Looking for a Camera with Three Requirements (the first is kind of weird :P)

anthony5429 · Mar 21, 2012

Hi; this is my first post here, so I hope someone can help me out. I'm currently in the market for a new camera and I have three requirements...

1. The camera needs to be rechargeable over USB. I'll be using this while camping and need to be able to plug it into my USB solar charger. Alternately if I can remove the battery and use a battery charger which can plug into USB, that would also be fine. If I could recharge over microUSB, that would be the best as I use a single USB-microUSB cable for all my other hiking/camping electronics.

2. The camera needs to be small-ish. I've always been a point-and-shoot guy, but would love to be able to take shallow focus shots (which I don't think is possible with a point-and-shoot - am I wrong?). I'd be comfortable with a slightly larger camera if it had good enough aperture control to allow shallow focus shots, but I'm not interested in a big DSLR. (again, I'm a hiker/camper - can't be lugging around a bunch of weight

)

3. The camera needs to have support for SD cards.

momo3boys · Mar 21, 2012

Olympus tough. Meets most of the requirements. I haven't played with it enough to know how shallow the DOF can get yet. But it's a great tough hikers camera. We bought it for a canoe trip with the boyscouts in August. We've been playing with it and I've been very impressed. Lots of options though so I'm still not sure of everything it can do yet.

cgipson1 · Mar 21, 2012

I have used my D7000 with USB charging.. or more specifically, my MB-D11 Grip with the AA battery adapter. I charge the AA's with solar. Not small though... although I have done week and a half long hiking / backcountry camping trips with it... usually only take one lens (28-300 do it all). It does do SD cards...

Tony S · Mar 22, 2012

Widen the parameters to cameras with AA batteries, they can be recharged with usb chargers. I use one to keep the battery for my cordless mouse charged up, it's made by Rayovac, but a quick online search finds several more out on the market with a few that charge 4 AAs at a time.

Here's a link to one on Amazon that charges several different battery typed with either the usb cord or on an outlet. Amazon.com: Smart Universal Battery Charger with USB Output and Car Charger By PowerGen Fits Canon NB-8L NB-4L NB-5L NB-6L / Ricoh DB-40 DB-60 / Casio NP-20 NP-40 NP-50 NP-60 NP-70 NP-90 / Fuji NP-60 NP-120 NP-95 NP-30 NP-50 NP-40 NP-40N NP-45 NP-45N

Also here's a pretty informative link that leads to several other options....
Solar battery chargers for digital cameras from Nikon, Canon, Olympus and more

tacticdesigns · Mar 22, 2012

1) Apparently the Nikon P300 can be charged via. the USB. (I was looking at it yesterday on DPReview. Looking for something to have fun with when I don't want to lug my dSLR around.) There's got'ta be more models by other manufacturers.

2) You can get blurry backgrounds even with point-and-shoot cameras in certain situations. For close-up people shots, I Zoom to about 100mm equivalent, back up, and make sure the person is far away from the background. Then you get that soft background. (Play with one of those on-line depth-of-field calculators.) But if you want something you have more control over, get a point-and-shoot that has either aperture priority or manual mode so that you can control the aperture. And . . . get something that has a big aperture (like 1.8 or something.). Or ... get a bigger sensor.

3) Most of them do now. Even my Sony point-and-shoot accepts both Sony memory cards and SD Cards.

sm4him · Mar 22, 2012

Canon Powershot. I've used one for years, and even though I now have a DSLR, I still take the little Powershot when I'm going somewhere that I don't want to risk damaging the DSLR, or don't want to carry the extra weight.

Mine's an older model, a630, but they've just gotten better and better. I've taken mine on hiking trips, canoe, rafting and kayak trips, on a cruise, to the beach, out in the rain (carefully, lol), the snow. My sister dropped it in the sand when we were on Half Moon Cay, and the lens cover got some sand in it. I thought it was toast, but after managing to get the sand out (which did take a while), it has just kept right on performing.

I've taken some pretty decent macro shots with it; even my older model focused pretty close on the macro setting and I'd think they've improved that as well.

Also, it runs on four AA batteries. Use some really good rechargeables and you may not even HAVE to recharge the camera, depending on how long you're gone. I think I only had to replace the batteries once during a 7-day cruise, and that was using the camera every day, all throughout the day, taking a boatload (or a cruise-ship load, more appropriately) of photos.