Apologies in advance....

[Corry]

...but...I must ask this OH so popular question, AGAIN. I know there was recently a thread similar to this, but for the life of me, I can't find it. A friend of mine recently had a birthday...her brother approached me today (he still hasn't gotten her anything) and wanted to know about digital cameras, cuz that's what she asked for...he wants to stay below the $250 range if possible, and she just wants a point and shoot. Something easy to use, but takes nice pictures. I've been browsing dpreview, but it's tough for me to decide from that. I still don't understand what to look for in sensors and stuff like that. Sooooo....any suggestions??? Or, any tips on what I should look for?

 

[tr0gd0o0r]

Biggest sensor, with the most mega-pixels, with the biggest optical zoom. I'm sure that someone will probably get a little more in depth here, but i think thats the basics.

 

[Floyd]

A lot of people mistakenly think that the image quality directly relates to the amount of megapixels but that's not totally true, the most important thing is to get one with a really shlt hot colour card and a fair amount of megapixels.

 

[Ant]

That's pretty easy. I bought my g/f a digital P&S a few days ago.

Just tell him to go buy a Canon powershot, either the A75, A85 or A95 are all great P&S digitals. Just pick the one in the relevant price range and she'll love it.

 

[Floyd]

tell him to bauy an Olympus Camedia because they're good you could probably get a real cheap C4000 in the US now as they've been out for a fair while.

 

[Ant]

tell him to bauy an Olympus Camedia because they're good you could probably get a real cheap C4000 in the US now as they've been out for a fair while.

Yeah. I've got an Olympus...C750uz and I'm very pleased with it, so an Oly was difinitely on my short list when buying for my g/f but the Canons felt a little better put together to me. All the Olympus cameras in that price range just felt a bit more plasticy. I've no doubt they'd perform well though.

 

[Corry]

Thanks everyone!!! Anyone else have any reccomendations, keep em coming, cuz I won't see this person til Monday, so I've got a little more time to research.

 

[mygrain]

I have a Sony Cybershot and it takes GREAT pics! I paid a little over $250 about 3years ago. I've seen the better models run for a lot less recently so I bet he could get one for under $200 and get her a fat memory card and bag...

Oh BTW mine still works like new too.

 

[ahelg]

Biggest sensor, with the most mega-pixels, with the biggest optical zoom. I'm sure that someone will probably get a little more in depth here, but i think thats the basics.

Go for this and you might en up buying a camera with a heck of a lot of noise at even the lowest ISO levels. In this case it's beter to buy less megapixels.

 

[lazarus219]

i like the kodak range for P&S- they have alot of different models in different price ranges and you can take your pick, the canons are also great cameras.

 

[railman44]

I own a Kodak DC290. You can't put it in your front pocket but it takes great digital pics. 3.3 MP, zoom, AF, etc. I know you can pick one up for way under $250. Here's an example of an auction on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=31388&item=3851118182&rd=1