Pick my Digital Camera <= $500

[Popinjay]

[ QUOTE ]
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10

that is a really incredible camera for the price

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe the FZ20 is out, I change my recommendation to that.

[Fianchetto]

Get a Canon Powershot.

There are a couple of models: SD110, SD410, SD500 depending on how many megapixels you need, and price.

I got the SD110 (about $250), and a 512mb memory card ($150), and its pretty sweet. Lightweight and small, it can also take up to 3 minute videos with sound.

Its very easy to transfer photos to a PC, initially you have to load the software, but then you can just plug the camera in with a USB cable and click "transfer". Thats it. It downloads the pics to your PC creating folders for each date you took pictures.

You can do some more advanced settings with it, but so far I haven't messed with those much. Although it does have a cool panoramic feature I used where you can take a couple pictures of a landscape and "stich" them together.

Check out www.cnet.com for reviews and prices.

[astroglide]

http://www.powershot.com/ most notably the S* (e.g. S60) subcompacts.

for reviews see dpreview.com

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
http://www.powershot.com/ most notably the S* (e.g. S60) subcompacts.

for reviews see dpreview.com

[/ QUOTE ]

Ya, I switch my vote to the powershot S series as well. When I bought my powershot A80 the resolution wasn't as good as I wanted it to be on the powershots S*. Now that the powershot S* are 4+ megapixels their compact size would make it a better choice. Having a camera that fits in your pocket is soooooooo nice.

Damn you astroglide! You always have the right answers!

[RED_RAIN]

I've seen this S series and have watched this for awhile. I do like them. Anyone have actual apperance? Does this fit in a pocket?

I looked at some of the super compacts but they just all seem to have reviews that aren't that great and/or the features.

Looking at:

S60: $368.89
S70: $433.89

I also gotta figure in batteries, case, memory, etc. How much and what do I need to get that doesn't come with it? I'd like to figure this into my overall price.

[derick]

Get a big CF card for memory.

If you're buying a 5 Mega pixel camera like a G5.
Buy a 1 Gig Sandisk Ultra.
The G5's rechargeable litium ion batteries are good for about 300 shots.
A 1 Gig CF card will hold about 300 shots.

This will let you shoot all day and not worry about batteries or memory.

You can pick up aftermarket batteries for the G5 on Ebay for $20.

[astroglide]

i use a pentax optio s because i wouldn't carry anything else. it fits in an altoids tin and takes fine pics for web/mail/slideshows. not as good as the s50 was when i bought it, but certainly better than the picture in my head because i didn't have a camera. i know i'm a big stickler about it though so i wouldn't recommend it over the sXX canons unless somebody hated carrying things.

it's like a small brick size. it can be pocketed but you wouldn't want to walk around with it unless you were headed somewhere to take pictures. batteries and case are pretty much up to you, and those take CF which isn't that expensive at all.

[RED_RAIN]

Between the:

S60: $368.89
S70: $433.89

Is the S70 worth the extra money? Is it just overkill on features that I won't really use when I'm not going to be really into printing muchless do I have an awesome printer (Epson Stylus Photo 820)?

[RED_RAIN]

Anyone know a store that sells the S60? Best Buy?

[astroglide]

shopper.com to check for prices, but ONLY BUY FROM MAJOR STORES. if you buy elsewhere you can often get asian versions of the camera with no effective warranty and other bad things. buy.com, amazon.com, newegg, dell, insight, cdw, pcnation should all be ok.