camera advice

[discofish]

I'd like some advice from the LJ oracle.... I'm thinking about getting my first digital camera, and... I don't know anything about cameras. I've had two friends show me their new Canon Elphs in the past couple of weeks (they didn't know I was thinking about getting a camera), and of course we know that I like elves

Comments

[mognetcentral]

If I were to pick up a point-and-shot, I'd go for this Lumix...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK2LLAGUGWP81BG

Cheryll owns it, so she can chime in, but I got to drool over it and try it out at a friend's wedding recently.

[discofish]

Woo! Let's go right for the pricey one! :-D Some of the sample pictures on this one are gorgeous, and some of them seem a bit undersaturated, in terms of color. I can't tell if it's the photographer's preference or a fad or a quirk of the camera. Still, this one is a good data point, because it's very popular with people who know what they are doing and it shows the immense possibilities for a relatively straightforward camera. Maybe we'll need Cheryll to come by and take some test shots of Monty! :-D

[positivespace]

I'm totally available to take test shots of Monty.

Here's some of the shots I've taken since I've gotten the camera if you need more reference:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/positivespace/sets/72157612921129151/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/positivespace/sets/72157612839383593/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/positivespace/sets/72157611583244230/

[ohsochewy]

Bob had a Lumix, and he liked it (he is a serious amateur who often uses his new Nikon D80). Our other friend who is a serious amateur steered me towards a Canon SD850, which I really like. I can't remember why I liked it more than the Lumix, but I did.

I've been using it for class and am struggling a bit right now trying to get really high-def photos for media publishing (where "struggling" means "not bothering to pay attention to the settings because I'm too busy juggling an audio recorder and a set of headphones"), but if you go to my Flickr photos you'll see that it's pretty user-friendly. This is my "learning" camera, and it's been really fun.

Make sure to buy a camera case (nothing fancy), a nice big memory card or two (at least 1 GB per card -- I think the one that usually comes with the camera can only hold like 16 pics), a card reader and an extra battery. I got my camera directly from Amazon and bought this accessory kit and because of the free shipping it was still cheaper altogether than any of the other sites (B&H, etc

[discofish]

Hey, thanks for the extra advice about accessories. That's good for keeping perspective on what I'm getting myself into. I'm going to take a look at your Flickr gallery-- I think this is the elph that a few other people I know have.

[discofish]

This is really helpful advice because:

1) You also want to take pictures of kitties
2) You also weren't a camera expert before you started
3) I have no idea what DSLR is!

Maybe I should host a Monty photo-off.... Get you and Cheryll and Ziggy and whoever else to come up here and take Monty photos so I can compare them :-D I'm sure with that many cameras driving him crazy, we'd mostly get icanhazcheeseburger shots. Whee!