I broke my venerable Minolta 35MM in Co and need to find a replacement...been looking DIG....any recommendations for a DIG UNDER $300?
Should I save up more?

Tell what you run and why.....I like the idea of short vids, but it is not a requirement....I also see the ability to swap memory cards for up to 128K cards looks nice and card readers to preclude plugging the cam into the puter seems nice....

talk---flame--rag---POST!!!!


Want to take pics of general 4Wd stuff....

BTW, posted here since chit-chat is mostly BS and I wanted straight up answers...thanks

There are so many out there now. My Sony Mavica (MVC-FD92, no longer made) has memory stick and floppy access, USB and AV outputs. You can resize images on the camera, take 680x480 up to 1400x1600, 8x mag with 16x digital zoom. Auto or manual focus, saves JPG, TIFF, TXT or MPG files. 5, 10 or 15 second MPG with sound, in 320x or 640x sizes. Baterry lasts all day with pics only, add video and its a 4 hour deal.

I have two batteries and a 32mb and 64mb memory stick. Works great. Sure there are smaller but beware of record time. Some take a while to save the file and you miss multiple shots of an "event".

While much more expensive, Sony even has a camera that used CD-R/CD-RW.

Shop around and read reviews, there is a lot of info out there.

BTW... chit-chat :flipoff2:

I have an Olympus C2040 which is about 2 years old. It rocks. I like the size, form factor and the pics. I paid $249.00 for it at Circus City in one of those open box buy gimmicks...it totally blows away my brothers Nikon 885, which was like $600

I also like the Sony cameras and their Magic Gate memory stick...if you're a sony guy that's the way to go...new sony TVs now have a memory stick slot in the front of them so you can show pics on the TV, or anything else the memory stick holds - which is kinda cool.

I got a great, brand new Olympus D510Z off of Ebay and the quality is great. Mine came with a bunch of stuff as well. Check there first.

This is what you want to look out for...

OPTICAL zoom. Digital zoom sucks.

Made in America

At least 2 megapixels

I have an olympus D-380 it's only $179 then I spent $80 for a 128mb card. On the second higest quality it holds about 500 pics. It does short videos, and the coolest feature is the "rapid fire" it works great for wheeling, just look at the roll over seqs I took from supercrawl! You just hold the button down and it snaps pictures as fast as it can.

Get a Canon Digital Elph... S100 series are nice, S110 S200 and S300 can take short vid also. S100s and S200 can be bought on ebay less than 300. 128mb cards for around 40.

Whatever you do - check ebay before you buy anything. WAY Cheap!

I have an HP ### ?? Can't remember - and I wouldn't recomend it anyway! But I can pack between 100-500 pics on a 64meg memory card. Sweet compared to film.

If you can get upto $350 to spend you can get everything you need and a 128meg memory card.

4Runner,
I wanted a cheap digital camera for many of the same reasons. First of all, go check out this site: http://www.dpreview.com/ It's like the equivalent of Pirate4x4.com as far as know all, end all, anybody who's anybody is here kinda site.

I ended up getting the best there was as far as picture quality, high optical zoom, and price. Sony F707. Now discontinued, but it's replacement is a step up over it anyway. The Sony F717. Here's a rundown of some of my minimum criteria:
1) at least 4x optical zoom
2) at least 2 megapixel
3) roughly under $1000
4) some kind of swivel device--some swivel the screen, mine swivels the whole barrel
5) lots of functional features like aperature and shutter priority. Here's some specs: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydscf717/

Now I know that you said under $300. Trust me. Don't waste your money only to find out you gotta compromise on a lot of stuff and then end up buying the real deal later anyway. Buy it once and don't have to mess with again for a long time. The Sony F707/F717 rules the digital camera world and many, many, Prosumer level users know it too. Just check out the Sony forum on that DPReview site. http://www.dpreview.com/forums/

Now a question for everyone else. Part of the reason I bought this camera was to post pics on here. Sent my $20 "donation" about a week and a half ago, yet no red star, no pics posting, and I still have all those damn pop ups. What gives? I sent a PM to Lance. Did it take a long time for everyone else, too?
Thanks and good luck 4Runner,
Travis

I use the Sony FMavica. It uses 3 1/2 floppys. Does not limit you to number of photo's you can take. Just plop in another disk. Then all you have to do is plunk it into your a drive and look at the pics or upload them to your computer. It has 10x digi view Different flash levels and quality setting. It will even take an email picture for you. 2 1/2 hr battery life and recharges in about 10 min.

I'm using a Canon G2. It is a 4.0 resolution, takes 2 minutes of video, uses compact flash cards (i have two 128mb cards) and comes with a 32mb card. The best features however are that the lead screen folds into the back and rotates 360 degress and it will take burst (think rollover sequences) of over 20 pics.

As for the lead screen, it has allowed me to get some killer undercarriage shots for my stories as well as ground level shots without having to risk my life laying down on a course for the bursts I take sometimes. Having it fold away into the body also protects the screen from the scratches inherant in climbing on/over rocks for the right angle as well as the old gotta-go-toss it-in-the-console-quick move when on a trail in my Jeep.

The burst option has gotten me some killer shots of competitors at their best (ok worst). I can then animate the shots and show the entire rollover as an action clip. This requires less band width on our web site than a video clip of the same occurance. Plus it allows for that ONE picture at the right point in the roll, to be pulled out at crystal clear resolution and printed. But if you want the video, I do this for some of the competitors when they ask me too, it also records the sound. So you get all the metal mashing effects of the carnage.

However, you will need to save a little more as I payed $700 for this one when it first came out in the beginning of the year. I'm sure they've gone down in price by now though. I don't regret it at all.

Kimber

Thanks for all the great ideas and info...I spent some time at bestbuy comparing features and prices...now I will head over to Ebay to see what I can find....


Just found an Olympus 3030 for under $300...good deal?