Saturday, May 23, 2009

Camera suggestions?


I am seriously considering investing in a higher quality camera before my next round of travels. Pictures are my journal and the most powerful way I have of sharing my experiences with my family, friends and anyone else I coerce into watching. In particular, I think the next project I will be working on in Kibera will be very powerfully conveyed through images.

So I think I'm going to take the plunge.

Here's what I'm looking for:

  • A serious zoom (at a minimum 10x, but ideally a 15-20x)
  • Compact size (I'm not sure I'm ready for something that requires its own suitcase - I want it to be able to fit in my handbag).
  • Something that is good in low light situations, macro and portraits
  • Has video capabilities
  • Under $500
  • I use my camera most to capture 'life' situations, so I need something that can capture an image very quickly if needed (in other words, a long start-up time would not be the best)
  • I am no camera expert, but am pretty good with the basic customizing that you can do with a point and shoot - I'm looking for an 'advanced' point and shoot, something with more options than a basic, but not quite a dslr.

These are three that I've been looking at, in my initial order of preference, but I have no idea if I am on the right track or not:
I would appreciate ANY suggestions! Leave a comment or shoot me an email if you have any opinions. Thank you SO much!

6 comments:

K Bailey said...

We had an Olympus point and shoot before I got the Canon Rebel dslr....and I was really happy with it. We never had any problems and the pictures were good. And it did take video...the only thing about the video is once I started shooting the video you couldn't zoom in or out. We bought it about 4-5 years ago so I'm sure they've improved.

Kent said...

There will be a trade off between size and all the features you want. Also remember that when using long zooms, you about need to use a tripod or you run great risk of fuzzy pictures. I've found that when traveling by air, we tend to rely on your mom's compact camera, and when traveling by car, I'll take my larger camera with more features. Of course, your mom still takes her camera.

Alisha Wilkins said...

We are Canon lovers in our house! :)
BUT for Christmas Troy got me the Panasonic Lumix and I LOVE it! He wanted to get me the Canon G10, but that wasn't in our price range....

Kent said...

I also have a Panasonic Lumix. I love the camera and haven't figured out half the features. It has all the features you want, including significant digital zooming, but is much larger than mom's Sony Cybershot 8.1 megapixel 5x optical zoom and extended digital zoom camera with video etc.

Victor said...

I don't know all that stuff other people said. But I remember at one time for some celebration (I can't remember which) I was considering getting you a camera--an SLR--specifically because of the kind of shots you like to take which don't always make the picture look like what you see with the human eye. So my suggestion and 2 cents (which is really about 0.5 cents) is to get an SLR or DSLR (as you prefer) from South Africa which will still put you in your price range. Of course shipping will add to the cost. But it shouldn't be that bad. If you're interested I could find out the shipping costs for the weight.

Victor said...

Strange, I actually remember responding to this. Maybe it didn't go through. Well, you've probably made your decision anyway.