly its batteries or how long can you use your camera before your out of jucie. Next is photo storage. And the last is the lens quality. If these 3 dont always equal out then your mega pix's mean nada. One last thing is the dispaly . That suckers got to be atleast 2 inchs or its pretty useless . Olympus seams to have the best bang for the buck for now.