Need Some Camera Advice

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 3:42pm

I've been looking to get a new camera for a while and was given a gift card yesterday to do just that, but I'm not really an expert in the area and there's a million options. So I was hoping some people here could give me some advice.

I want a camera (I don't need it to take video) with at least 18 megapixels (or better since I guess that's the standard now) that's great at taking pictures at night and in darker places - The Canon camera that I have now is really awful at that. I'd like to spend no more than $300 for it so if anyone can point me towards something around that price that's good, I'd appreciate the help! :)

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 4:20pm

JANE!!!!


She can answer your questions!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 4:24pm

Well then where the hell is she?!??!

JANE!!!!!!!

[Jane2]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 5:01pm

haha, I was waiting a little to add my 2 cents. Let me say upfront, that if you are in the mood, there are many websites that offer comparisons between cameras on all different issues. For instance, you can google, which digital point and shoot cameras are great with night shoots, etc. You'll probably get too many results than you care to read!

Almost all the cameras take video, so that'll probably be in your new camera.

You didn't mention what specifically you don't like about your Canon.

Anyway, i've been using Sony almost exclusively for point and shoot. I'd say since my first one, I've had at least 5 more.

I tried the Nikon Coolpix and didn't like it. My DSLR is a Canon. It's fine, but I hardly ever use it. Right now I'm using an Olympus and hate it.

JOrdan, go online and google every question you have. Oh, and you'll easily find what you want under $300

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 5:06pm

Thanks, Jane. :)

I did some googling after going into Best Buy today and see reviews with pros and cons for a lot of different cameras. But I thought I'd ask here so I can actually interact with people who might have recommendations.

As for my Canon, it's one of the power shot cameras and the zoom is awful on it and pictures at night or in any sort of darker setting really turn out awful. I went to take some pictures of some houses with christmas lights when I went home a few weeks ago and you can barely see anything, the pictures are either so dark. It's just not a very good camera.

I'll take a deeper look into the Sony cameras, though!

[Addison D.]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 5:14pm

Go see the Jews at B&H. In 5,000 years, they've never steered anyone wrong on a camera purchase.

Don't forget, though, that they close early tomorrow and all day Saturday. And Tu B'Shvat, and Purim and Lag B'Omer and Tzom Tammuz...

Their website is pretty comprehensive, and lets you compare models, etc.

[Jane2]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 5:44pm

I normally go to B&H for all my camera needs. But they did steer me wrong with this Olympus. VERY WRONG. the camera broke after one month of using it. I had to wait another month before I got it back from repair; two days later it broke in the same manner. Had to wait weeks to get it back again. If it breaks again, I won't get my money back. they'll send me another Olympus.

Other than that, I highly recommend "the Jews" at B&H.

[Addison D.]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 6:01pm

That's disturbing. Is the unsatisfactory resolution a product of the B & H repair/return policies? Or The Olympus warranty?

[Jane2]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 6:06pm

Even though I bought a 3 year warranty in addition to the one year that comes with the camera, all repairs are done by the Olympus company. I believe that B&H would refund my money, but Olympus doesn't do that.

I had gone in for a different brand camera, but was steered over to the guy (Jew) who recommended the lemon I have.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 6:20pm

I love my Canon, but it was way more than $300. It can be point-and-shoot or fully manual.

I either use that one, or my iPhone. I don't have anything in-between.

[trentsketch]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 6:44pm

I had a bigger budget to work with when I replaced my camera a few months ago, but I was really impressed by the Sony cameras at a lot of the price points. They tend to have very large optical zooms for the price point, which does make a huge difference. The highest quality camera in the world will look terrible when it gets into that digital zoom nonsense because, at that point, the camera is just stretching the largest image it can take.

What I will say that I've been hearing really good things about the Sony A3000's quality and it's on sale at Best Buy for $289 (over $100 off) and can take different lenses. You don't find that feature on cameras in this price range very often.

[Jane2]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 6:45pm

point and shoot cameras can be under or over $300. I've bought them in all price ranges.

To see the range, I'd go to B&H, J&R, Best Buy, Adorama, or any of the camera sites to compare.

[Jane2]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 6:49pm

While we're on the subject, last night a guy was taking pictures with his iPhone. When he showed me his photo library, I was astounded by the quality. I even thought they looked better than the results I get with an actual camera. I couldn't believe that phone cameras were that good. Well, here's the drawback. I did some research and saw that the iPhone images can't be enlarged very much without losing quality. I tried it myself with an image that guy sent me from his phone. I tried enlarging it on my photo program. It wouldn't really go larger than 5x7.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 6:49pm

I have a Sony Cybershot from like 2007. So, it isn't extremely great anymore. But, I agree that the zoom is fantastic on that. That's how I accidentally got my profile pic on here.

[ArtMan]

Posted: 12/27/13 at 8:00am

The night and low light pictures are probably the only thing I like about my Nikon Cool Pix. The rest I'm kind of disappointed. The one thing you need to watch out for is when you decide which model to purchase, make sure they are not releasing a newer version. When I bought my Nikon, an upgrade newer model came out less than a month later. For a few dollars more I could have purchased the newer version, which had improvements on the one I bought. I contacted Nikon on this and they blew me off. So if I purchase a new camera in the future, it will not be their brand.

[javero]

Posted: 12/27/13 at 8:30am

Jane,

I'm old fashioned so I still shoot with a 1962 Fujica 35 Auto-M film camera every chance I get. After film processing, I take the negatives into the office and scan them with a film scanner, then burn the images in multiple sizes to CD. I just don't like the pixelated or blurry look of some enlarged images that were post-processed from smaller digital samples originally. Of course, I use the smart phone camera when I gotta get it done quickly. I'm just weird that way.

[Jane2]

Posted: 12/27/13 at 8:51am

Not weird! Good for you Javero. One theory is that you can't get the same quality images digitally that you can with film. Not many photographers still use film. And no matter how many megapixels you have, it doesn't guarantee quality prints.

I'm not too concerned with the above, since I don't strive for realism in my work. When I started with photography in the 70's I had my own darkroom in my apt. Did my own developing and printing. Loved it so much that I often didn't come out of the darkroom for whole days at a time. Those were some of the best times in my life!