OT what is a great pocket camara

My cell phone takes great pictures of the inside of my pocket all the time.

i recently upgraded my camera and got a canon powershot s95. i did a good bit of research before buying it and it came highly recommended by many people.

it's not the cheapest at $400, but it takes beautiful pictures in any conditions.

 
That's not an easy question Tim. Do you have a price range, a mega pixel requirement, zoom and macro needs. I take it you want something as automatic as can be?

I go with any of the great lens manufacturers. Like Nikon, Canon and I think Sony uses Zeiss lenses. Those are the ones that come to mind and there are others. The end result of your efforts is a photograph and a good lens is as a must. I always look at the zoom and close up features, they can add great versatility to a camera and some of these little marvels can do just about anything. A lot of mega pixels will add to the price like anything else and may not be as useful. I have a little Nikon point and shoot that goes up to 12 mega pixels and I always have it set lower so the files are smaller and I don't have to edit the images so much before I post to the forum.

I wish I could point to one camera for you and say that is the one that will make you the happiest but it isn't that simple. Do your research well and it will pay off in the end. A good site for reviews on cameras and gear is http://www.dpreview.com/.

Email me if there is any way I can be of help my friend,

Blair

 

Check your mail.

Mark

PS. The camera that deepsouth recommended is Consumer's Reports top pick in sub-compacts....

I have one of these as a backup for my DSLR.

Canon SX-130IS.

key features:

12x OPTICAL zoom (awesome btw.. I LOVE the zoom on it)
Image Stabilization (very important IMO)
records in 720p HD video
12.1 megapixels (not all that important, the Canon lens quality is)

best of all, it's small enough to fit in my pocket (although not as small as other P&S cameras).

Takes 2 AA batteries, but get yourself one of those AA battery chargers and 4 batteries, and it'll last you all weekend while you're drunk in New Orleans on Halloween. oops...

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-SX130IS-Stabilized-3-0-Inch/dp/B003ZSHNG8/ref=pd_cp_p_0

ive had two, i broke both within a year or two. one was a fujifilm finepix and the other was a little more money, a nikon coolpix. the fuji was maybe about 120 and it took better pictures of things close like flowers or food, seem to have a better focus at depth, the nikon was netter for distance shots. for me taking fish, food, dog pics the fuji was great. my next camera will be an inbetween with a big digital zoom, my nikon d60 doesnt cut it without buying all the different lenses for me

these were taken with a cheap fuji, notice how focused the background is, my nikon coolpix would never do this

My two cents. I have several digital cameras. I have the SLR type (Canon) with interchangeable lenses. It stays in the camera bag most of the time because it's overkill for most purposes. I have a "pocket" digital camera (Lumix LX-3) which is somewhat limited in its zoom range (approx 24 - 60 mm) but has a very fast Leica lens which means you can shoot with available light (no flash) in most circumstances. I use this frequently.

That said, the camera I use the most is the one I always have in my pocket. It's a 5 megapixel camera and it takes remarkable pictures. It's the camera that comes with my iPhone 4. The camera applications available make this a very compelling alternative to carrying around a camera. I transfer the pictures to the computer with an application called "Transfer" which allows me to upload my keepers to "the cloud" and then to my computer; no memory cards, cable or card reader required. It's pretty much a no-brainer in my opinion.

Not trying to get into a iPhone versus Blackberry versus Android discussion. Or get into a debate about digital cameras. Just saying what works for me, hope this helps.

Attached is a sample of a picture that I took with my iPhone:




Chuck L.