Basic Digital Camera--Options?

My old Kodak EasyShare CD33 digital camera just bit the dust and drank too much alcohol (HEET)...literally. Phat and i were trying to get the grit off the lens and get it to open on Mt. Hood, but the poor old thing just decided to give up. I'll bury it in the backyard tonight

Anyway, i am looking for a lightweight, water resistant/shock resistant replacement with superior battery life (non-rechargeable..actual batteries only) for $200.00 or less. Opinions on the current state of the market,and my options would be appreciated, please.

BF

I've had good luck with both the canon and olympus cameras. I like the canons for nice pics and quickness, I like the olympus SW series for sheer ruggedness (shock and waterproof).

Most of my pics on this board hae been taken with an Olympus 725SW 7.1 mp camera. the newer ones are faster and take better pics. they have great battery life.

There are a few on ebay for relatively cheap, search "Olympus SW"

Any major brand compact digital camera that costs $200 will be fine. Buy on features.

I would look for optical image stabilization -- it's a huge help for a hiking camera. Many of the Canon and Panasonic models have it. I also like a wider lens -- around 28mm or 30mm "equivalent" as the copywriters like to put it. The usual 35mm-equivalent isn't particularly wide.

Another voice in support of trying to find the widest lens you can - which is never all that wide on a P&S but every little bit helps.

I don't think brand makes the slightest difference, it's the Indian, not the arrow.

I think i would consider something in the superzoom category...they combine the best features of point and shoot and versatitlity in focal length. I used to shoot a Minolta and was very pleased with it. Another thing I would look at is battery type...AA's are available almost anywhere and eliminate the frustration of a proprietary battery going dead at the most inopportune time, as always seems to be the case.

Here's a link to a great camera review site:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/
They give a lot of details about the cameras reviewed,as well as suggested prices, so if you do your homework, you should get a camera with the features that are important to you.

I havea canon powershot that I love--not only does it take some nice pictures, but it is very small and lightweight. THose are big issues for me on the trail. IThe model Ihave is the 780SI I think...

You can check out the photos on the website

I just returned from a five day backpack with over 140 pictures, no chance to recharge batteries and I am thrilled with the performance of my Canon Powershot SD 1100. Light and dependable and decent pictures. Digital photography is certainly a brand new ball game.

I agree. Getting the big zoom will help you get better shots of the animals.

I hate lithium batteries. Sure, they let cameras be smaller and lighter, but I have yet to see a camera that offers improved battery life over a nimh AA batteries. The only thing they may offer is improved recycle time between shots where you use the flash. It also really sucks when a lithium battery dies on you and you know you're screwed if you don't have your charger and you're not close to a power outlet. Even on a hike without my solar AA charger, I can pull AA batteries out of my gps and flashlight. It's really nice to have a common battery type.

My favorite camera is the now discontinued Canon a720is. I've taken over 700 shots on a set of batteries and barely put a dent in the battery life indicator. The thing takes great pictures too, and does incredible things with a common firmware crack.

Since I can't get a a720is, I think I'll get a Canon sx120is. I'm going to have to get it soon too since Canon has been shifting all their old AA cameras to lithium. Unfortunately it's neither water or shock resistant, but you can't get that for $200.

bf2:

Uh-oh. Stumbled on this recent article about a new category of camera called an EVIL camera, for Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens.



Several of these cameras (article here) have been used/recommended by people on the forum before, but just not labelled EVIL, since they're making me feel dumb for recently buying a newer-model DSLR -- since weight/size are so important in bp-ing.

You might have to wait awhile, bigfoot, for the price to drop to meet your parameters. I'll wait til Canon (or Nikon) gets into this market, too.

What you've just posted - a photo of the new Panasonic GF-1 camera is really, really interesting. For those of us who travel the backcountry and want to really capture it's beauty in detail, yet get frustrated with the typical point and shoot, yet refuse to carry 10-20 pounds of camera equipment, this is really, really interesting. Probably the best small point and shoot on the planet right now is the Canon S90 which is only about 6 oz but has a larger sensor than most and a fast lens, along with double adjustment dials. It essentially gives both the functionality of a point and shoot as well as controls familiar to dslr users, and better quality than other point and shoot cameras, especially in low light situations. Cost about $400. But the awesome thing about this new 4/3 format introduced recently by Panasonic and Olympus is that it uses a sensor about 5 times greater in size than even the Canon S90. Anyway, the cameras are larger and heavier than the tiny point and shoot cameras for sure by maybe 5 to 8 ounces but you get near DSLR capability and quality. Very interesting. I'm looking at this very carefully and might move in this direction. Thinking about taking a photography class here at Wazzu also

Check out these links:

Moonshots by Craig Mod with the new Panasonic Lumix GF-1 4/3 Camera
Especially those of you who carry a "kitchen-sink" DSLR kit, look toward the bottom of his review page to see the extent of Craig's total equipment kit - relatively small camera, dinky yet superb lens, extra battery - wow! Now check out the landscapes at the link below along with his review.

Landscapes by David Clapp using the new Panasonic Lumix GF-1 4/3 Camera

packlite

Thanks for the links Charles, that's some fine work!

Don't know if everybody caught this yesterday but Oly announced their small, affordable Pen series camera, the E-PL1. It's similar to the GH1 in size and weight and has a popup flash missing from the other Pens. Importantly it takes the same brilliant EFV as the E-P2 and has in-body IS.

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1501&intCmp=part2_button

The body and a pancake prime will weight less than a Canon G11.

Also announced were a 14-150 zoom and a 9-18 ultra wide angle, which will cost a lot less than Panny's 7-14.

Good times.

Cheers,

I would really like to learn to take pictures like that with my P/S digital camera. I have an Olympus SP-350 and it has a manual mode and can shoot RAW images. However, the manual doesn't do a good job of explaining how to use the manual mode.

I learned photography on a Nikon FM and loved having the built in light meter and being able to adjust shutter speed and f-stop but I have no idea how to do that on this digital camera.

I would like to take a course but I don't want to spend a lot of time re-learning about light and composition since I know that stuff. I guess having a refresher course I could always pick up some new information from a new teacher.

Any other recommendations - Packlite, Kevonionia?

Finally bought a new digital camera:
http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/z/finepix_z33wp/

Waterproof, shock resistant,very light weight, sealed lens, good battery life and takes great pics/video. Not the best, but the best for what i need it to do.

BF

"World's smallest and lightest waterproof digital camera".

This is from the one Bigfoot mentioned above. Wow!

I'm not sure if it's accurate or not, but it is small, light and water/shock-resistant.

From the Fuji Film site:
"* World's smallest waterproof digital camera with 3x optical zoom and 10 million + effective pixels as of January 2009, Fujifilm research."

Specs:
ions
Model

FinePix Z33WP
Number of effective pixels*1

10.0 million pixels
CCD sensor

1/2.3-inch CCD
Storage media

* Internal memory (Approx. 50MB)
* SD memory card
* SDHC memory card*2

File format

Still image:

JPEG (Exif Ver 2.2*3)
Movie:

AVI (Motion JPEG) with sound
Audio:

WAVE format, Monaural sound

(Design rule for Camera File system compliant / DPOF-compatible)
Number of recorded pixels

Still image: 3,648 x 2,736 (10M) / 3,648 x 2,432 (3:2 format) / 2,592 x 1,944 / 2,048 x 1,536 / 1,600 x 1,200 / 640 x 480 pixels
Lens

Fujinon 3x optical zoom lens, F3.7 (Wide) - F4.2 (Telephoto)
Lens focal length

f=6.3 - 18.9mm, equivalent to 35 - 105mm on a 35mm camera
Digital zoom

Approx. 5.7x
Aperture

F3.7 - F8.0 (Wide) F4.2 - F9.0 (Telephoto)
Focus distance (from lens surface)

Normal:

* Wide: Approx. 60cm / 2.0ft. to infinity
* Telephoto: Approx. 60cm / 2.0ft. to infinity

Macro:

* Wide: Approx. 8cm - 80cm / 3.2in.- 2.6ft.
* Telephoto: Approx. 60cm - 3.0m / 2.0ft. - 9.8ft.

Sensitivity

Auto / Equivalent to ISO 64 / 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600 (Standard Output Sensitivity)
Exposure control

TTL 256-zones metering
Exposure mode

Programmed AE
Shooting modes

SR Auto, Auto, Natural Light, Natural Light & with Flash, Manual, Anti-blur, Successive movie

SP:

Underwater, Auction, Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night, Night (Tripod), Sunset, Snow, Beach, Museum, Party, Flower, Text

Image Stabilizer

Anti-blur
Shutter speed

(Auto mode) 1/4sec. to 1/1000sec., (All other modes) 3sec. to 1/1000sec.
Continuous shooting

* Top-3 (max 0.6 frames/sec.)
* Final-3 (max 0.6 frames/sec.)
* Long-period

Focus

Auto focus (Multi, Center)
White balance

Automatic scene recognition

Preset: Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm white), Fluorescent light (Cool white), Incandescent light
Self-timer

Approx. 10sec. / 2sec. delay, Couple Timer, Group Timer
Flash

Auto flash

Effective range (ISO AUTO):

Normal

* Wide: Approx. 70cm - 3.9m / 2.3ft. - 12.7ft.
* Telephoto: Approx. 70cm - 3.4m / 2.3ft. - 11.1ft.

Macro

* Approx. 30cm - 80cm / 1.0ft. - 2.6ft.

Flash modes

* Red-eye removal OFF: Auto, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro.
* Red-eye removal ON: Red-eye Reduction Auto, Red-eye Reduction & Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Red-eye Reduction & Slow Synchro.

LCD monitor

2.7-inch, Approx. 230,000 dots, TFT color LCD monitor, Approx. 97% coverage
Movie recording

640 x 480 pixels / 320 x 240 pixels (30 frames/sec.) with monaural sound

* * Digital zoom function can be selected during movie recording.

Photography functions

SR Auto (Scene Recognition Auto), Face Detection (with Auto Red-eye removal), Framing guideline, Frame No. memory, Silent mode
Playback functions

Face Detection (with Red-eye removal), Slideshow, Trimming, Trimming for blog, Playback type, Multi-frame playback (with Micro Thumbnail), Sorting by date, Image rotate, Voice Memo
Video output

NTSC / PAL selectable
Digital interface

USB 2.0 High-Speed
Power supply

NP-45 Li-ion battery (included)
Dimensions

92.0 (W) x 59.6 (H) x 20.6 (D) mm / 3.6 (W) x 2.3 (H) x 0.8 (D) in. (excluding accessories and attachments)
Weight

Approx. 110g / 3.9oz. (excluding accessories, battery and memory card)

* *1 Number of effective pixels: The number of pixels on the image sensor which receive input light through the optical lens, and which are effectively reflected in the final output data of the still image.
* *2 Please see the Fujifilm website to check memory card compatibility.
* *3 Exif 2.2 is a digital camera file format that contains a variety of shooting information for optimal printing.

Memory Card Capacity and Image Quality / Size
Number of images / recording time
Modes Still image Movie
Number of recorded pixels 3,648 x 2,736 3,648 x 2,432 (3:2) 2,592 x 1,944 2,048 x 1,536 1,600 x 1,200 640 x 480 Movie recording time
Quality JPEG FINE JPEG NORMAL JPEG JPEG JPEG JPEG JPEG VGA (30fps) QVGA (30fps)
Internal Memory (approx. 50MB) 10 20 23 40 62 78 321 56sec. 1min. 29sec.
SD memory card 512MB 100 190 220 380 600 750 3,090 9min. 14min.
1GB 200 390 440 770 1,210 1,510 6,190 18min. 28min.
2GB 400 790 900 1,550 2,390 2,960 12,430 35min. 57min.
SDHC memory card 4GB 800 1,590 1,790 3,100 4,770 5,900 24,820 71min.* 114min.*
8GB 1,610 3,190 3,600 6,220 9,570 11,850 49,800 143min.* 230min.*

* Actual number of frames and recording time varies depending on the type of memory card or shooting conditions.
* * A movie recording will stop automatically when the movie file size becomes approx. 2GB.

BF

Popular category. Sony has decided to jump into the fray.

Sony announces waterproof digicam

The intriguing features for me are the 25mm wide angle (sadly absent in most WP cameras) and touchscreen, as well as no megapixel overreach. And oh yeah, a pink option.

Cheers,