I want to buy a good digital camera for my mother. My budget is fairly high - anything $500 or less will be okay. She knows very little about photography, so it will have to be a point-and-click camera, rather than a low-end SLR. Here are my requirements, in order from most to least important.
1. Size - the camera has to be pocket-sized and easily portable. I need it to be something that you can carry around on a vacation, take it your of your pocket, snap a few quick photos, and put it back. One of those thin rectangular cameras would be ideal. Something a bit larger, like the smaller Canons, might be okay, as long as its easily pocketable and substantially better than the thin rectanglecameras.
2. Picture rate - The main complaint she has about the current camera she's had forever is that it takes too long for it to take a picture. She takes it out, presses the button, and waits there for over 10-15 seconds before the camera decided to take the picture, by which time the people in the picture are complaining, and the shot she wanted is long gone. Any replacement camera must be able to quickly take a picture as soon as the button is pushed. Waiting a few seconds for the flash to charge is okay - waiting thirty seconds for a non-flash picture after you tell it to shoot is not. A welcome bonus would be the ability to take several pictures in a row if the camera button is held down (I forget the technical term for this ability)
3. Image quality - Image quality is quite important to me. By this I don't mean how high the resolution is, but rather how good the image looks without any editing. CCD size and quality I suppose would be the biggest factor in this, as well as the number of levels detected by the CCD (although finding those specs can be difficult - another reason to post on forums), but reliability, brands, and other such concerns would fit under here too.
4. resolution - The camera should have at least a 7 MP resolution. More is, of course, better, as long as picture quality isn't compromised. I know resolution definitely does not equal quality, but 7 MP seems to be on the lower limit for adequate cropping, printing and/or enlargements to be done to a picture. Luckily, pretty much all the newer cameras seem to fit this requirement (cell phone/kids' cameras obviously not included)
5. storage - Ideally, the camera would be able to take pictures and store them to a SDHC card, as these seem to be the larges and cheapest storage media available. SD cards and and compact flash are okay too, if that's what's available in a camera that satisfies #1-4. As far as storage medium, being able to select between raw/tiff or jpg would be nice, but not a deal breaker. I doubt she'll notice much of a difference anyways except in the few pictures she wants me to do basic image adjustments on.
6. Other features - As long as #1-5 as there, the more features the better, as long as I can set it up for her without the need for her to understand some of them (or even set up several presets for her to use). Some sort of image stabilization will be a must, as her hands are quite shaky when taking pictures. (something that can add people's heads back in after her average picture is taken would be nice too - but that's a loooong ways off - and she IS getting better - slowly.) Redeye reduction would be nice, but not absolutely necessary, as she seems to take mostly outdoor, or well lighted pictures anyway. A decent zoom feature would of course be preferred, but is really not as important as #1-5 as long as SOME zoom is present so she can take decent pictures and headshots of family/friends), I'm sure there's plenty more options out there than what I've already talked about, but I think I've hit the most common/important stuff
Summary: $500 or less, good small, point-and-shoot, fast, 7+ MP, SDHC camera with zoom and image stabilization
Anyway, what is out there right now (there seem to have been many advances made since the 6 years ago when I last shopped for a digital camera...). What cameras would you all suggest that fit my requirements (or at least fit the first couple and come close on the rest?)
Thank you for your advice,
Zithras
(this message has been crossposted on several photography forums since I don't know which forums are active)
1. Size - the camera has to be pocket-sized and easily portable. I need it to be something that you can carry around on a vacation, take it your of your pocket, snap a few quick photos, and put it back. One of those thin rectangular cameras would be ideal. Something a bit larger, like the smaller Canons, might be okay, as long as its easily pocketable and substantially better than the thin rectanglecameras.
2. Picture rate - The main complaint she has about the current camera she's had forever is that it takes too long for it to take a picture. She takes it out, presses the button, and waits there for over 10-15 seconds before the camera decided to take the picture, by which time the people in the picture are complaining, and the shot she wanted is long gone. Any replacement camera must be able to quickly take a picture as soon as the button is pushed. Waiting a few seconds for the flash to charge is okay - waiting thirty seconds for a non-flash picture after you tell it to shoot is not. A welcome bonus would be the ability to take several pictures in a row if the camera button is held down (I forget the technical term for this ability)
3. Image quality - Image quality is quite important to me. By this I don't mean how high the resolution is, but rather how good the image looks without any editing. CCD size and quality I suppose would be the biggest factor in this, as well as the number of levels detected by the CCD (although finding those specs can be difficult - another reason to post on forums), but reliability, brands, and other such concerns would fit under here too.
4. resolution - The camera should have at least a 7 MP resolution. More is, of course, better, as long as picture quality isn't compromised. I know resolution definitely does not equal quality, but 7 MP seems to be on the lower limit for adequate cropping, printing and/or enlargements to be done to a picture. Luckily, pretty much all the newer cameras seem to fit this requirement (cell phone/kids' cameras obviously not included)
5. storage - Ideally, the camera would be able to take pictures and store them to a SDHC card, as these seem to be the larges and cheapest storage media available. SD cards and and compact flash are okay too, if that's what's available in a camera that satisfies #1-4. As far as storage medium, being able to select between raw/tiff or jpg would be nice, but not a deal breaker. I doubt she'll notice much of a difference anyways except in the few pictures she wants me to do basic image adjustments on.
6. Other features - As long as #1-5 as there, the more features the better, as long as I can set it up for her without the need for her to understand some of them (or even set up several presets for her to use). Some sort of image stabilization will be a must, as her hands are quite shaky when taking pictures. (something that can add people's heads back in after her average picture is taken would be nice too - but that's a loooong ways off - and she IS getting better - slowly.) Redeye reduction would be nice, but not absolutely necessary, as she seems to take mostly outdoor, or well lighted pictures anyway. A decent zoom feature would of course be preferred, but is really not as important as #1-5 as long as SOME zoom is present so she can take decent pictures and headshots of family/friends), I'm sure there's plenty more options out there than what I've already talked about, but I think I've hit the most common/important stuff
Summary: $500 or less, good small, point-and-shoot, fast, 7+ MP, SDHC camera with zoom and image stabilization
Anyway, what is out there right now (there seem to have been many advances made since the 6 years ago when I last shopped for a digital camera...). What cameras would you all suggest that fit my requirements (or at least fit the first couple and come close on the rest?)
Thank you for your advice,
Zithras
(this message has been crossposted on several photography forums since I don't know which forums are active)
It makes viewing your photos so fun. I can't image a better pocket camera.
