New Camera, Dream

[xoxoxoBruce]

That's a toy, Steve....check out the first two posts here; http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=3511&page=163

[busterb]

Originally Posted by Elspode

Buster, don't forget about monopods. They come in real handy for stabilizing the camera when shooting. I don't have shaky hands, but I still get better pics since I bought one.

I have one I made to use w/camcorder for "Shine" I ordered one yesterday, a Trailblazer Monopod.

[busterb]

That was first made to hold an unbrella for shade while welding. It worked out well setting on milk carton in back of truck for parade(ies?)

[glatt]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

Yes, they would be. If Bruce bought any of the Nikon DSLR bodies all his lenses should work. The reasons are obvious. (It lets the manufacturers reuse parts of their existing design, it gives them a pile of lenses they can sell new customers right out of the gate, and it gives existing customers a disincentive to buy a camera from another company.)

Actually, it depends on how old the lenses are. For most people, the old lenses will work fine. But if they are manual focus lenses, they won't work perfectly with the DSLR bodies. If they are more modern autofocus, they will work just fine. There are charts that show compatibility. The big problem is the DSLR bodies can't change the aperature inside the lenses to get the exposure right, even if you are willing to focus manually. That leaves you having to carry around an external light meter and doing the math to figure out what aperature to use with the shutter speed you set.

I've got a beautiful old Nikon FE (circa 1983) and a big set of manual focus lenses. When the Nikon D50 came out, I was all excited until I read the lens compatibility charts.

[breakingnews]

Don't forget about cropped image sensors in most of the consumer-end dSLRs.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

So much for the toy Nikons like the one I have.

$4800
I just broke down and bought a Canon 540 to replace my missing Canon A10, as well as upgrade from 3.1 to 6 MP in a compact camera.

Pluses: Low price (under $200). I bought a tabletop tripod and camera case to put myself over $199 and get %10 back as a gift card. Smaller in size than my A10, but with familiar shape and buttons. This will mean a smaller learning curve for Marci and me.

Minuses: For about the same price I could have gotten a Panasonic Lumix LZ5 with anti-shake and a 6x zoom.

What decided me against the Lumix were the CNet ratings, with the A540 tagged at 7.6 and the Lumix 6.6. I was concerned about low light performance and I was counting on the Lumix anti-shake, but the review specifically downgraded the Lumix low light performance. I'm still not sure if I wrote the Lumix off too soon, but so far I like the new Canon as much as I liked the old one. Short of finding and borrowing an LZ5 from someone, there really is no way to try one out to make the comparison on my own.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by glatt

Actually, it depends on how old the lenses are. ~big snip

Mine are all auto lenses from the 90's.

[Bullitt]

Originally Posted by richlevy

$4800
I just broke down and bought a Canon 540 to replace my missing Canon A10, as well as upgrade from 3.1 to 6 MP in a compact camera.

Pluses: Low price (under $200). I bought a tabletop tripod and camera case to put myself over $199 and get %10 back as a gift card. Smaller in size than my A10, but with familiar shape and buttons. This will mean a smaller learning curve for Marci and me.

Minuses: For about the same price I could have gotten a Panasonic Lumix LZ5 with anti-shake and a 6x zoom.

What decided me against the Lumix were the CNet ratings, with the A540 tagged at 7.6 and the Lumix 6.6. I was concerned about low light performance and I was counting on the Lumix anti-shake, but the review specifically downgraded the Lumix low light performance. I'm still not sure if I wrote the Lumix off too soon, but so far I like the new Canon as much as I liked the old one. Short of finding and borrowing an LZ5 from someone, there really is no way to try one out to make the comparison on my own.

CNET is not exactly the best reviewer of cameras towards the upper range.. You should stick to DPreview or Steve's DigiCams for the best information and most thorough testing and comparison.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Bullitt

CNET is not exactly the best reviewer of cameras towards the upper range.. You should stick to DPreview or Steve's DigiCams for the best information and most thorough testing and comparison.

Well, DPReview user's gave the Lumix a slightly higher rating, but with only 4 samples compared to 16 samples for the Canon. There was no expert review.

Steve's Digicams gave the Canon a good review, but the Lumix a 'qualified good' review mentioning image quality. It also pointed out that the Lumix had no speaker for audio playback, something that I use when shooting short videos.

I really would have liked the 6x and image stabilization, but in the end I went with something I knew I would be happy with rather than taking a chance.

[richlevy]

OK, this is funny. Marci just found my Canon A10 today. It's been missing for over two months and she finds it 4 days after I bought a replacement.

I am not taking back the Canon A540, unless it's to replace it for the Panasonic.

[zippyt]

OK, this is funny. Marci just found my Canon A10 today.

Funny as in HA HA funny ??!!??
Do I make you laugh ???!!??

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

I have an image stabilization camera, the Panasonic Lumix. I strongly recommend it, not just for people with shaky hands, but for everyone! The Canon cameras marked "IS" have it. The Kodak doesn't, I think.

With the Panasonic, you can literally jump up and down while shooting and still get a clear image. The only way it doesn't work is with a long optical zoom.

So I can recommend adding any of the Lumix family. The one I have is the DMC-FZ7. It is not the most compact camera in the family, but does have 10x optical zoom. Not everyone really needs that kind of zoom, and I think 3-4x is a long enough zoom for practical purposes.

Hey Undertoad, I'm thinking about taking the plunge and getting a new camera. My trusty old Coolpix 950 is showing its age. My knowledge of digital cameras is about 7-8 years out of date, so maybe this is a dumb question, but how's the battery management of the Lumix? I'm used to a having a couple of sets of rechargable AAs ready to go when they are eaten by the hungry Coolpix. What's the setup with the Lumix? Do you carry extras with you, or do you have to find a place to plug the camera in? In everyday use, are batteries ever a problem?

I've gotten used to things like 3-4 seconds of shutter lag and batteries being eaten like candy, so I don't really know what is standard in cameras today. I know I want a camera with about 5-6 megapixels, image stabilization, great quality images, less than a second of shutter lag, and a nice zoom lens. Good close-ups would be nice, and my pipe dream would be to have a swivel body like the Coolpix. Nobody makes swivel bodies any more, which is crazy, since they just make sense.

[Undertoad]

The Lumix comes with its own custom Li-ion battery pack which is slightly more compact than 2 AAs. That is a shame, but the camera itself is less power-hungry than the 950, which I also had. This seems to take twice as much usage to run out of juice on one battery session. The 950 just ate batteries and ate and ate... especially on constant auto-focus.

[glatt]

My wife just had a birthday on Sunday. She didn't say she wanted a camera, but I thought it would be good for her to have a little one she could keep in her purse to pull out and take snapshots of the kids etc. I looked around for a while and finally settled on the Fujifilm Finepix F20. I'm really impressed with it.

It's a pretty standard point and shoot with a 3x zoom and 6MP. It's almost exactly the same size as a deck of cards, so it's pretty small. The two things that make it really stand out is that it's about half the price of a similar Nikon or Canon, and it has a better sensor. It was only $148 from ButterflyPhoto through Amazon. The sensor is nice. Fujifilm has figured out how to crank up the sensitivity of its sensors (ISO 2000) without having a ton of noise ruin the shot. This allows you to take pictures inside in relatively low light situations without a flash, and there is very little noise at all. This camera is not reviewed at DPReview.com, but its bigger brother, the F30 is. They share the same sensor, so a review for the F30 applies to the F20 in almost all ways. (Only major difference is the higher available shutter speed of the F30 and the software cranks the sensitivity of the F30 up even more.)

Anyway, if you are looking for a simple to use point and shoot camera that fits in your pocket or purse and delivers a great image for a low price, you should look seriously at this one.

Only complaint is that it uses a different kind of memory card, the XD card, so if you have a bunch of SD cards and card readers floating around, you can't use them.