What is the best 3mp digicam to get now?

[Azimuth]

hi,

introduced by a friend to come here. wanna get a 3 mp cam. which one is advisable? how much is thew diff btw CF card and XD card? pricewise and speed. thk.

 

[fuzzyduck]

hi,

introduced by a friend to come here. wanna get a 3 mp cam. which one is advisable? how much is thew diff btw CF card and XD card? pricewise and speed. thk.

i can just tell you that CF cards are cheaper per Mb than xD cards.

i found xD cards being used mainly in Olympus and Fuji digicams, while CF is used more commonly as the storage media in other brands of digicams.

depends on your budget/aim? for the 3mp cam. canon a70?

 

[Bean]

It's true that CF cards are cheaper in terms of per MP.

However, CF is not used more commonly as the storage media in other brands of digicams.

CF - Canon and Nikon (their smaller cameras are using SD)
xD - Olympus and Fujifilm
MS - Sony
SD - The rest

In choosing a digicam, the memory card is only just one of the considerations. There are much more important factors:

Lens,
Zoom,
Image Processor,
Size,
Shape,
Functions etc...

Thus, let us know your requirements and we can advise you according as all cameras are made for different people.

 

[Caussway]

Hi, to narrow down your choice I suggest you to consider the
following:

1. Major brandname: Canon, Olympus, Minolta, Nikon.
2. Use AA batteries. Important as proprietary batteries are expensive and may become obsolete.
3. CF storage: This is a very widely used format hence it's cheaper and
will be available for many more years. xD is still OK, if you're keen in Olympus or Fuji, because you'll buy memory card probably only once. For starting you'll need 128MB.

Recommend Canon A70.

 

[The_Cheat]

Hi, to narrow down your choice I suggest you to consider the
following:

1. Major brandname: Canon, Olympus, Minolta, Nikon.
2. Use AA batteries. Important as proprietary batteries are expensive and may become obsolete.
3. CF storage: This is a very widely used format hence it's cheaper and
will be available for many more years. xD is still OK, if you're keen in Olympus or Fuji, because you'll buy memory card probably only once. For starting you'll need 128MB.

Recommend Canon A70.

I don't really agree with the criteria you'd listed. Brand-names and storage might be important factors to consider, but ultimately, it would come down to what the user wanted. Things like ability of manual control, manual focus (though limited, some camera still allow such fuction), optical zoom, size and shape are more important.

Then again, it's just my opinion.

Anyway, why do you specifically want a 3mp camera? :dunno:

 

[Azimuth]

mostly for street or event and maybe some landscape and night skyline. occasional outdoor portrait. no money for DSLR yet so wanna get a hang of cheaper cam. Why 3mp so that i hv more space to work on for composition and cropping. not intending to print much. I hv a very old manual SLR but wanna see digital is how wan. :blah:

 

[bockers]

How about the Canon S1?

 

[The_Cheat]

mostly for street or event and maybe some landscape and night skyline. occasional outdoor portrait. no money for DSLR yet so wanna get a hang of cheaper cam. Why 3mp so that i hv more space to work on for composition and cropping. not intending to print much. I hv a very old manual SLR but wanna see digital is how wan. :blah:

Since you'd used a manual slr before, guess what you should be looking for is something that have certain amount of manual controls, or at the minimum, with shutter or aperture priority.

And if you are interested in landscape or night skyline, than the camera should not necessarily be too compact. I mean, unless you don't mind carry a tripod that can extend up to the eye-level for a very small camera like the Minolta Xt, Casio Exlim, Pentax Optio S or the Canon Ixus right?

Hmm... another question would be, what's your budget? As suggested by Caussway, A70 is quite a cheap and good camera to start off with. There's no hotshoe though, so portraiture might be a slight problem. Can of course settle with slave flash lah!

Also, maybe you would like to look around at the second hand market as well? A 2 year old prosumer camera like Minolta Dimage 7 is actually quite a good deal. :thumbsup:

 

[matoriv]

How about the Canon S1?

heh..
ill second this..

going down to sim lim later..

 

[mpenza]

Nikon Coolpix 3700 is a pretty good compact camera using SD card. The rechrageable battery only costs $35 too.

 

[jonlou]

actually, price wise, SD card is cheaper. XD is actually smaller and of a higher quality in terms of storage. hmm...fuji finepix f420 should be considered here. its a 3.1mp using XD + a 3x optical zoom. comes in a wonderfully compact and slick design. shud check it out. cheerS~

 

[Mr.Ant]

actually it depands on what is your requirements. I will recommend the followings,

Canon A75 if you need manual function, AV, TV and etc
Nikon 3700 if you want light weight, slim , good movie mode and ease of use
Canon S1 , shot everything! full manual function, AV, TV and etc, 10X
opitical zoom with IS! and very strong movie mode.