Digital Camera

[Pterry]

I want to buy a digital camera for my husband for his birthday or Christmas (haven't decided which...they're close together anyway). Any suggestions? He'll use it mainly for emailing pictures of our son, but he also builds model ships and will need something that will show fine details of his ships clearly. Thanks in advance!

Optical not digital zoom.

[Pseudolus]

I love my Olympus 750uz. It has a nice "super macro" mode that your hubby can use to show very fine details up close. Also has 10x optical zoomage. The 740uz is almost identical, but with 3MP resolution instead of the 750's 4MP.

[Bama Gambler]

http://reviews.cnet.com/Digital_came...g=cnetfd.glnav

[Numbers Nerd]

I've been researching this subject quite a lot recently.

First, note there are some really good online resources, especially www.DCResource.com and www.DPReview.com. Others include CNET, mentioned above, and Steve's Digicams.

Consumer Reports November issue just had a review of digital cameras, but it appears dated - the cameras are all about a year old. Still, they give some good advice - e.g. visit a camera store and try it out first.

The best choice is a function of your budget and your preferences. In the $400 range (my budget) for somebody who mostly wants point-and-shoot but with some ability to grow into (i.e. fool around with) manual settings, all the sites seem to point to the same top choice however - the Canon A80.

[IAm@Work.com]

Biggest disappointment with my digital camera is with action shooting. On my old SLR 35 mm camera, when you pushed the button, it took a picture. On the digital, when you push the button, it takes the picture a moment later. If I push the button as my daughter leaves the diving board, I get a picture of her feet sticking out of the water!

Mine is ancient by modern standards (a 2 mega pixel Kodak DC ??00) but it is my understanding that the problem persists. If you want to take sports or action shots, ask specifically about the delay. If you go to a store to check them out, take a friend. Have the friend walk slowly past a fixed object, say a display case, and snap a picture as they pass a fixed point. Look at the picture to see how far they moved before the picture was actually taken.

In case you didn't hear glenn when he said it, digital zoom is useless. You want optical.

[Pterry]

Thanks for all of the input. I've narrowed it down to the Canon A80 or the Canon S400. I'm leaning toward the S400. However, there seems to be an issue with it not having manual controls. Do I care? Will it make a difference to an amateur photographer?

[IAm@Work.com]

Assume for a moment that it had manual controls for everything.

Would you know what to do with them, or would you set them all to "automatic" and go out and take pictures? My bet is that you need very little manual control over the camera, and won't use whatever control you are given. But that's just me. YMMV.

[Old Actuary]

Many digitals require you to push the button half-way to focus, then all the way to take the picture. Once it's focused, taking the picture is normally very quick. If you try to take the picture without focusing, it takes a moment to focus and the picture is delayed.

You should be able to take fine action shots by pre-focusing and then taking the picture at the right time. You do have to anticipate where the action is going to occur.

[GadgetGeek]

I just bought a Canon S50 about 2 weeks ago and I love it. Couldn't justify the costs to go with the Digital Rebel. Thought about the Canon G5, but the S50 does basically the same things in a smaller form camera.
Regarding usnig a digital camera for action shots, assuming you have a rough idea when you are going to want an action photo, on most cameras you can depress the button half way to get the autofocus and whatnot set then the rest of the way for the actual shot. At that point, it is basically the same speed as a traditional SLR. A little more hassle, but it gets the job done.
Another feature that some cameras have (I've yet to try this out) is continuous mode where it will shoot off several frames as fast as it can.