Looking for a Digital Camera

[evulish]

I would pass on a Sony digital camera. If I recall correctly, they use Sony's Memory Stick that no other brands ever touched. It seems that using something that has more of an 'industry standard' would be better. I would recommend one that can write to either SD cards, Flash cards, or SmartMedia. SD and Flash are pretty nice...incredibly small (and have been dropping in price so I think they're now under $1/mb...but I haven't looked at them in a while). I REALLY like Nikon digital cameras. They take beautiful pictures. My dad's camera is a somewhat-outdated Nikon Coolpix 880...but the shots are awesome. My camera is a cheap Olympus...1.3 MP, I think. For the price ($200 when I got it, about a year ago...bundled with other stuff...), it's a great camera. Higher-priced Olympuses are excellent. In the world of digital cameras, you get what you pay for. I would recommend model numbers, but I haven't looked into digital cameras in quite a while. I know that Nikon is still excellent quality...and so is Olympus. In BestBuy, you may be able to test out the cameras...see for yourself how good the image quality is. Another thing to look for is how fast the images can be taken...some cameras write REALLY slowly to the card...which makes taking a bunch of consecutive images really hard (especially if you don't have a fixed lense...then you have to wait for it to write, then wait for it to focus, then you can take a picture).

(If you're willing to go the way of the MemoryStick, Sony cameras are great...but just pray that Sony doesn't kill off the MemoryStick...or you may be MemoryStuck *chuckle*)

Also, for e-tailers, a good place to find the cheapest price is www.mysimon.com. They normally show you good deals from (semi-)reliable stores --- some are brick&mortar chains, others are run out of some guys basement... Another place to look is in the Yahoo stores...some of those places have great deals and bundles...we got both our cameras off a random Yahoo store. My dad's was just the camera...but mine came with a decent case, rechargable batteries and a charger, 16mb flash card, and...the camera...