I need a new camera. I’ve had this one for a few years, and I’ve loved it. The only feature it’s missing is that super-fast sports mode. And since, you know, we’re so sporty around here, I’m wondering if my new camera should be able to do this, so not all of my action shots look like this:
On the other hand, although I love taking pictures of my kids, I have no aspirations to be a real photographer. I can hardly keep up with a blog, much less with a dazzling photography career. In addition, don’t have any desire to have to learn about different kinds of lenses or to figure out how to focus my own lens for goodness sakes. Point and shoot, friends, I’m all about it!
But because I dropped it on the pavement for some reason, my camera isn’t working very well right now. Okay, it’s not really working at all. First, it took every picture in blurry mode. (NO, they were not action shots, but thank you for asking.) Now, the viewfinder is just black. If you click, however, it will still reward you with a fine, blurry picture. I’m thinking ahead, here, and I’m just guessing that a Christmas filled with blind, blurry photos isn’t exactly what I’m after.
And, so, the shopping begins. And I’m stumped. Do I go for something a little fancier, and get the faster sports-friendly shutter speed? Or do I stick with what I know, what fits nicely in my purse, and live with a blurry shot in the scrapbook every now & then? I think both of these cameras are cute, but I’m not sure “cute” is the best criteria for this particular purchase. Shoes, sure. Camera, not so much…
So will you help? Help! Please offer any and all opinions, so when we look back on Christmas 2008, it won’t be through the blurry lens of my broken Canon Powershot sd550!
I’m with ya, girl. My camera produces 96% blurry images and it’s not even broken. Good luck with your new camera search, I’m excited for you!
My only advice is to check out amazon.com That’s where I like to look because you can read the reviews AND also see photos taken with that actual camera. I think that’s a huge bonus.
Good luck and have fun!
We are looking at cameras too. We’d love to spring for a digital SLR, but we don’t really have the money for that right now, and there’s something to be said for having a small one-hand camera when you’re chasing after kids. I hope you find a good one!
(imho) costco is far and away the best place to get a digital camera. great prices, awesome packages (lots come with an extra battery, big memory card, case, etc…), and good warranty/return policy if you don’t love the one you picked after you’ve tried it for a little while.
my recommendation is to go to costco and pick a few that you like but don’t get them. come home and research what people are saying about them online (amazon, cnet, etc…) and then go back and get the one that suits you best.
good luck!
PS…I have an award for you!
i need a new camera too! and i love cannons. I’ll buy whatever you buy.
That is exactly what my husband just gave me for Christmas. It’s a Canon Rebel Xsi. It’s awesome. I also liked my Kodak Easyshare.
OK… I can’t resist to sway you to a digital slr. First, you can still use all automatic on every shot — never fiddling with a single dial (except moving the dial to “sports” mode.) It’s just like a point and shoot, so no worries with figuring stuff out there.
Here’s the other thing. My son knocked my NikonoD80 off the picnic table this summer and I was stuck with no camera. My husband dropped off his Nikon Coolpix for me to use. It’s a very good camera, and it’s so light. And because I use all the automatic settings on my d80 anyway, I thought this would be no big deal. However, I was amazed at how “slow” it was; where was the clarity? I hated the point and shoot — and I had only been using my slr for a couple of months. Now, when I look at the digital prints, you can see a vast, huge difference between the slr and the coolpix. You can get a fairly inexpensive slr, I think the d60 is pretty good, stay away from the d40.
(My D80 survived the fall, all it needed was a 5-second tweak in the camera shop, and was fine — free!)
I have since ventured to the manual modes, and they’re actually pretty easy to figure out!