Digital Camera !!!

[Moni]

I need to buy a digital camera. And I've budget 200-300 USD. Can you suggest any?

[russ_watters]

I bought a Nikon Coolpix 3100 last week for $300. Its tiny, 3mp, 3x zoom, lots of scene modes, etc. I like it so far.

[rick1138]

If there is any way you can get about twice that amount of money together I recommend the Sony DSC717, which is a great camera.

[Zantra]

I've been debating. I have a vhs camcorder, and I'm really wishing I could get a digital camcorder, but since I have one already, I'm wondering if the quality difference is worth the investment, or if I should just outlay for a nice 5 MP digital cam.

Any suggestions ?

[The_Professional]

If you're doing professional photography or maybe as a hobby then a 5 MP and up should be good. But for just regular use a 3-4 should provide quality images.

From what I know, digital camcorders have less quality when taking still images.

[hemmul]

Originally posted by rick1138
If there is any way you can get about twice that amount of money together I recommend the Sony DSC717, which is a great camera.

Yes, SONY has really good cameras, i'd also advice you Sony DSC-S75, with 3x "hardware zoom" + another 3x digital zoom (6x in all) + other cool stuff and special effects [8)] . It was around 500 USD roughly 2 years ago, but now it has to be much cheaper, and i hope can fit your budget.

[russ_watters]

Originally posted by hemmul
"hardware zoom" AKA "optical zoom." FYI, digital zoom is completely useless. It does almost the same thing as cropping and enlarging through a photo editor except that it doesn't reduce the file size.

[hemmul]

Yes, sure, it's called optical zoom, thanks :)
actually at present state it is really of not much use, because it spoils the quality, however if some powerful filtering procedures will be available, it can be of a great usage (for example there is no need to buy additional lenses, however the quality decreases in this case also...)
P.S. there exists also a SONY digital video cam, with zoom over ~600x [o)] just don't remember whether it was digital or only optical, but anyways it is great [8)]