Digicam Recommendations? Help!!!

[Chinpoko_Mon]

hi guys and gals...

anyone got a good recommendation for a digi still cam? for under 600 smackeroos... takes decent pics and the camera itself should look good. (Not like the Kodak DC4800... cheap bronza/goldish lookin' piece of crap... )

A buddy of mine is looking to get one for his gal.....

any help would be greatly appreciated! =)

[Apex]

Do you require a 3+ megapixel camera?

If it has to be a 3+, there's the Sony P1, the DCS-S70, and the Nikon 880. If you don't necessarily need a 3+, there's the Canon S100 (doesn't take as good pictures as the others).

[Chinpoko_Mon]

Thanks APEX and chosenfool... will pass those along to my friend.

And any thoughts on the JVC-GRDVM90. It uses a combination of mini-DV for video and multimedia card for stills. It's a little pricey but if the quality is really good, I wouldn't mind paying the little bit extra. Plus it's pretty small... what do you guys think? Thanks in advance.....

[Moo-Shoe]

I just bought a Canon Powershot G1. It's a bit out of the $600 price range, but I love the image quality I get with it. I have noticed that indoor pictures tend to come out a tad on the underexposed side though... I might have to look into getting an external flash for it. Good thing the G1 comes with a flash hotshoe for Canon flashes. :)

I paid $720 for the camera, but the one thing you have to realize with any digicam is the amount of storage that comes with the cam is pitiful. Right away, you'll want to buy an additional memory card, be it CF, SmartMedia, Memorystick (for Sonys) or the rare multimedia card. I spent an extra $110 at Newegg.com for a 128 mb CF card.

As for the multipurpose cams, I'm not a big fan of them. The ones I've seen are either good at taking vids and crappy at stills, or the other way around. Not much in the way of a good combo cam.

The crazy thing about digicam prices is they change all the time. Before I bit the bullet and bought mine, I watched prices for about 2 weeks. It changed every day. I don't want to know what they're selling for now because I might get pissed off for not waiting that extra couple of weeks. :)

[Moo-Shoe]

It is a proprietary battery, but it's common to many other Canon video products. The Canon BP-511 is rated at 1100 milliamps. You can go to places like http://www.batterybarn.com and get BP-511 replacements from a couple of companies with ratings of up to 1500 milliamps. For only around $60 or so, this isn't a bad option. Even with the stock BP-511, I'll go for about 150 pictures using the screen as my viewfinder before needing to charge.

And the swivel screen is a godsend if you use it as the viewfinder rather than the crappy optical viewfinder.

Oh, about CFII and Microdrive compatability... If you buy a camera with CFII compatibility, you may not be able to run Microdrives in them. Not that I need 1 gig to hold pictures or anything like that, Microdrive compatibility was a concern of mine when I bought the G1.

Although, my 2 week China trip might require more pictures than my 128 mb card will hold... I might have to get myself a 512mb microdrive...

[ken]

Just remember that microdrive's aren't as reliable as flash ram. Don't know how unreliable they are, but my 340mb doesn't work after just a little usage.

[Moo-Shoe]

Yeah, Microdrives have a heat issue. Since they are an actual mechanical hard drive, they will heat up with use. Digicams themselves will heat up as well. Combine the two heating up, you can exceed recommended operating temps in a hurry.

The deal with Microdrives is that they are cheap! You can find 1 gig microdrives for around $400 now. It's hard to pay $300 for a 256mb CF card versus $400 for a 1 gig microdrive...