Digital Camera Recommendations

I'm in the market for a digital camera, and wanted to get recommendations. I'm interested in an easy-to-carry & easy-to-use camera with very good picture quality. I'm not a photo fanatic, but want to have high quality pix without alot of fuss. I've had Canon and Nikon point-and-shoot film-based cameras, and am looking for something simple to use that will give good quality pix. Thanks.

I just bought the new canon S400, really happy with this little camera. I first tried the pentax optio S, but the quality was crappy so I took it back. <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons400/" target="_blank">http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons400/</a> Lance

I purchased the Sony DSC-P9 Cyber-shot with 4.0 mega pizeks. Very nice and compact, excellent quality.

I've had good results with OLYMPUS... camera's over 3 yrs old and was one of the first out with 3.2 mega pixels. Better camares are now available... choose a "name-brand" and start "shooting"!

I like the reviews at <a href="http://www.dpreview.com" target="_blank">www.dpreview.com</a> Based on the reviews and my personal experience, I like Canon for image quality/color correctness. I'm biased against Sony for their use of their semi-proprietary memory sticks.

I've owned a lot of digital cameras over the years. My current big camera is a Nikon 5700, which is sweet and at the top of the prosumer line, (next step is a D100 or D1). However a few months ago I picked up a nice little pocket job in Tokyo. It's a Casio Exilim EX-S2, which I think is now available in the US. It's a 2Mpixel camera (the EX-S3 3.2Mpixel). The best thing about the Exlim camera line is the size/weight: 90 x 57 x 12 mm (3.5 x 2.2 x 0.5 in) 110 g (3.9 oz). It so small you can carry it with you all the time.

We bought the Olympus C-3000 about two years ago. It has 3.3 megapix and is very compact and user friendly. With a good quality printer and good paper, the pics come out spectacular. I would buy another Oly!!

I chose the Canon Powershot S45. There are a lot of quality cameras out there. Once you narrow your choices down to a couple, I would also recommend perusing the reviews dpreview.com. <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons45/page17.asp" target="_blank">http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons45/page17.asp</a>

Check out the HP 812. I've got one, it's pretty small, but 4mp and takes really nice pictures. It has a Pentax lens in it, too. -Paul

The Canon S400 Elph's form factor is it's best feature. Can fit in your pants pocket and go everywhere. No bags of stuff or anchors around your neck How many times have you said "damn I wish I brought my camera"

I needed to spend an hour at a camera store and touch and use each camera, and also determine what add ons I may need and/or connections for compatibility for ports for various hardware. I choice the Sony DSC-9 because I wanted a very small 4MP pocket camera, easy to use with good picture quality. My brother has the Canon S400, and that seems to take better pictures, but for my use his is a bit too big to fit in my pocket. You also can check the Sony Style site. I think they have return policy if unhappy with there products. I found most of the digital cameras are great, and it is hard to go wrong with any one of them.

Thanks to all for the recommendations.

Hi Poursha - I've been asked this question many times and I've simplified my answer to this: Planning to spend more than $500? - I'd recommend the best Canon digital camera that fits your price range. Canon G3 is great. If you want something less than 5, look at FujiFilm cameras. Excellent cameras (I've owned two) at remarkable prices. In fact, I think Fuji gives my top pick a run for the money, but I'm just partial to the Canon brand name as that's what most of my pro equipment is in.

Scott, What about 5 megapixel SLR-type cameras for less than $1000? The two that I've been pointed at are the Minolta DImage7i (not the new 7hi) and the Sony 717. I have a Canon S110 (2MP) and love it for what it is. It takes great pictures, but we're looking for something that can be used to take pictures big enough to put on the wall. Thanks!

I can also highly recommend dpreview, and especially do not overlook the forums. A couple of things that may help: since the imagers are the same size there is VERY little if any advantage to point/shoot 5+MP cameras over 4MP in terms of actual resolution despite much larger file sizes and you will not see a difference at 8X10; Sony cameras have outstanding battery life (which matters a lot) but have a "look" based on noticeably oversaturated colors which cannot be adjusted in-camera; do not pick the camera on the basis of the in-camera storage medium with the exception of avoiding the obsolete SmartMedia format. The storage is a trivial part of the overall cost of actually using the camera, and anyway whatever you get will not likely ever carry over to your next device. You will then have larger or more files to deal with, irrespective of whether it is a camera, music player, PDA, phone, or whatever. I have about 2GB of flash cards in 5 formats now, you learn to stop worrying about it. That said, you can count on SD/MMC and Memory Stick to be around for quite a long time to come in roughly their present form. FWIW if you want to zero in on a camera SLR enthusiasts tend to return to merchants it is the Minolta DImage 7 series (horrid ergonomics, crappy build quality). On the other hand, their DImage Xi is one of the best hi-res really small ones, built like a tank to boot.