1st Digital-go Kodak or Canon? Any Help?

[crazee4mickey]

Word of caution to anyone reading this thread...I love smilies :heart: so tend to go overboard occasionally... :blush: so please forgive me...sorry!

We are going to WDW for our first time in December and are seriously considering a digital camera. :Panic:
As we know nothing...and I do mean we know NOTHING about digital cameras, we thought we would ask the opinions of those who would know or give us a pretty good idea. :D
This would be our first ever digital camera as I love my current camera, :love2: I have a "normal" Minolta camera (you know the "old" kind that takes film:wink: )with 2 great zoom lenses but am worried about the night shots-parades and fireworks :fworks: if I decide to take pics. As whenever I try to take night shots :Photo: they are blurry no matter how still I position it and this is no time to have terrible pics!
Would hate to come home with all of my film from other camera, develop pics taken at night and find nothing turned out!! :ohno:
I have been researching on the internet and have narrowed it to either the Canon Powershot A80 or the Kodak Easy Share DX7440-by narrowed I mean I am sick of looking. We cannot afford very expensive but reviews seem pretty good for these 2 cameras. :unsure: Does anyone have any idea/experience with either of these cameras and what pictures taken with these 2 cameras turn out like? Or know of any other camera that will give excellent results without the high cost? :idea:
I want to take my Minolta but would like to have digital for reassurance!
Thanks :)

[Keith]

I'm off out in a few mins :( but I wish I could write more..... my 2 second answer, the Canon A80 would be my choice although I don't think you'll go wrong with either!

[PaulaK]

I'm no expert like Keith, but i've always liked Canons. We've had a couple of the Ixus models and never had any problems. :)

[candyman]

can i add i asked keith for advise on the same thing
as he is our resident photo genius
i took his advise of the cannon A80
PLEASE IGNORE THE PHOTO IN MY SIG
it was before the new camera
i have NO skill or ability wit hphotos but just love pointing and shooting
the new camera is realy fantastic
best photos i have ever taken in my life

if you want to pm me
your e mail addy i will send you some of the results for you to have a look at

ps i a, now off for 3 days holiday so it will not be till friday

steve

[phoohbaby2]

I think the Canon would probably be the better of the two, here are some links that might help you out with your choice.

Canon A80 sample pictures http://www.pbase.com/cameras/canon/powershot_a80

Kodak Easy Share DX7440 sample pictures
http://www.pbase.com/cameras/kodak/dx7440

Which ever you choose make sure you get enough memory. you don't want to run out during a special moment.:oops:

[crazee4mickey]

Thank you for all of your valuable input! :)
The sample pictures I took a look and at have me leaning towards Canon but now I find out that the A80 is discontinued! :eek: See we truly know nothing...didn't even know one of the cameras we chose was no longer being made :wacko:
Pictures at night are what I am really concerned about since the sunsets at approx. 5:30 when we are there and we are going to MVMCP
Again-thanks any advice or opinions greatly appreciated!

[BevW]

I love Canon, as I own the regular film taking Rebel. But for digital I went for the Kodak DX6440. Mainly cos it was on sale and they had a buy this camera and get this for free....I'm frugal, but not dumb.

I love my Kodak digital. It's a 4 mega pixel, but I can adjust it to less pixels. It takes great night shots, but practice!!! You can also do manual settings with this camera or let the camera do the settings for you. This also takes awesome movies...but here I use the higher pixel setting so I get better movies...not jerky.

I also bought a jump drive so I don't have to use the dock for transferring pics. Just pop the card into the jump drive and load into the computer. I use the dock mainly for charging the battery that came with the camera...but then I also bought a battery charger and 4 more batteries. I tend to go through the batteries pretty fast. I like looking at my pics as I'm taking them and after I've taken them.

[Keith]

Thank you for all of your valuable input! :)
The sample pictures I took a look and at have me leaning towards Canon but now I find out that the A80 is discontinued! :eek: See we truly know nothing...didn't even know one of the cameras we chose was no longer being made :wacko:
Pictures at night are what I am really concerned about since the sunsets at approx. 5:30 when we are there and we are going to MVMCP
Again-thanks any advice or opinions greatly appreciated!

It's true that the A85 and indeed the A95 are out now so yeah, get the biggest number you can within your budget ;-) but the A80 remains a very capable camera even if there are newer models so if you can get a great deal on one then ;-)))

Night photos.... hmmmmm.

Digital has the advantage that you can immediately see what worked and what didn't. Benefit number 2, you can change the ISO without changing film! so you can up the ISO level on most digitals at any time to make it more sensitive to light at the expense of some more "noise" in your photos...

Drawback, many tend to have small and slow lenses.... so try and make sure whichever you buy has a max aperture of at least f2.8 (in my opinion).

That's all without flash... once you turn on the flash of course, you're fine ;-) although it pays to get one with a decent flash range.

The canon should do you VERY nicely indeed.

[Shogun]

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/23/23_29_125.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxdm41440GB)I have just got the canon A85 which wont be that much different to the A80. I find it a brilliant camera. http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/12/12_1_110.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxdm41440GB) Make sure you have plenty of memory 256 or 512Mb. If you fill it you can always have it downloaded onto a cd at a photo machine (walmart or others) to print when you get home.
http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/3/3_8_8.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxdm41440GB) Have a great time.

[crazee4mickey]

It's true that the A85 and indeed the A95 are out now so yeah, get the biggest number you can within your budget ;-) but the A80 remains a very capable camera even if there are newer models so if you can get a great deal on one then ;-)))

Night photos.... hmmmmm.

Digital has the advantage that you can immediately see what worked and what didn't. Benefit number 2, you can change the ISO without changing film! so you can up the ISO level on most digitals at any time to make it more sensitive to light at the expense of some more "noise" in your photos ...

Drawback, many tend to have small and slow lenses.... so try and make sure whichever you buy has a max aperture of at least f2.8 (in my opinion).

That's all without flash... once you turn on the flash of course, you're fine ;-) although it pays to get one with a decent flash range.

The canon should do you VERY nicely indeed.

:curtsy: Hi Keith~
I was wondering what you mean by "upping" the ISO level at the expense of "noise" in the photos? :erm:
When you said to make sure it has a "max aperture of at least f2.8"-the A95 has an aperature of 2.8-4.9...is that good? :shrug:
I really am not the "brightest candle on the cake" :lol: when it comes to technical talk!!

[candyman]

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/23/23_29_125.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxdm41440GB)I have just got the canon A85 which wont be that much different to the A80. I find it a brilliant camera. http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/12/12_1_110.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxdm41440GB) Make sure you have plenty of memory 256 or 512Mb. If you fill it you can always have it downloaded onto a cd at a photo machine (walmart or others) to print when you get home.
http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/3/3_8_8.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxdm41440GB) Have a great time.


any idea what it costs to down load your card/s at a wal mart please
i only have 4 cards (128 ) and i think that is normally all i would need
but as we are at WDW for 4 weeks i think i will need more this time
but d/l like this sounds a good alternative to buying more cards


steve

[JuniorMickey]

I think it is like $6 or $7 to transfer to a CD

[Keith]

oooo that's not bad value at all then! I thought I remembered looking a couple of years ago and it came out at over 20 (which I didn't do)... 6 or 7 though is well worth it especially if you have 600meg or so to really fill the cd

[JuniorMickey]

I could be wrong Keith. It's been a while since I had to do this (at least a year).

[Keith]

It sounds MUCH more plausible than 20 JM..... I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you're right <G>

...although I tend to take the laptop these days and just write out cds when I get to the hotel.

[JuniorMickey]

I do the same now, which is why I haven't had to do it in a while :D

[BevW]

Hooray for laptops! :lol:

[candyman]

thanks that sounds a cheaper option than buying loads more memory cards
as for a lap top i would just love one but i love mandy more and have been threatened its one or the other!
steve

[crazee4mickey]

I have bought the Canon A85 :) --really wanted the A95 with the fancy flip out screen :sigh: oh well! We have 15 days to decide whether we want to keep this camera, if we change our mind we can exchange it.
This camera has a lot of "things" :Photo: I am going to have to learn before we head off to WDW!
Quick questions---

1. I took pictures on Halloween night :witch: on the night setting :starry: and I had to use a shoebox as my tripod :D to steady the camera but they still came out blurry! :Panic: I definately do not want this to happen on our holiday as I want to take pics at MVMCP in the dark!
Any suggestions on what setting I should use at WDW?

2. Although I plan on buying a mini tripod how else can I stop blurry pics?

3. Keith :noworthy: :D you mentioned earlier about aperature Drawback, many tend to have small and slow lenses.... so try and make sure whichever you buy has a max aperture of at least f2.8 (in my opinion).
I have no idea what this means but the camera I have just bought has a "Focal length of 5.4-16.2mm, f/2.8-4.8 (35mm film equivalent: 35-105mm)"--is that good? :confused: :explain: The A95 has "Focal length of 38-114mm, f/2.8 (W) - 4.9(T)" or is this one better?

4. I was wondering what is meant by "upping" the ISO level at the expense of "noise" in the photos? :erm:

5. CompactFlash memory cards--which kind and where's a good place on internet to buy? Rechargeable battery and charger--same question-where and which kind?
Sorry :sorry: for so many questions !!

[Keith]

ok... taking nights shots is hard. Easiest way is to get close enough for your flash to work and do it that way, but it does destroy some of the night time feel of your shots.

Sooooo....

Aperture... your camera goes from 2.8 (widest, lets most light in) to 4.8 (smallest) dependong on your zoom. SOOOO what you want to do is, DONT ZOOM! Keep it zoomed out if that makes sense? and that way you'll get an aperture potential of 2.8 which will let more light in and mean a faster shutter speed/less blur.

Chances are, that still won't be enough though..... (although sometimes it can be depending on how many lights there are around)... so the next thing to do is look in your manual to see how to change the "ISO" to a higher one like 400. As you do this, the noise (speckled dots) in your picture will increase but better to get a noisy picture than no picture at all because you can use applications like noise ninja from http://www.picturecode.com/ to clean up the photo. Iso is basically just making your camera more sensitive to light to it can see better in the dark.

YES try a tripod! big time, yes :) absolutely yes. have I said YES enough? :) a tripod is really the answer to nighttime shots IF you can get one up without getting in peoples way etc. Even then sometimes it's hard to avoid shaking the camera when pressing the button so think about either buying a remote shutter release (wireless or just a wire) or, cheap solution, use the self timer set to 10seconds or whatever and dont touch the tripod/camera. After a few seconds the shot will be taken and it SHOULD be pretty steady.

Compactflash.... I dont think it matters so much frankly.. just get a cheapy one. Good make is lexar but I've had those die just as often as no-name ones so... :/

Dont know any good places to buy stuff in the states/canada sorry :( but I'm sure other people will....!

[crazee4mickey]

Thank you--that makes more sense now-thanks for your info!!! :D

[Josette]

I got a Sony one for my first time. A very GREAT camera. I would go with the Cannon one though. :)

[BevW]

I had a Sony also, and I really enjoyed my camera..until it started having issues...ie.not working correctly and then I had to contact Sony and they wanted an arm, leg and first born child to just look at my camera to see if they could fix it.

[Josette]

I've had mine only a year, but it is going good so far.

[BevW]

I don't know what happened to mine, the lcd screen started to flicker and then would go out. And it wouldn't take pics. I loved that camera. But after dealing with Customer service, decided to go somewhere else for the new camera.

[JuniorMickey]

I just bought a Canon A75 and so far so good.... of course I'm still reading the manual :D

[Josette]

What camera was it? I have the DSC-P52

[BevW]

MIne was the DSC-P71. I really liked that camera. I loved the pictures it took, I liked the compact size, I liked the digital zoom. It was a little slow for some pictures (like speeding children), but I did like the camera. I just didn't like the idea of having to deal with the CS people again. I would love to have that new Sony, the one in the commercial with Steven Tyler and those women who almost kill themselves trying to get to their own cameras? :lol:

[crazee4mickey]

I just bought a Canon A75 and so far so good.... of course I'm still reading the manual :D
I am so glad you said that!! :D I am amazed at the A85 manual--it's too much :wink: I honestly don't know how I will figure out all I need to before we leave for WDW in less than 4 weeks!:eek:

[JuniorMickey]

The basics are easy :) I'm readying about all the cool functions and manuel stuff we can do :)

[BevW]

Went online and saw the Canon A75-95 those are nice cameras. My question is, I know they take movies, but do they take movies with sound? The Canon site doesn't say.

[Josette]

I am unsure of the quality with the slim camera of Sony's. It's the only thing tha concerns me. Mine also takes movies with sound, so I don't think that one has that feature.

[phoohbaby2]

Bev, they sure do record movies with sound, maybe not DVD quality but sound none the less:)

[BevW]

thanks phoohbaby...
I'm not really looking into buying another camera..I haven't had my Kodak for a year yet and I'm still very happy with it. But I know it won't last forever (but don't you just wish) :lol: