Looking for a New Camera

[gco212]

Hi guys. I'm not sure if I should put this here or in the buying guide section, but here goes. I'm looking for a camera for casual and personal use. When I say casual, I mean that I'm not going to be going out and taking wild life pictures. It's mostly to take pictures of my friends and me and things like that. Basically, I'm looking to spend $350 or less for this, need it to be very portable, and very durable. Like I said, I'm a very casual user as well, so I'm not looking for a camera that is going to be perfect when it comes to the image quality, but one with very good quality in a small package and long battery time (I'm not going to be carrying around an extra battery with me because I don't have room in my pockets, so keep that in mind if you don't mind) would be perfect. I've looked on line and in stores, and this one caught my eye:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cu...stomer-reviews.start=11&qid=1182301365&sr=8-4

Does anyone have any opinions on that camera, or on Olympus in general? I'm open to any suggestions on good cameras, so please recommend other cameras as well. Oh, and I use Windows at the moment, so compatibility with Macs doesn't generally matter. Thanks a ton for any help.

 

[miloblithe]

pour over the reviews on dpreview.com. That's my recommendation.

 

[Merf]

Are you really going to be taking lots of underwater pictures? If so this camera seems to be great, also even if your not taking it for underwater photos it seems to be very very tough. Thats a plus for when a guy at a party spills his beer on your camera. If the whole everything proof doesn't really matter to you there is the samsung NV11 that I have been looking at http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Digim...1254364?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1182310666&sr=1-1 Its ten megapixels. That will eat through your memory card quickly at the full settings. If thats too much for you there is the NV10 and the3 NV7. They all seem to be great cameras to me. I haven't handled any of them but from the reviews they seems grood. As soon as I get some enough cash I'm going to buy the NV11.

Merf

 

[Lovesong]

Olympus have a long history of making superb optics and fine cameras. Given your needs, I'd say that the Stylus you're looking at might be overkill even.

You said that you want something that is portable, easy to take pictures of your friends, decent image quality, and good battery life. Fact is, that there are a number of cameras that can fit the bill, and you won't have to spend $350 to get all these things.

First off I agree with miloblithe- dpreview is a wonderful website, with non-bias reviews, and generally good advice. Having said that, I must also disagree with Merf in his recomendations on the Samsungs. Samsung has never made good cameras, and the NV7 (along with the 10 and 11), though attractive-looking is not something that will give you good images. Check out the "above average" (read: "not good") review here.

Basically if you're looking for something that will last you more than 6 months there are a handful of companies you should consider. Olympus makes some good cameras. So do Nikon, Fuji, Canon, Sony, and Panasonic (on the compact end).

The Canon A710 IS is an excellent camera for your price ( for a little more, you can also get the G7, which will get you more manual controls, and settings).

If you're looking for one of the best compact cameras in terms of image quality, then you need the Fuji F30 (or the newer F31). On some things, these cameras will outperform an SLR, and still fit in your pocket.

Look through the dpreview site, and choose one yourself. The above are only those that I have had first-hand experience with, and main thing is, when you settle on a camera, go your nearest store, and see how it feels in your hand.