Whats a good 12mp camera under 140.00

[lordsmurf]

The best why to find a camera is to play with one at the store, and look up info on it online. Never buy right away, in fact, don't even buy the second or third time. Just look, take your time.

A pro shop that also carries consumer equipment is perfect, found in most large cities. To know if the pro shop is any good, ask a few pro photographers (newspaper photographers, that is, not those "kid" photographers or half-assed "studios").

People in pro shops usually have extensive photo knowledge. And pro shops are often cheapest, believe it or not.

[Jorge]

I see, well the thing is that in a week Im going to beach for a week, so I need a little camera I can take along with me, any good suggestions, I need something small but with good quality and shutter speed.

[lordsmurf]

You won't find one.

Shutter speed is slow on any point-n-shoot job.
And then it also tends to have horrid shutter lag.

Something small would generally be an Elph.
But those cost $300+ and I would not get it full of sand.

You may be better off buying a disposable film camera for the beach.

[aanaravs]

If you are looking for a fast and small camera, I reccomend the Minolta Dimage Xg. Although pricey ($300), it is an awesome camera. Very, very fast (less than 2 secs to take picture from startup) and the picture quality is pretty good.

[hech54]

I have two Canon point and shoots....an older S100(Digital Elph) which is a fantastic outdoor camera and a European A200 which is a good all-rounder. The great thing about the A200 is that it takes regular AA batteries. I have a "battery of batteries" that I recharge and use in the A200. You can probably find a nice Canon for the price you are looking for....if you look hard enough.
Optical Zoom is what to look for...but don't expect too much in a P&S camera.

However....I just bought my Nikon D70 and haven't touched either of my P&S cameras since it arrived...

[Jorge]

Hey what do you guys think of this model.

http://plemix.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=47004&Category_Code=SAN

[Craig Tucker]

Oh thats real strange, I saw a bunch of cameras on ebay that said 12mp and they were around 150.00. Actually my friend just got one from ebay, but I just couldnt find it, and it was 12mp.

Ah, 12 millipixels

[lordsmurf]

Hey what do you guys think of this model.
http://plemix.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=47004&Category_Code=SAN

I think it sucks.

[tenders]

12PM i didn't know there was such a camera?

kinda makes my 2.0 MP look bad

[Jester700]

They aren't 12MP. Read the fine print. A 2 minute ebay search turned up the tiny camera that says 3.1MP, with 12MP through interpolation. That is MEANINGLESS. You can do that in any image editing software, and it doesn't do anything but increase the file size. Plus, the lens is tiny enough (and the chip is cheap enough, I suspect) that the pics will be lame by even 3MP standards.

Save yer $$ and get something from a REAL camera & electronics maker...

[Jorge]

What about the link I posted above, it looks pretty good enough, I mean it has 1/2 shutter speed which is way faster than my archos av300 cam. On top of that it does some pretty good video.

[Conquest10]

I mean it has 1/2 shutter speed which is way faster than my archos av300 cam.

WHAT?

[Jorge]

1/2 second shutter speed

[lordsmurf]

You're confused. A half second shutter is slow as hell, you cannot hand-hold that, barely even tripod that unless it's weighted. And you are likely confusing lag with shutter speed.

[Jorge]

Oh, I thought half a second to take the picure was quite fast, I was looking at some sample pictures on a forum, and they looked quite good.

[Jorge]

Heres a sample photo taken with the sanyo xacti dmx-c5



Website where it was taken from

http://www.pbase.com/cameras/sanyo/c5

[lordsmurf]

Lot of noise in that image.

[Jorge]

Im trying to find a pistol grip camera, my friend has one of those ebay cheap ebay ones, heres a pic of the xacti dmx-C5.

[Jorge]

Here are some specs.

Specifications :

Sensor Type CCD
Sensor Size 1/2.5 inch
Gross Pixels 5.26 million
Effective Pixels 5.08 million
Resolution 3,680 x 2,760
2,592 x 1,944 (H/S)
1,600 x 1,200
640 x 480
Digital Zoom 12X
Optical Zoom 5X
LCD Monitor Size 2.0 inch TFT
Approx. 210,000 pixels
Image Format JPEG
Image Quality Levels High Standard
Movie Mode MPEG-4
No time limited (With sound)
640 x 480 (SHQ/HQ)
320 x2 40 (S/HQ)
176 x 144
Focus Mode Still : 5-points / Spot
Motion : Continuous Area
Manual : 15 steps
Exposure Mode Program AE
ISO Sensitivity Still :
Auto (ISO50~200)
ISO50
ISO100
ISO200
ISO400

Motion :
Auto (ISO200~400)
ISO200
ISO400
ISO800
Lens Focal Length f=6.3~31.7mm (38~190mm equiv. in 35mm camera)
Aperture Range F3.5~F4.7
Shutter Speed Still : 1/2~1/2,000 sec.
(Flash On : 1/30~1/2,000 sec., Lamp : Max.4 sec.)
Motion : 1/30~1/10,000 sec.
Self-Timer 2 sec. / 10 sec.
Flash Mode Auto
Flash On
Flash Off
White Balance Auto
Daylight
Cloudy
Fluorescent Light
Incandescent Light
Terminal AV Out (PAL/NTSC)
Connector Interface USB 2.0
Recording Media SD Card
Supplied with Media
Power Lithium-ion Rechargeable Battery (DB-L20)

Size:

Weight:
145g (Camera body only)
164g (With battery and memory card)


Dimensions:
68 x 108 x 23mm

[Jorge]

Is this good, or bad. I'll tell you Ive learned alot so far from you guys instead of those guys at that electronics store.

[lordsmurf]

Ultimately, as long as you're happy, get it.

But for me, it's making too noisy of an image. And that style camera will allow you to shake and blur images.

The best camera makers ... are camera makers. Canon, Nikon, Minolta, etc.

[ZAPPER]

Find someplace with a good return policy and buy one to try. There are too many variables here to discuss. It will boil down to your opinion and budget. Buy one, try it and take notes. Return it and start over with a different model. If you aren't ready to blow a couple of grand on a killer Nikon or such, the feild is wide open on the cheaper cameras. What you want it for, its capibilities, your idea of ease of use and performance and quality of image is all subjective to your opinion.

We can all give opinions that may or may not affect your decision until we are blue in the face (Just look at LordSmurf) Just buy something and get some personal expeirence.




(After re-reading this I thought it may seem a little harsh, It isn't meant to be. I often overthink a purchase myself. But the morale of the story is to get your feet wet. And have some fun.)

[Conquest10]

To me the images look rather noisy and soft. Most likely it suffers horribly with ca problems too. But in the end, its what you think that matters.

[Jorge]

ZAPPER it wasnt harsh at all, I asked for your honest opinions, besides its the only way youll learn; by asking. Well I guess theirs really no time to get by now, Im leaving tomorrow to the beach. So I guess I'll have to use the camera I have now. But when I return, I'll go out and buy this thing, and see if it really fills my wants.

I have a question though, what is shutter SPEED anyways????

[Conquest10]

http://www.shortcourses.com/choosing/glossary/19.htm

Shutter Speed - The length of time the shutter is open and light strikes the image sensor.