# digital camera recommendations



## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

I am kind of partial to Canon, so don't listen to me...

If I had to buy a camera for someone, and they would give me $300, I would buy a Powershot A80. If they would give me $600, I would buy a G5. If they would give me a grand, I would go with the Digital Rebel.

I just like Canons... But I know that Nikons and Olympus and whatnot are just as good or better :mrgreen:


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## GDominy (Jul 30, 2002)

I'm going to ahve to agree with Wasserpest... I have a new Canon Powershot A80 on the way... I've been using an A40 for a while and just love it. Easy to use, and decent pictures too


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## unirdna (Jan 22, 2004)

I've had an Olympus C-5050 for about a year now. I've been quite happy with it. It's a bit pricey, so it might not be the best option if you're simply looking for a good camera to take aquarium photos. My incentive was that it's one of the best under-water digitals (with housing, of course) - I use it while freediving.


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## putty (Nov 19, 2003)

I have a Canon S50. 5.0 megapixels. I would recomend it. For tanks you want something with custom white balance setting as our lights tend to throw off a pretty funky color spectrum.

Here is a sample:


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## pedietz (Dec 18, 2003)

Canon released 4 new cameras in the last few weeks...

S500
S410
S1 IS
Pro1

My fav. digi camera site:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/diginews.html


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## mr hyde (Sep 7, 2002)

Putty, thats a great pic there. You were able to take that with the Canon S50 as it came and no modifications, different lenses etc? I looked at some of those cameras today and may have to get one soon.


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## amanda huggenkiss (Mar 3, 2004)

I'm all for the Canon love too. Personally I have both a film SLR and a brand spanking new 10D (yippeee!), but on my wish list is the Canon S400, which I believe sells for around $300. Also, now that they've announced the S500, the price may be dropping  

For more info, see this handy-dandy site. They have great in-depth reviews and you can do side-by-side comparisons. 

Be sure to let us know what you decide on!


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## putty (Nov 19, 2003)

mr hyde said:


> Putty, thats a great pic there. You were able to take that with the Canon S50 as it came and no modifications, different lenses etc? I looked at some of those cameras today and may have to get one soon.


Thanks! You take 500, and what do you know...one turns out. Yes, this is the stock camera with no mods or lenses.

The only thing I did is sharpen and crop in Photoshop.

DPreview is a great site.


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## amanda huggenkiss (Mar 3, 2004)

Another thing that's really important is that once you narrow your choices down, go to the store and _play_ with the cameras you're interested in. Take a few shots. Fiddle with the controls. Is it comfortable? Is it a good size for your hands?

One of the things I love most about Canon is that they're designed so well. The controls make sense to me, and they're positioned in such a way that I can easily make adjustments by touch alone.


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## corigan (Feb 22, 2004)

I have a fuji finepix s5000 and love it. Of course I'm still trying to tweak around with all the settings to get the best pictures possible of my fishtank.

Matt


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## Wö£fëñxXx (Dec 2, 2003)

I've been doing alot of research, reading reviews checking prices etc to upgrade my old 1994 Kodak digital DC200 no zoom that cost $700.
Decided on the Canon G5, its well equiped for my needs.

So.. last saturday I added it to my shopping cart @ newegg.com
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...=12&manufactory=1213&DEPA=0&sortby=14&order=1
which rocks by the way, free shipping is cool too  had to run out and do some errands, came back to make the purchase a bit later and wah lah.. out of stock which previously wasn't...  

So now the wait is on.


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## amanda huggenkiss (Mar 3, 2004)

Wö£fëñxXx said:


> ... out of stock which previously wasn't...
> 
> So now the wait is on.


Crap. I feel your pain. Whenever I finally decide on a new toy, I always want it *now*!


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## Aftica (Nov 26, 2003)

> 1994 Kodak digital DC200 no zoom that cost $700.


Hey! Thats my camera! Did you get the firmware upgrades for this to give it the same features as the DC220?


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## Wö£fëñxXx (Dec 2, 2003)

Hi!
No I didnt get the 220 firmware, but did upgrade the firmware with the 200/210 which in turn gave me " Improved battery life" and speed up pics from camera to pc time. helped a bit.
If I take 15 or 20 snaps it takes about 10 minutes to download to pc which is a bit better than before.

The DC200 to this day, still takes fantastic quality shots, even of the planted tank, but closeups of fish and plants just dont cut it  

I bought a fugi finepix S3000 about a month ago 3.2mp and 6x zoom, I farted with it for a few days, but the quality of the shots just didnt even compair to my old DC200, so I returned it.

I'm excited about getting the G5.... looking forward to it very much indeed 8)


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

You will love the picture quality of the G5! Canon has packed an amazing variety of features into that little box. There is also quite a bit of accessories available for it, above all the speedlight flashes. Don't forget to get the adapter that allows for lens attachments (like the UV filter to protect the lens from dust, scratches and fat fingers).


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## Aftica (Nov 26, 2003)

Any of you photo guru's got an opinion on the following...

I am looking at getting a good digital camera (good in my mind) and I am looking a a couple...

Minolta DIMAGE A1 

and 

Canon EOS 300D Digital Rebel


I am liking the price on the Minolta more but the Canon does have some nice features etc... I am looking for comments - good and bad on the Minolta in comparison to the Canon... and the future expandability of the Minolta if I want to expand it later on etc...

Tnks..


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## pedietz (Dec 18, 2003)

Even more Canon announcements...
A75
SD110

Also see this thread near the end:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1058

Having a camera with a manual F-stop looks awesome !


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## GDominy (Jul 30, 2002)

I just bought a Canon Powershot A80 and I freakin love it...


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## nornicle (Dec 29, 2003)

I also use the Canon A80, its a good mix of 'run and click' and manual function, great for the arm chair photographer in all of us 

my *only* complaint is some yellowing of colour when using artificial lighting and no flash, it requires a bit of touch up work to correct the colour... but lots of cameras do this.. dunno why..


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

nornicle said:


> my *only* complaint is some yellowing of colour when using artificial lighting and no flash, it requires a bit of touch up work to correct the colour... but lots of cameras do this.. dunno why..


While your eyes adapt to all sorts of colors, your cameras LCD just records objectively what is there. Artificial -- incandescent -- light has a color temp of around 2700K, while regular sunlight hits at about 5500K, much more blue. Therefore the yellowish appearance of incandescents. That is how it really looked!
Automatic whitepoint adjustment can sometimes balance that out, but often it is overwhelmed by incandescent or fluorescent light colors. Your cam might have some kind of manual whitepoint adjustment, where you can set it to incandescent lighting, or even set the whitepoint with a white piece of paper or furniture or whatnot.
The only problem... I always forget to set it back, and the next day images look really cold :roll:


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## GDominy (Jul 30, 2002)

The A80 has an awesome array of features including several different White balance options. I've finally been able to filter out a lot of the artificial yellow/green/pink haze of the aquarium lights using this...

I've even been able to use a flash finally for in-tank macro shots and not have the colour look totally yellow and washed out.

Easiest way to set your White balnace is to keep a small white piece of plastic at the back of the tank, something around 3" x 3". Focus on it then do an automatic White balance adjustment.

In my two largest tanks I don't do this as I have white sand in the bottom I use for this purpose, but the same priciple applies...


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