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cheap digital camera help


Gleb

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I'm looking for a cheap to moderately priced digial camera ($100-250). I have 3 criteria that the camera has to have:

1. Ability to take pictures without the lcd screen

2. Has to have minimum time lapse between pressing the button and taking the picture

3. and minimum of 5 MP

any thoughts?

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The Canon A540 gives you a lot of bang for your buck plus it has 4X optical.

Downside - The viewfinder doesn't accurately match up to what you're actually taking but you can learn to adjust for it.

I shot a lot of action photos this weekend and you can get quick shutter response if you prefocus.

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the cannons mentioned are good with one exception - their LCDs are pretty fragile, and cost more to replace than a new camera...

I got a sony (forget the model) as a backup to my cannon -seems pretty good, but has a slight ly longer lag time between pushing the button and clicking the pic.

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Canon SD700IS. Just get it. You can thank me later.

Heh...I expected to see some $3000 camera, but that thing's less than $300!

So, Jack...will this one do quick shots to where someone could take action shots? So far the two PnS cameras I've had wouldnt...

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Heh...I expected to see some $3000 camera, but that thing's less than $300!

So, Jack...will this one do quick shots to where someone could take action shots? So far the two PnS cameras I've had wouldnt...

It will if you prefocus. That is, press the shutter button half-way down and hold it there until you're ready to take the pic. When you then press the shutter button the rest of the way down, the picture is taken much, much quicker.

I took this with a lowly 4mp p&s (Canon S45):

ej%20(Large).jpg

The DSLR, of course, is way better, and it'll do 5 shots a second. Makes for a nice sequence.

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Canons just take awesome pics. Most of my friends have Canons, and I'm always amazed how good the pics look when they email or post them.

That SD700 looks sweet. My poor old 3.1 Fuji will have to go another year, cos I'll be shopping for a new one in Tokyo next August :-)

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It will if you prefocus. That is, press the shutter button half-way down and hold it there until you're ready to take the pic. When you then press the shutter button the rest of the way down, the picture is taken much, much quicker.

How does one prefocus in a fast-action situation?

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How does one prefocus in a fast-action situation?
The experts can probably come up with a better solution but I prefocus on a particular point and click the shutter the rest of the way when the boarder passes that exact spot.

Primitive solution but it seems to work. I caught some unicyclists mid air when jumping a 48 inch gap using that system last weekend.

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The experts can probably come up with a better solution but I prefocus on a particular point and click the shutter the rest of the way when the boarder passes that exact spot.

That's pretty much the thing to do. Fortunately with most p&s's, the "Depth Of Field" is so deep that they are pretty forgiving in this regard. If shots are still out of focus, you can further increase your DOF by using smaller apertures. Put your camera in Av mode, and try successively smaller apertures, like f/4, f/5.6, f/8, but don't go past f/11. As long as the camera can meter the shutter speed at 1/100 or faster, you should be ok. You can help the camera select a fast shutter by increasing ISO too. Most p&s cameras start to look like sh!te by ISO400, but the noise is less noticeable in bright scenes.

Don't mistake motion blur for out-of-focus though. If you're getting motion blur, you need a faster shutter speed, and you may have to open the aperture back up to f/2.8. Motion blur is directional, OOF is unidirectional.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Check out the Olympus Auctions store on ebay stores.I just got a freind at work a really nice pocket size 6 megapixel 12xzoom camera for $95. and also a nice silicon skin protective cover (similar to an iPod skin) for another 99 cents........full gurantee also...I shoot weddings and buy all my gear through them...never been dissapoinetd either.......

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Check out the Olympus Auctions store on ebay stores.I just got a freind at work a really nice pocket size 6 megapixel 12xzoom camera for $95. and also a nice silicon skin protective cover (similar to an iPod skin) for another 99 cents........full gurantee also...I shoot weddings and buy all my gear through them...never been dissapoinetd either.......

From my experience, the shutter on the C series is slow and the Stylus are OK if you don't mind proprietary batteries.

Speaking of batteries, the Canon SD series have proprietary batteries and the A series use AA batteries.

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I tried out bob's idea with the crack head...that was a no go. They just asked for some help on the way out of 7-11 even though they have better clothes and shoes than I do sometimes.

So I got my camera the other day....a shiny refurb of a Canon SD700IS showed up. This thing is sweet!!! I read through the manual today and played around with all the options. Its gonna be able to take some sweet pictures and videos this season! Thanks Jack, I owe ya some at ECES.

Eastcoastrider, I got one of those skins for my camera too. Totally worth the $15 or so. Plus, I'll probably be getting the underwater cover for next summer too.

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