174: C'mon, Get Happy

[thefourthvine]

First and foremost: do any of you have a digital camera you really love? A source of digital camera purchasing advice you really trust? A link to the camera you wish you had? Please tell me. We are purchasing a digital camera, but thus far my attempts to make active steps towards the purchase have followed this process:

1. Open camera-vending store in

Comments

[woolly_socks]

Re DS vid: oh no, never assume that every fan has seen something! There will always be slowpokes like me who haven't! I always miss stuff. Thanks for reccing it!

[meresy]

I had not seen it either!

Some people are so fired . . .

[woolly_socks]

Oh good, I'm not the only one...

[thefourthvine]

That, right there, makes it totally worth making this post. (I mean, not that it wasn't worth it just for the purposes of making this post, but sometimes I do wonder if people have seen or read everything I'm linking to already.) Though now I am kind of sad I didn't rec it before. You have been deprived of dS perfection for six whole months. But soon that will be fixed. Yay!

[thefourthvine]

Here is what I know about cameras and photography:

.

So. Yeah. I just had to google "DSLR" to figure out what that was. (I have now learned something! Yay!) I think I'm probably more of a point and shoot that I can carry around in my pocket kind of girl, on account of I have no clue why a person might want to change out lenses, or when, or how. Also, the list of specs on the D200 made me kind of dizzy. (What I'm hoping to do with this camera: take pictures. Of dogs. Also probably people. ...Maybe other things, too; I assume you develop the urge to take more photos once you have a camera.) I'm a total camera n00b, basically.

But now I have a useful site for reviews and a store. I am one step closer to potentially owning a camera! Also, I know what a DSLR is. Thank you!

[imkalena]

I have a Canon 10D, which is a wonderful camera and I love it, but it's the dreaded DSLR. I got it as a hand-me-down from my husband, so I didn't have to pay for it, anyway. :) Which, you know, is another option. Last year's cameras can come pretty cheap, second-hand, and there's not much anybody can do to wreck them short of driving over them. And sometimes not even that.

I would have bought a Canon anyway, had I made Real Plans to go digital, to use the lenses I already had.

Now, for a cute little camera . . . I'd buy myself an Elph. Somebody asked me to take a picture of him and his girlfriend and handed me his Elph, and I fell instantly in love.

[imkalena]

*seconds B&H*

We've always gotten reliable service from them.

[nestra]

I think I used this site. It may not help you narrow things down, but if you get a few models in mind, they'll probably have a review.

I would also suggest, if possible, looking at the actual camera, rather than buying it online. Or prior to buying it online. Then you can test things like "how heavy is this?" and "can I see the picture I have taken on the screen?" and "how hard is it to change between modes?"

[nestra]

And just to make my comments completely redundant, I agree about B&H. We've bought from them before too.

[thefourthvine]

Thank you! More votes for dpreview.com and B&H.

And looking at it in real life is probably a very good idea. I'm just trying to figure out where a person might go to look at a camera in person. I guess a camera store?

Hi! I am a totally clueless newbie! Does it show?

[nestra]

Best Buy? That's where we got our camera. Any sort of electronics chain store. I don't know what's in your area. Target probably has cameras. Radio Shack. Circuit City.

[laurashapiro]

Yay, Tragedy! Not to mention You Can Call Me. Some of my favorite vids evah are recced in this post. Whee, happy-making vids! ::twirls you::

[thefourthvine]

I cannot believe you made dualbunny vid that song. YOU HAVE GREAT DEPTHS OF EVIL.

...It's an amazingly awesome vid, though. So I must love you despite your evil.

*is twirled*

[jarrow]

Yeah, when she said that was her song idea I kind of went "...[...]..." for a second and then agreed anyway, trusting she was Way Smarter Than Me. And dude, I was so right. It's my favoritest Buffy vid EVAH. And not just because it has my name at the beginning, though that part doesn't suck.

[laurashapiro]

I embrace my evil nature. (: My only regret is that I sat on that idea for years wondering how I could do it justice myself. I'm so glad I thought to buy it! Especially from dualbunny. She was absolutely the right choice.

[thefourthvine]

Does that vid not make everything better? Seriously, it puts a shiny gloss on the whole world.

And thank you for the good wishes. I could totally use them.