JT4x4
The Mud Pit => General => Topic started by: rocket on January 01, 2008, 10:02:24 PM
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I know some of you have pretty nice (or fricken awesom) cameras. Mine is currently suffering a software crash (wont boot up) and I'm looking for a new one. Last time i had it repaired by the factory it coast $180. I can get a pretty good point-and-shoot for that much. I'm looking for an upgrade though. Something sub-SLR (due to cost restraints) like one of the "advanced" level of cameras. Any suggestions? What are you using and what do you like/dislike about it?
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I'm using a konika/minolta point and shoot that I'll probably be upgrading soon, and I'm sad to see that they are now out of the digital camera business. Sony bought their digital camera division a few years back now.
My primary concern when purchasing it was shutter lag.
I can't stand a camera that doesn't take a pic when you press the button.
We previously had a canon that I could only take blurry pics with. Its shutter lag was so long, that you would press the button, hear a click, think it's done, and start to move, and then a measurable amount of time later, it would actually take the pic. I just couldn't get used to it.
At the time I was shopping, I found that all Sonys were the same way.
My co-worker has a Panasonic with a Leica lense. It's point and shoot, but has quite a few bells and whistles for doing manual adjustments. The lense is rather large, and doesnt retract to flat, which makes it not your best choice for a pocket cam, but it takes REALLY nice pics. He decided on that based on a lot of research.
www.dpreview.com (http://www.dpreview.com) is a great source of reviews and sample photos
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a cannon 8mpix
$350.00
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mine is a nikon coolpix S10
10X optical zoom
great macro mode
great landscape mode
not too slow on the shutter
and tons of features I'm to lazy to figure out how to use
took a little while to get used to the rotating lens peice and I wish it had a viewfinder for bright light situtuations.
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My primary concern when purchasing it was shutter lag.
I can't stand a camera that doesn't take a pic when you press the button.
We previously had a canon that I could only take blurry pics with. Its shutter lag was so long, that you would press the button, hear a click, think it's done, and start to move, and then a measurable amount of time later, it would actually take the pic.
At the time I was shopping, I found that all Sonys were the same way.
X10. Except....it is ALL about what YOU need YOUR camera to do for YOU. What are you planning on using it for? Action? Still shots? Good all-around shots?
Shutter speed is HUGE. How long does it take to take a pic when you push the button? Look for things like image stabilizers built into the point and shoot designs (they compensate for shaking hands or unstable footing while you are snapping a shot ;) ), and a fast autofocus. It all goes along with shutter speed.
It really is all personal preferance. Know what you want before you go in somewhere, and then tell them what you are looking for:
Are you going to be making prints of the photos you take? If so, in what size? 8x10's require over 10 megapixel for startling clear picture prints, usually. If you just want to be able to post pics on message boards etc, something with less megapixels will be fine. My little Cybershot only has 4.1, my big Nikon has 10.2.
What are you willing to settle for (megapixel size, waterproof or no, size of camera itself - because sometimes really small is too small and it'll pick up on slightest shimmy and shiver - among other things), what do you need, and what you think might be easiest to use?
The more complicated stuff can be fun if you have the time, but when you are running a trail, are you really going to have time to set the f-stops, adjust the exposure, etc? LOL. A good autofocus can be your best friend in a point n shoot.
Quiet honestly, spend some time in the stores, actually taking pictures with the display models, and some places let you print out a photo. Never buy it unless you have tried it, except of course if there is a locked in gaurentee return no charge within X amount of days. You can virtually find something you like in ANY price range....literally.
The old camera I had was a Sony Cybershot. Not a bad camera, except I have high standards and 1) don't like blurry pictures, and 2) hate sitting there waiting for the click of a picture, or waiting for the camera to reset for another shot. Made action shots hell. But...it was of a design from 3 years ago. Maybe they have improved?
Either way.....good luck!
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or waiting for the camera to reset for another shot. Made action shots hell.
Oh yeah, I meant to talk about this in my post.
Although mine has an extremely quick auto-focus, and extremely quick shutter, its start up time (from from "off" to actually taking a pic) is kind of lacking, and it's storage lag, dormant lag, between shots lag (called different things by different manufacturers) is extremely lacking.
These things are certainly what I will be shopping for in my next cam.
Al
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I agree with you on storage lag. Reg and I have the same camera, a Kodak easy share, which takes good pics, but it's pretty slow. It's storage time sucks. I'm definitely taking that into consideration on my next one.
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1-G cards?
fixed
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What? ???
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i speel wierd sorry.
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What? ???
Capacity of storage....maximized by using a card. LOL. 1G doesn't hold as much as my 4G does though :P :-* and it doesn't really affect the ability of a camera to reset after each picture I don't think.
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well
there it is
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Si, il capito.
Italian for: "yes, I understand"
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si, comprehendo
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the card CAN effect storage lag, there are different speed cards, but buying the fastest card you can find (of course, more expensive) will only help so much. The nicer cameras have enough RAM to keep a certain number of pictures in RAM while it's in the process of writing it to storage, and therefore (along with other factors) can reset much quicker in between pics
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very true,
like having 500 gig hard drive with only 1/4 gig RAM and running digital wireless
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the card CAN effect storage lag, there are different speed cards, but buying the fastest card you can find (of course, more expensive) will only help so much. The nicer cameras have enough RAM to keep a certain number of pictures in RAM while it's in the process of writing it to storage, and therefore (along with other factors) can reset much quicker in between pics
Oooooooo I didn't know that. Ty.
See you learn something new every day! ;)
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I've come up w/ 3 cameras i really like.
(http://a.img-dpreview.com/reviews/canonG9/images/canon_g9_3q-001.jpg)
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong9/ (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong9/)
and
(http://a.img-dpreview.com/reviews/CanonS5is/Images/CanonS5_3q-001.jpg)
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons5is/ (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons5is/)
and
(http://a.img-dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicFZ18/images/pana_fz18_3q-001.jpg)
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz18/ (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz18/)
any ideas? I'm planning on going to Ritz camera to talk to someone and play w/ them. They only thing i dont' like about the first one (canon s5) is it's lack of RAW format. Any of you have any experience w/ RAW format pics?
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From my personal experiences, I would lean heavily towards the Panasonic. I can not speak highly enough about the Leica lenses.
My co-worker who has a (smaller) panasonic, uses a 4GB card, and shoots ONLY in RAW.
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i would go with any camera that you can interchange lenses and flashes.
like one-eye's
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that gets you into a whole new price class of camera, like the kind where you have to decide weather you'd rather have a new camera, or new sliders & skids... :)
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true. but it depends on what you want. like everything, it's all personal judgement. i'd vote for the second camera.
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true. but it depends on what you want. like everything, it's all personal judgement. i'd vote for the second camera.
I don't know about you, but I'm not made of money. As this is an unplanned camera purchace/upgrade, I havn't been saving for it. I would love a DSLR, but I'm going to settle for a compact (or DSLR-like) for now. My knowelge/skill w/ camers is still not to the level to were I would get my money's worth from a DSLR. Someday. Right now I'm lookig for some zoom and some manual settings I can learn with. Besides, extra lenses cost more than a good set of sliders, FYI.
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i know, i was just posting a webwheeling shout out to ONE-EYE and his camera.
i like the second camera still.
i know you dont have a money tree jeremy.
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i know, i was just posting a webwheeling shout out to ONE-EYE and his camera.
i like the second camera still.
i know you dont have a money tree jeremy.
I'm leaning a lot to the second one (the S5). I played w/ it for a while at best buy (was frusturated because best buys power supply kept shorting out, and i had to restart the camera fevery 2 min), it is is pretty nice; good feel, lots of features, menus seem well laid out. I havn't found the other two in a store yet, but i think i could be happy with the S5 (unless for some reason i need RAW images).
As far as money, i need to marry a working woman (can you say dual income) so i can spend her money on the morgage and have more of my own to play with :D:D
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As far as money, i need to marry a working woman (can you say dual income) so i can spend her money on the morgage and have more of my own to play with :D:D
Ummm yeah you can do that...Scott did. I made twice the money he did when I met him....BUT
Then you start transferring, you start having problems with daycare, and you generally start getting annoyed that you went from making $70K a year down to $8/hr...and then it is "why bother working? I have my hands full with deployments and kids"
*Grins* so you might as well stay single LMAO! ;D ;)
Did you decide for sure what camera yet?
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But since i'm staying here (hopefuly) no worries about the tranfer thing :D Just got to meet a nice girl.
As far as the camera thing goes, the S5 is my favorite (based on price and its the only one i've auctlly played with), but i havn't seen a print. just the tuff from the review site. the review seems pretty through, and w/ 8MP, i'm sure my pics will be fine. I dont' know of a local place to look at more cameras. Ritz has to special order them, BB only has the S5. Any one know of local camera shops?
I'm 90% sure about getting the S5. It will do what i need it to do, and has the ability for me to play around and add some lenses/filters.
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I spent about an hour today in best buy playing with cameras, and I've got to say, Sony has come a LONG way since my last purchase.
Base on what I currently feel is most important to me, my next cam is going to be a sony.
The few Panasonics that Best Buy has, are incredibly slow, and though I know that my co-workers is reasonably fast, it's nowhere near as fast as even the cheapest sony that I played with. The lenses, even on the teeny tiny sony are pretty highly reviewed, much like the panasonic lenses.
for me, the hands on test was a hands down win to the various sonys
as for the rest of the discussion, you've gotta meet yourself a nice wheelin' chick. I guess we need to start recruiting single chicks for the club. :)
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what bout said "chick" when talking at the garage al?
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x2
:D
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wasn't too sure if you knew who i was talking about. but i was hoping
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sorry. no idea what you're talking about.
:-X
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I think he is refering to the CTJeep chich that wheels.
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I said, "I'M SORRY, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!"
hahahha ::)
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:D
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hahahaaha
DUH!!!
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hmmmm, hmmm, hmmmmmmmmm
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I finally ordered it. I am getting the Canon S5 IS (#2 in the pics). I'm also getting an accessory kit that includes lenses and other stuff:
(http://www.beachcamera.com/Assets/Product/images400/8492D82F15C64E7886C54C17109E7884.jpg)
(http://www.beachcamera.com/Assets/Product/images400/986CDC206FF9413D961918123EAD35D5.jpg)
http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=CNACKD56 (http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=CNACKD56)
I had them swap the card reader and card for a high speed card (faster time for picture taking) since i have a built-in card reader in my computer.
Not as cheap as i was hoping, but all the bargin sites were on back order for 2-4 weeks. I'm already missing having a camera, and don't want to wait that long just to order.
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wow, that is sexy
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Dude SWEET!
Now we's got three cameras in the club that we can operate during trail rides! ;) Congrats Jeremy!
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Congrats, J. That thing is nice!
You can take pictures, I'll buy rock sliders. Although for what you probably spent on that, you could probably buy both of us sliders!
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Congrats, J. That thing is nice!
You can take pictures, I'll buy rock sliders. Although for what you probably spent on that, you could probably buy both of us sliders!
and a tank of gas!
If i didnt' get the accessory kit, i could have saved a bit, but i need a SD card (my broke sony took MS) and really wanted the lenses
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Guess what was on my door step when i got home today? Nope, not a flaming bag of poo. My camera! I still am waiting on my SD card and the wide angle lens, but got the rest today!! :D:D:D
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hrm, then I wonder who got the flaming bag of poo that I'd left for you?
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So that's what that was! Eeewwww!