Hi, I am new to the fourm and going through everything, so much good information. I have to agree the dpreview.com or steves-digicams.com would be the best place to start.
I personally perfer Sony and Canon for ease of use on most models for starter cameras. The Olympus cameras take good pics, but take some getting use to the menus, my opinion.
Depending on your price range and use of the camera I would go with the Sony DSC-P51 as an entry camera. It is super easy to use and has an optical zoom. In a simular price range you can also find the Canon S200 which is great because of its small size.
On the next tier I would probably go with the new Canon S230. It features a 3x digital zoom and I believe 3.2 megapixels. Another great camera is the Fuji 3800. It has 3.2 megapixels and a 6x zoom.
A few top level tier cameras to consider would be the Canon G2, Fuji S602 or the Sony DSC-F717. The Canon G2 price has dropped quite a bit lately because the Canon G3 was introduced and it is probably the most popular camera on the market. This is getting into a lot higher quality of photos and costs more.
Some things to consider when purchasing are:
1. The higher the resolution of the camera, the larger memory card you will also need to purchase to store the pictures.
Below is a chart showing the differece in resolution with a 16MB memory card.
Hi Fine Normal Basic
3 megapixel 16MB 0 6 13 33
2 megapixel 16MB 1 20 39 75
2. Compatablilty with existing hardware.
3. Ease of use.
4. If you really will use all the bells and whistles the camera offers, most users do not.
5. If purchasing a newer Fuji camera many use a new storage format xD picture cards, which is not available at some stores.
6. If up close detail is needed, if so you may want to look at the Sony Mavica series. They have excellent Macro modes and store on a variety of formats from floppy disks to cdrw.
7. Size of pictures you will want to print. Below is a chart showing resolution and size of print.
Resolution
640 x 480 online photos or 3 x 5
1,064 x 768 4 x 6
1,280 x 960 (1 MP) 5 x 7
1,600 x 1,200 (2 MP) 8 x 10
2,048 x 1,536 (3 MP) larger than 8 x 10
This chart shows the max that you could print, although printing 8 x 10 photos with a 2MP camera will have distoration, you could do it.
I hope this helps you in your search for the perfect camera for you. Make sure to post your pics so we can all see after you get one!!
