Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge need camera advice

Ok, so I'm in debt up to my eyebrows but the wife's leather business is kinda taking off. We have some interest from so bike mags. They want us to advertise and do some tech articles. We need a decent camera to take some high res pics. We are looking to take some of our return and buy a new camera. I have a crap hundred dollar pos. I have seen some 12mp's going for 3 to 4 hundred. What do you guys have or what do you suggest?

I got my wife a Sony Cybershot DSC-H50 with 15x zoom. It was in the $4-500 range a couple years ago, so it's probably around what you're looking for now. Takes great pics, click my link below to see, the sharp ones are with this camera.

nice pics. Are the downtube coolers you have stock for the 02 or did you replace the ugly one we all have?

here are a few I took with that camera

I Aways loved that pic with the train. Very artistic shot.

see this little spider?


I took that photo with a Nikon Coolpix L12

Then I messed around with the settings and using the same 179 dollar camera, took this one of the same itty bitty spider. Notice the rocks? Well those are the grains of the concrete driveway.

So, what you need is a good lens. Nikon has good lens




Without trying to capture the detail of this cannon...




Elder's Mill Covered Bridge

yes again with my cheapo camera L12 Coolpix

Moral? Get a relatively inexpensive Nikon. You are not a professional photographer who needs a $1,000 camera or even a $500.00 camera.

Did I say $179.00?

Roadworthy, you've taken some great pictures - love the colors on that train shot!

Moe, great shots! Really like the bridge shot, and the tongue on that giraffe is pretty amazing!

Check out Dave's Picks for some good advice.

My two-cents: look for some nice glass on the front end, Nikon is good and Leica has been fronting some nice Panasonics lately. Don't go so much on the mega-pixel count as more isn't necessarily better; cramming more pixels onto the same size sensor doesn't really translate into better light capturing ability.

This image was taken with a 5 megapixel Sony F717 with a nice Zeiss lens:



This image was taken with a Canon SD1000 with a 7.1 megapixel sensor and a stock Canon lens:



Both reduced via an older version of Adobe's Image Ready and no other manipulation. Not much difference for a 30% bigger sensor is there?

Add my 2-cents to the jar... you are becoming richer ! maybe you can get a bigger camera! ha ha!

I'll chime in with the ill conceived idea that more pixels means better picture. that's just marketing plow to get people feel outdated!

Nikon, Canon, whatever good deal you get is fine. Stick with the big names in cameras, this way you will get better service or replacements should anything arise. BTW, my friend has a small Leica and I was not impressed.

Also, evaluate your needs.

Do you want a smaller camera that you can carry easily and still get great pictures. A good point-and-shoot from Canon or Nikon is fine. I especially love the Canon Powershot G10 because of the wide angle lens (28mm equivalent can come handy). There are also very good and cheaper alternatives.

Or is lens interchangeability a must? The ability to change the lens from a wide angle to a tele is a must for me. That why I went with a reflex camera. These cameras are usually more expensive, but offer a better performance when it comes to exposition and focusing... it blows the point-and shoot out of the water!

Don't count out the second-hand market. I bought a superb Canon 20D for less than $300 2 years ago and it was a steal. I still use this camera almost every week. It's amazing but also bulkier to carry around, with one annoying flaw: the sensor is a dust magnet!

So, evaluate your needs, get a good camera for your price range and it will last you for a long time.

Hope that helps

One other thing, be certain to ask your publishers what format is best for their art department. Some ad folks like TIFF or RAW data best and it would be good to choose a camera that can capture those files (most Auto settings capture JPEG files which are compressed and lose some detail). A few years ago I was publishing a lot of images and very large JPEGs worked fine but it's always good to know in advance.