cameras

[kryscat]

So, our digital camera has been eating batteries at an absurd rate, which means that when I pull it out to try to take a picture of the little one, I'm likely to be thwarted. My plan is to put "digital camera" on the xmas list for the folks to purchase, but I need to tell them *exactly* what to get, or we'll end up with something huge & unwieldy. Looking for recommendations here. What we need is something small, really easy to use, and easy to use quickly to catch whatever moment needs to be immortalized, preferably something that can take little movies (first steps?), and is not too horrifically expensive. Links to actual products would be muchly appreciated, so that I don't end up sifting through bazillions of different models wondering, "is *this* the one s/he was talking about?"

Secondly, does anyone have a digital camera we could borrow for the next couple of months? Doesn't have to be super-spiffy, just functional to take pics & put them up for the grandparents to see. Many thanks!

Comments

[pir.livejournal.com]

My last three digital cameras have all been Canon I like the interface (since it doesn't suck too much) and generally get on ok with them.

There are a few ranges they do, all of the modern ones should do movies. Basicly pick a range depending on how small you want it and pick resolution depending on what you want and what the pricerange is.

I've got an SD900 I just bought when I was last over there, which is top of the small range and 10mp but a shade under $500. The further back the range you go the cheaper they get. An SD450 is a very decent camera an more like $200.

The Axxx series is larger, don't know if they are too big for you, but generally cheaper for about the same res and have a little more optical zoon (ignore any "digital zoom" numbers, they're meaningless).

I'd recommend going somewhere like Best Buy and plsying with a few to see what they actually feel like and how large they are. Don't forget to get a larger flashcard for any camera you get... but flash is pretty cheap these days (I found a 1Gb SD card for $16 at Microcenter).