Digital Photography for the average guy

[Billfred]

...or girl.

I'm looking to get a digital camera. Mostly for pictures for the web, but I might print some in reports or projects now and again. The general requirements are these:

-Decent image quality (decent being measured by that yardstick--my reading says somewhere in the 3-4 MP range would do it)
-Able to survive college (I mean, I wouldn't be throwing it off buildings or anything, but I can't say that I baby my electronics.)
-Something a college student could afford, absolutely no more than $200.

This Kodak seems to get good reviews on several websites, and the price is certainly right. Can anyone suggest a better option?

(Don't worry, I searched for "digital camera" already. )

[KyleGilbert45]

I recommend buying a Nikon Coolpix camera . I purchased a Nikon 3200 last year and I love it. It's extremely easy to use, lightweight, and small enough to just put in your pocket and not have to worry about it. The 3200 is now discontinued, but I'm pretty sure the 4600 is about the same price range of about $199.99.

[Conor Ryan]

ok well, I have access to Consumer reports and they did an update back in July, so here are the ones that they reconmend under $200 (You can always find cameras cheaper than the retail price too:

3 Megapixel (I'm listing all of the ones under 200)
1.)Canon PowerShot A510
2-5 over 200
6.)Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart M307
7.)Olympus Stylus 300 Digital
8.)Olympus D-540 Zoom
9.)Fujifilm FinePix A330 CR Best Buy

4 Megapixel
1-5 over 200
6.) Kodak EasyShare CX7430 CR Best Buy
7-8 over 200
9.) Olympus D-580 Zoom CR Best Buy

Everything after that either got really bad reviews or was over 200, PM if you want some more info

Well i guess I should make my english teachers happy:
"Consumer Reports: Digital Cameras"
July 2005 <www.consumerreports.org>.

[Ian Curtis]

My little sister just bought the Canon powershot 520A which is the next gen powershot 510A and I've played with it and boy am I impressed. It's video capa bilities are simply incredible for a digital camera and its pictures are high quality with tons of options.

[Jay H 237]

Keep an eye out for ones on ebay and other places. You can find some great deals at times.

I got my Fugifilm Finepix F700 6.2 megapixel off of QVC back around the holidays. It was one of thier 'introductory offers' for $299, I know, slightly more than you want to spend but if you look hard enough you will find the right camera at the right price. I will also say the Finepix has held up well. I don't purposely beat it up but I only had it for a week or two when it took a hard hit to the concrete floor at one of our teams meetings which slightly dented a corner of the camera. To this day, 8 months later, other than the cosmetic blemmish the camera has no problems.

[nehalita]

I have this one -- good quality, easy to use, it's similar to #8 on conor's list. i think i had the coolpix one that kyle mentioned but i kinda broke it 2 weeks after i got it (...i am synonymous with clumsy) and ended up returning it and getting this instead. both were nice.

[Joe J.]

I've got a Cannon A520 It was a little more than $200 I think it was around $250 but the A510 is just under $200 and the only major difference between the two is the A520 is a 4 Mega Pixel and the A510 is 3.2. The A520 takes great shots and videos I would guess the A510 would be close. I can say its a pretty rugged camera (it survived a two week backpacking trip in the New Mexico mountains). They can use either a MMC card or SD card. The only thing is it tends to blow right through normal AA batteries as well as the the titanium and lithium types, They are a little more expensive but the NiMH rechargeable work the best (working for about 5 days as opposed to less than a day for basic batteries. Hope this helps.

[evulish]

I'm a big fan of Canon and Nikon cameras. I own a Canon S410 which might be out of your pricerange, but all of their cameras are quite good. My family has two Nikon digitals which are both excellent. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of Kodak cameras, but maybe that's just from my dislike of their film cams. I never thought their color was very good. Some brands I would recommend are: Canon, Nikon, Panasonic (Leica lenses.. yum), Konica Minolta, and Casio. They all have a pretty wide range of prices from low-budget to pretty high-end stuff. My opinion might be biased, but I usually steer clear of Sony, Kodak, Fujifilm, and Olympus. Olympus may make good cams now, but the one I had was junk (it was a really early cam and rather cheap, so who knows.) I'd highly recommend www.dpreview.com and www.steves-digicams.com. I'd also recommend holding the camera before you buy it. Go to a CircuitCity or Best Buy and just hold on to it. How it fits your hand, the weight, durability. Then shop around on the internet.. you can generally find a better deal there, but be careful if you go too cheap with one of the online retailers, they try to get you to buy a 'bundle' and pay extra. If you try decline this bundle, your shipment will accidently get delayed a month or two. Check out the company you're buying from on www.resellerratings.com

[Clark Gilbert]

Along with www.dpreview.com & www.steves-digicams.com check out:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/ (especially Dave's picks)
http://www.dcresource.com/ (My favorite review website)