Digital Cameras?

Many cameras allow user control via aperture priority, shutter priority, or full manual control. This is pretty much standard in dSLR's, but you have to check carefully if you are looking for a point and shoot camera. It's generally just a setting on the mode dial. If you see "P,A,S,M," or "P,Av,Tv,M" on a camera, these are the settings you are looking for. If you ever used a film SLR, the transition to a digital SLR will be painless.

There is not much point in going larger than 10 MP, but if you are looking to rival film, you really must stay up in that range. I think you can make simply wonderful A4's from 6 or 7 MP cameras, but the "extra" pixels allow you do to a good deal of cropping of the image without a loss of quality.

If you get a 10 MP camera, you will certainly want at least a 2 GB memory card. Shooting at the largest files size and the highest resolution, you will use from 3.5 to 6.5 MB per 10 MP image. This will allow from 300 to 500 (or more) images on one card. Of course, you download your pictures to your computer and then back them up (yeah, right...), so your card is free for the next session.

You didn't ask for brand recommendations on either, so I will leave that question for later, but when you buy a card, I highly recommend a genuine Sandisk Ultra II (60X) or Extreme III (133X) of at least 1GB - preferably 2 GB. Lexar is another excellent card supplier and they have the "Professional" 133X as well as the Platinum 80X to choose from. Both Lexar and Sandisk come with image recovery software and limited lifetime warranties.

Come back and tell us if you are looking a point and shoot or SLR camera and about how much you have in the budget and we'll help you choose something suitable.

Morey, I love your suggestion to wait a week before looking at the pictures if you want to preserve some of the excitement of film. Or, you could put them in the computer immediately and then shift the saturation levels of everything in the wrong direction and look at them an hour later, pretending that you used a drug store with one hour processing.

1. You can still wait a week to look at them if you want. :)

2. all cameras are different, and some have more controls than others. But yes- it's not too difficult to find a digital camera on which you can have manual modes, aperture priority auto and exposure compensation control.

2.a. actually- with digital cameras- you get even more control than with film. White Balance, Sensitivity (ISO) and a host of other modes are at your fingertips.

3. 10Mpix is truly overkill for most users. However- I tend to crop a lot, and I'm glad my camera has 8Mp. There's a downside to squeezing a lot of pixels onto a small sensor. the noise, especially at high ISO increases.

4. Each camera takes one of a few common styles of memory card. the most popular is SD memory, but Compact Flash, Memory Stick (sony), and xD(Fuji and Olympus) are also available. It's getting cheap, so it's no problem having 1 or more Gbytes of high speed memory so you can take hundreds of photos.

As a fellow photographer, I hear ya. I love my digital camera to death, and the quality is great.

Some digicams do come with aperture control, and it's usually easy to use. Just read up on it using the guide book that is given, and ask around.

For pixels, it just depends on if you want your picture crisp or not. Go with higher pixel camera if you want better quality.

For memory, I'd say go with the 2 gig memory cards. Find a digicam that can be charged over again, and used memory cards. They're very helpful and easy to use.

The only problem I have when taking photos on digicams is that it can be TOO clear sometimes, and can change the colors. I have to use Photoshop to soften down the image sometimes, but overall it's good and you can take many pictures and view them all instantly. Have fun!

Some cameras are point and shoot, so you are limited with what you can do. Do your research on the cameras and decide which type you want; point and shoot or SLR, where your options are increased. Digital cameras are not difficult, you fiddle a little at first, more with the software than with the camera, but it's no biggie.

You can add memory and carry extra memory with you very easily. My camera uses SD memory, and I put 800 high def photos on a 2G SD card with lots of room left over.

I really like digital cameras, I love having access to photos right away, i can look at them on the LCD screen on the camera itself, or on my computer. I can e-mail them to my family and friends. It's awesome. I posted my big trip's photos on a web site, where everyone I know could go and look at them. Have a blast

You should deffinately go for a san disk memory card. Canon cameras are really good. I bought a kodak one a few years ago and then bought a new canon one and as far as i'm concerned, nothing can live up to my canon digital camera!!! It's better to get a camera with 5 or more pixels because if you put pictures on the computer and have a lower number of pixels, then they are really blury if you make the picture big. These cameras are really easy to get pictures from. All you have to do is hook it up to your computer and you can send your file of pictures to any store and they will print them out. You can also do it in the comfort of your own home if you have a printer.

A good camera has all kinds of settings. You can override aperture and shutter speed. You can control ISO sensitivity, white balance, exposure level, and on and on.

Largest picture size is whatever you are willing to blow it up to. And from what I gather, 10megapixels is only really necessary if you are printing posters - the CCDs are more subject to noise than a 5 megapixel CCD. A 5 mega will allow you to create prints 11x14, 16x20 easily.

The cameras also allow you to balance resolution and image quality. So you can set the thing to do snapshots at 1.3 megapixels and fancy photog at 5 megapixels.

Most cameras now use SD cards. If you really are into it, make sure you get a really good high speed (133x) card with high capacity (1GB or more). Get several. You only need enough to store one or two photo sessions, then you go home and copy the photos to your hard disk and then on to DVD or CD for archiving, and re-use the card.

One note, all cameras save their photos in lossless compressed formats. If you really want pure, uncompressed photo data, you need to get a camera that supports RAW format, which is a raw data dump from the imager. Canon supports this in some models, I don't know who else does.

My friend is big into the RAW format. Be warned tho, it makes for BIG files (therefore, fewer fit on a card).

Here's a great site for digital camera reviews:

http://www.dpreview.com/

I had a canon Powershot S50 that I lost in Alaska and now have a Canon S2-IS. You'll probably want to go with a real SLR body though, that takes standard lenses.

GOOD LUCK and ENJOY!

To add my 2 cents worth, and I certainly don't deserve 2 points for this, here goes. This type of question is asked probably hundreds of times over last few months, and this time I'm amazed at how many excellent answers you received.

I myself am very satisfied with my Sony Cybershot DSC-H2. Takes excellent 8X10s when enlarged, has 6 megapixels, 12X optical zoom,image stabilizer. Can also set shutter speed or aperature.

Since you say you take lots of photos, buy the highest memory card there is for your camera. 5 to 6 megapixels should be sufficient.

If your last 35mm camera was a slr, you probably would want the same in digital. There the only 2 brands to consider is Nikon and Canon. Well that was my 2 cents, everybody else said it all.

pixels aren't always an indication of quality. I too am an avid photographer & love messing around with my images. I did a lot of research into the best type of digital camera. I am really impressed with the Canon PowerShot S2 IS which is 5 mega pixels (not sure if they've updated this model as I bought it a year ago). The site to buy cameras & other electronic equipment is abesofmaine.com - you'll save a fortune. Also get a 1GB memory card.

Happy snapping!!

I find 8 MP to be equal to standard 100 film speed quality. In fact I find it superior. There is still no grain even with enlarging 1/10 the full frame to 4x6

A few cameras will let you adjust shutter speed or aperature separately (priority). Cameras such as the Kodak 612/712, Sony H2, Canon S3, Canon A710

You're best bet, however would be either a Nikon D40 or Canon XT

I think you'll find them better than the lower end cameras.

the only question i can answer is the one on memory! If you want to take TONS of pictures the least amount of memory you want to use is a 1GB card. depending on which camera it holds about 400 to 1000 pictures. the link to the chart is below