Digital Camera

[Mrwurm]

Anyone care to recommend their favorite digital camera for under $300. I am looking for one that I can plug into a usb port and has easy to use software. I don't have time to study another manual.

 

[Golfgar4]

Hi Jerry!

We just bought a Kodak DX4900 digital camera with the "Shareware system" the first of July. We got it at OfficeMax for $299.00 (down from $499.00), which included $187.00 worth of attachments, etc. This was a special promotion, but I don't know if it is still running.

It's the easiest thing I've ever used./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I really didn't even read the manual, and I'm usually pretty good about doing that. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

I loaded the CD into the computer, little boxes of directions popped up telling me what to do, and it was done! The next day, we went out and took 54 pictures at my Mother-In-Laws 70th birthday party. I went in to the computer, plugged the camera into the "dock", and all I had to do was give the file a name to save it. Then I went in and pulled up the pictures, made some modifications (cropping), and printed out about 5 of them on picture quality paper to give to our Aunt before she left. You can't tell they came off a computer!

The following week, we were driving to our State capital. My wife had set the camera to take black & white pictures of trees for some "art" she wanted to create. We'd see a tree she liked, so we'd stop and she'd shoot it. We'd look at the picture she just took, and if she didn't like it, she'd delete it and take another. Pretty cool. /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

If you want some more information, here's a link to a thread that discusses all of this stuff -
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=rural&Number=146065&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1>Digital Camera - Did I Make The Right Choice?</A>

Good luck on your choice. Oh yeah, I did post a couple of pictures we took with the camera in the Photo section, if you want to look at them. They're in the thread Poor Man's Air Conditioning".

 

[RanchMan]

Fuji digital cams are very good. I got mine years ago and other than processing speed, it still blows away a lot of the cams available today. A friend of mine has one of the newer Fuji models and is very happy with his as well.

'Course the technology has come a long way since I got mine, so there are a lot of nice cameras available now, but I think that the Fuji's are hard to beat. Like anything electronic, the models are constantly being upgraded, so I can't recommend a particular one, but if you look at them up close, I think you'll like 'em.

BTW, for $20-30 you can get a USB memory card reader that, assuming your digital cam has a removable memory card, makes file transfer a snap. (you can even move pictures from you PC to your camera - good for viewing when you hook it up to a TV or such). I use Windows Explorer to take care of picture transfer - just "drag & drop" - no fancy software required.

Good luck!

 

[Mrwurm]

I was looking at a Kodak DX3600 for $225. There's an Office Max right on my way home. I think I'll stop there and check out the DX4900. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Thanks !

Also, I did see your awning photos. Looked good to me.

 

[Golfgar4]

<font color=blue>"Also, I did see your awning photos. Looked good to me."</font color=blue>

Those were taken on the "medium", or average resolution setting. The camera has three resolution settings; low, medium, and high. The low allows you take + - 120 - 130 pictures, the medium + - 50 - 60 pictures, and the high + - 20 - 30 pictures. Obviously the high resolution pictures are the best and the sharpest, but for everyday use, the medium seems just fine.

Another feature of the Kodak system is that if you don't want to mess around with printing the pictures out yourself, or your printer doesn't support picture quality printing, you can e-mail the pictures directly to Kodak and they'll print them and send them to you. Don't know the cost for this, however.

Another nice feature of this system is the camera dock. When you want to download the pics to the computer, you plug the camera onto the dock and the pictures are downloaded. But it also recharges the camera battery at the same time. So you can just leave the camera on the dock when your not using it, and it's always fully charged! /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

 

[Tractors4u]

I just bought a Nikon Coolpix 775. It uses a USB cable. When I plug the cable in and switch the camera on it automatically boots up the software and with one click it downloads the pictures. Then you select the ones to save. It is 2.1 megapixel. The higher the megapixel the better. It has a 3X optical zoom and a 2.5X digital zoom. It was $289 plus $15 S&H from Ebay. I have attached a picture I took with it.

 

[Tractors4u]

One more thing, it will do 15 second MPEG videos also.

 

[Mrwurm]

Hey, thats pretty impressive ! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

A friend of mine recommended the same camera.

 

[Steven]

You may want to check out <A target="_blank" HREF=http://dpreview.com>http://dpreview.com</A> they seem to have a lot of reviews on cameras. I still have not gotten myself a digital camera yet. but I have been looking /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif.

 

[MikePA]

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.dpreview.com>DP Review</A>

I agree, a great site. I just got a <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.casio.com/cameras/product.cfm?section=239&product=4393>Casio Exilim EX-S1</A> to go along with my Olympus C2100-UZ. I wanted a camera that was convenient enough to carry all the time and one like the EX-S1, which is credit card sized, fits the bill. It also meets your price target.