Digital Cameras - Recommendations

I've started looking into the different makes, models etc. and wanted other DG's advice. What do you have and is it the one that you would recommend? What do you like the most about your camera? TIA Pam

I have an HP 315 (no zoom), I love it and it goes perfectly with my HP pc. Didn't get the zoom because last year when I got it that feature was $100. more, now it is only about $20. more. It holds 41 pics before downloading but with an extra card, it will hold 82. This is nice if you are on a trip or wedding, etc. I usually download when I have only 2-3 cause I am anxious. I have lots of pics now in my Plants folder. Don't know how I did without it. The battery holds up well too, I hear that some are very slow to download and the batteries run down quickly. Have had mine a year and only recharged the battery once!

I have a sony mavica FD-73. It has zoom and what I like most is that it uses a floppy disk rather than memory, which is great when you go on vacation or a trip because you can run out of memory on a card and if you don't have a computer available that's it for taking pictures, but you can always find a store somewhere that sells floppy disks pretty cheap and you're set to go. Mine came with a charger too so if my battery runs out most places will let me plug it in no problem. It only takes at the most 30 minutes and it's charged. I got a great deal on mine when I worked at Office Depot a couple of years ago. Corporate accidentally marked them down to half price on clearance and people bought them all out before the company realized they weren't clearance. They're loss, my gain :o) Back then I still had money........lol

We bought an Olympus C-2040z at the end of June and I *love* it. I can do color, black and white or whiteboard/blackboard (high contrast, 2 color with no grayscale). What I really like is how it has many similarities to conventional EOS 35mm cameras: aperture priority, shutter priority, rapid fire (multi-frames at once). I would like to have stronger zoom, but for the money, this had many good features and an excellent lens. It has an f1.8 lens, which means you can take pics in low light situations because it lets in more light.

Biggest thing I'd advise is, make sure you're shopping based on OPTICAL zoom, not DIGITAL zoom. The digital zoom means nothing in the end - if you try to enlarge pictures taken with digital zoom, they can turn out really blocky. And get a zoom - it is worth the extra money. There are several threads on DG about digital cameras - search for the words and they should come up.

Be very careful of prices that seem incredibly low after you've done price comparisons. They may be "grey market" cameras, which are manufactured overseas. While they are not illegal, they may be made by different specifications than the companies use in the US -- and they may only have a 3 month warranty rather than the standard one sold with the US-made cameras.

HTH! :O)
Kimberley

Here's more about the Olympus C-2040z - Just found this review today while looking for accessories that go with our camera. http://www.steves-digicams.com/c2040.html