Camera advice needed!

[bubb2]

We have taken some of the boat accident money and booked a cabin for a Alaska cruise. I wanted to do a bare boat charter out of Stewart. But the crew said no, they would rather lay back and enjoy. It will be my wife and son, Carrie and myself. Carrie needs the time Away!

With Circuit city closing I am looking for bargains with regards to Digital Camera's. I have spec'd out some models: But I am looking for people that know more about this than I do. All idea's are welcome

Here's what I looking at:

Cannon, power shot x101s

Nikon, Cool pixs, 10.1 mp, 18x zoom

Thoughts please or are there better choices for us. Thanks Mike

[xort]

Mike
for pocket cameras, I made my decision based on the lens choice. In tight quarters, I wanted a wide lens. I chose the camera that had the wider lens, Canon Sureshot S45 at that time. Not sure what is available these days. You may prefer a long reach lens, you can't have both and the digital zoom sucks.

One consideration MIGHT be video record. That feature is getting much better on the still cameras. Technology like this is such a moving target it's hard to keep up.

Will you want underwater capability? Might want to check on underwater housing availability.

I tried to go to circuit city website but it's down due to the closing.

One thing I did learn is that 6 megapixels is usually enough so don't get sucked in by trying to get the largest number of MP.

[JohnRPollard]

Bubb,

Sapperwhite seems to be pretty knowledgeable about cameras. Maybe he'll chime in or you can send him a PM. I think he started at least one "camera" thread somewhere around here. But he may be using higher end equipment.

Xort seems to know what he's talking about too!

We have a Nikon Coolpix which, I have to say, has been a pretty disappointing camera. Ours is the 7600, a few years old now, 7.1 megapixel. It is a battery pig, and is excruciatingly slow. I can't tell you how many photos we've missed waiting for this thing to process the previous shot (often 10-20 seconds).

Hopefully Nikon has improved their speed/processors on the Coolpix line.

That sounds like a great trip. Enjoy!

[SEMIJim]

Depends on what you want and what you want to spend. I was recently considering a small-ish camera to just stash in my sea bag, so it'd always be there when I was sailing. Had I chosen to go forward with it, my choice would have been the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8, based on Holidays '08 Compact Camera Group Test: Group 1: Budget cameras (sub $150) at Digital Camera Reviews and News: Digital Photography Review: Forums, Glossary, FAQ. The LZ5 is similar, has more zoom and, IIRC, a wider angle, for a bit more money and is about 1/4 or 1/3 larger.

Beware of buying from Circuit City. First of all: You're actually buying from the liquidators, not CC, as I understand it. I would guess there'll be no returns, refunds or exchanges, and warranty coverage could potentially be problematic.

Jim

[eryka]

For me the best camera is the one that's always with you. It won't do you any good if it can take awesome pix but its so bulky you leave it in your room half the time!

I use an old Olympus Camedia D-585 Zoom for everyday and a bulkier Olympus for planned outings. Note when you're comparing models that "optical zoom" means the lenses actually adjust to give you better magnification, "digital zoom" just means you get a denser concentration of pixels in a smaller area of the photo.

Get a card reader for $25 to download photos to your laptop without using battery power.

[CaptainForce]

I recently bought my Cannon SX110IS from Circuit City. 'a good deal for a 10x optical zoom digital. The warrenty is provided by the manufacturer not the retailer. 'take care and joy, Aythya crew

[eryka]

Oh yeah, and bubb, make sure your photobucket account is active so you can show us the highlights of your trip!

[xort]

CCity returns would be a potential issue but warantee shouldn't be. If the camera does not work out of the box, you would normally be able to get an exchange but maybe not with CC.
So take the camera out of the box and test it before buying. Hopefully they will let you do that and hopefully the battery will have some charge.

[ckgreenman]

Originally Posted by eryka

For me the best camera is the one that's always with you. It won't do you any good if it can take awesome pix but its so bulky you leave it in your room half the time!

I use an old Olympus Camedia D-585 Zoom for everyday and a bulkier Olympus for planned outings. Note when you're comparing models that "optical zoom" means the lenses actually adjust to give you better magnification, "digital zoom" just means you get a denser concentration of pixels in a smaller area of the photo.

Get a card reader for $25 to download photos to your laptop without using battery power.

I have to agree to this point. My wife and both have drooled over the high priced digital SLRs but then we stop and think what a pain it would be to carry that everywhere. It's been a few years now but we bought a Nikon CoolPix 4800. 4.5MP with 10x OPTICAL zoom and 3x digital. I'm a BIG fan of high optical zoom and the one we bought was the ONLY one at the time with 10x. It used to be painfully slow taking pics until we put a high speed SD card. It's still a little slow but the best part is, it's VERY portable.

[camaraderie]

RE: Circuit City...there will be no returns but full mfr. warranties are in force and extended warranties from 3rd party warrantors will be offered. Just be SURE of what you want AND be sure it REALLY is a bargain. Four liquidators are going to do the sell-off...NOT CC management... and the typical ploy is to immediately RAISE prices then begin showing those big discounts from the raised prices. Know the RIGHT price before you buy.
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I will hijack for a moment as I had a 20+ year career there and was rather well placed to understand what has happened. I read those tea leaves 10 years ago and could see there was only one possible end result. This is what happens when senior management gets arrogant and greedy and focused on short term profits rather than the customer. Many tens of thousands of hard working good people who loved the business and loved helping customers have suffered due to the actions of few dozen greedy and incompetent execs over the last decade. It was not the economy that caused this. Good wishes to the 30,000 laid off yesterday.