My First Digital Camera

[debc]

I still love my old Nikon FM 2, but have finally decided to buy a digital

camera.

I'll be traveling to Vietnam in a few weeks and intend to bring both cameras

along, so I'd like something easy and compact that takes great snapshots. Once

I get the hang of this, I'll consider the digital SLR. What should I buy?

 

Deb

[dougsmiley]

Canon Powershot G7. It was my first digicam, it's small, gives you lots of control, and most importantly, takes amazingly good images. It doesn't shoot raw , but since this is your first try at digital, I don't think you 'll miss it-the jpegs work fine. Worst part is learning all that the camera is capable of doing, and that's a lot.

[ronald_moravec1]

Nikon D40 or D40x. It will grow with you, it a real reflex and costs the same as G7. It just doesn`t have a lens that shoots in and out, has lens shades, and shoots raw for later .

 

It is smaller though.

[jacob_brown]

Ronald must have missed the part where you said you'd consider a DSLR later....

 

Anyway.

 

Easy, compact, great shots?

 

Canon A710 IS - a 7-megapixel digicam with built-in image stabilization, a 6x zoom and a 2.5" LCD screen. Sells for around $260 American.

 

Shots taken with the A710 IS:

 

http://www.flickr.com/cameras/canon/powershot_a710_is/

 

Reviews:

 

<http://www.digitalcamerareview.com/default.asp?newsID=2981&review=canon+powershot+a710+is>

 

"The A710 IS retains everything that made the A700 a best buy digicam and adds the one element that was missing; optical image stabilization - making an already excellent digicam substantially better. I?ve used every ?A? series Canon digicam since the A20 and I?ve enjoyed all of them for their winning combination of usability, practicality, functionality, dependability, durability, and excellent performance for price ratio. The A710 IS is an almost ideal general use digital camera that will appeal to everyone from beginners and casual shooters to advanced amateurs and even pros looking for a dependable high-performance personal pocket camera. It?s like a mini S3 IS with a big dose of G7 attitude. The A710 IS is my hands-down favorite digital camera of 2006, and I predict consumers will buy this digicam in amazing numbers."

 

<http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/A710/A710A.HTM>

 

"Outright prolonged applause for the introduction of image stabilization in the A-Series. Canon's retention of an optical viewfinder on the PowerShot A710, no matter how spare, is also to be applauded. Startup and shutdown are quick and the menu option you need is quickly at hand, too. The Canon A710 has enough megapixels for excellent resolution in enlargements without risking much image noise. The A710's excellent 6x zoom is impressive, and a great argument in favor of picking a slightly larger camera over those sexy slim cameras, with great corner sharpness and very little chromatic aberration. A variable LCD would have made the Canon PowerShot A710 more useful to me, and I would have appreciated a live histogram, but that's just quibbling. The Canon A710 is a very nice piece of equipment to have at hand, which makes it an easy Dave's Pick."

[lester_hawksby1]

If you use an SLR, you will find many things about digital compacts difficult to live with. Poor viewfinder, fiddly manual controls, poor AF and no usable manual focus, and a long shutter lag for starters. I think Ronald's recommendation of a d40 was spot on - it's probably easier to get good snaps out of than a compact, not too big, and will even take your FM2's lenses (unmetered, but this is not a big problem on digital).

[les_lammers]

Have a look here. The little Fuji excells in low light.

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00LuwH

[rjacksonphoto]

I like the pocketable Canon SD800IS. 28mm (eqiv.) f/2.8 lens, spot metering, exposure compensation, slow sync flash. Very good image quality.

[don_durham]

For someone already familiar with an FM2 the ONLY choice is a D40 (don't bother with the D40x.) I've recommended them to several people who were frustrated trying to take "snapshots" with the compacts. And you can grow with it.

[nancychuang]

Hi Deborah,

 

<p>I have an A630 and love it! I haven't looked at the A710 so I'm not sure what the differences are other than less zoom and IS. I'm decently steady at 1/8 and respectable at 1/4 with flash, so IS isn't a deciding factor for me. It's not the smallest camera--my Olympus Stylus Epic was lighter and slimmer--but it's more compact than my film SLR and just a pleasure to use. The swivel screen is a fun feature because it helps you compose shots at weird angles AND you can flip it out towards your subjects so they can watch themselves--kids really enjoy this, so it's a fun option for traveling. Full manual controls are great--I never use it any other way. The only things I wish it had (well, there would be more but that would be pushing it for an inexpensive P&S) are a flash option a step between medium and low, and an electronic viewfinder.

 

<P>I just bought the camera in November so previous travels all used film, but these shots from <a href="http://www.nancychuang.com/travel/honduras/index.html" target="blank">Honduras</a> and <a href="http://www.nancychuang.com/travel/taiwan/index.html" target="blank">Taiwan</a> are almost entirely shot with the A630.