Need digital camera advice plz before Friday!

[Daehawk]

In another thread Simon recommended the Cannon A75 and I was all set to go with that. Trouble now comes from Wal-Mart. This Friday they are going to have the Kodak Easyshare DX4530 on sale for $198...only a few bucks difference than the Cannon A75.

This Kodak is 5mp and the Cannon is 3mp. Im not sure what to do now. I was all set on the A75 and its great reviews but this one is a 5mp one so it should be even better and Kodak is a trusted name brand. What to do what to do?

A75 or DX4530?

You can find reviews of these at http://www.steves-digicams.com/

BTW Walmart is giving the docking cradle away with the Kodak ..a $79 value they say.

[Thin_J]

I have no experience with any Kodak cameras, so I can't help with that particular comparison.

What I can tell you is that I've played quite a bit with my dad's Canon A75, and it's an excellent camera. In an effort to save just a little bit of money I went $50 lower and picked up a Sony DSC-P41. It's been a good camera, but the overall picture quality is not up there with my dad's A75, despite the fact that my camera is a 4.1 megapixel and his is 3.5. I still wish to this day that I'd just spent the extra $50 and gotten that camera instead.

[leo8877]

I have the A75 and I can tell you this:  It is an easy to use camera that takes fantastic pictures.

[Daehawk]

Eh I guess ill stick with the A75 choice..2 less MP but i think it'd still beat it in quality.

[Jocke]

You should not stare yourself blind on megapixels. All that does is determine how large you can enlarge a picture and still retain sharpness in picturequality. 3 MP lets you enlarge quite a bit if I recall correctly.

[EngineNo9]

Be sure to look at other features like Optical zoom, which is a true zoom unlike digital zoom which just enlarges portions of the current digital picture.  

If you plan on taking close-up pictures (for example detailed pictures of flowers or something) you will also want to check out the focal length of the cameras.  For general use this isn't too much of a concern.  

I have a Kodak DX6340, and it has been an excellent camera for me.  It is a 3.1 MegaPixel camera, with 4x Optical and 6x Digital Zoom.  Another feature that I really love is that it not only can capture video, but it has a built in microphone to capture sound with your video files.

Forgot to mention that I have the docking station, also, and I really like it.  In addition to an easy way to transfer files to the computer, it also recharges the batteries on the camera whenever it's sitting on docking station.

[croman]

I am a sucker for the digital cameras with large optical zooms.

Before I had an Olympus Ultra-Zoom C-700 with a 10x Optical Zoom.  After that broke (it was in my car with me during the accident) I bought (this last weekend actually) the Fugu S5100.  Another camera with a 10x Optical Zoom.

So far I just love this thing!  Much better than the Olympus was

[leo8877]

Just wanted to note that the A75 also can take video and it has a built in mic to capture audio.

[Viggo Bartok]

Anyone use the Canon "elph" or similar ultra-small cameras? I have been using a "credit card" size camera with very limited features but I love being able to carry it so easily! I have taken hundreds of pictures that I otherwise never would have do to inconvenience. I have been thinking about getting something much better.

[leo8877]

I haven't, but I know Sony makes a really tiny 5MP camera that's supposed to be good.

[Purge]

The Kodak Easyshare is a nice camera. I used one once (4MPx) and the features, recording and pictures were sharp with good color contrast.

The cradle is GREAT... it's so damned convenient. You put it in the cradle and it charges the battery, and connects to your PC to download as well. If I'm not mistaken, newer versions can be used as webcams. I know for sure the older models had video and audio. They also have cradles that do photo printing, although I'm not familiar with the sizes on that.

If you *do* get the kodak, under windows XP be sure to change the following file :

c:\windows\inf\ptpusb.inf
; Table of Contents
[Manufacturer]
%Generic.Mfg%=Generic
;%MfgFlashPoint%=ModelsFlashPoint
;%MfgSony%=ModelsSony
;%MfgKodak%=ModelsKodak

Take out the semi-colon ( at the beginning. Now your camera is supported natively in Windows. MS built in the support before they got the OK, and then Kodak said they wanted their own software so MS disabled it in the OS.  <shrug> works like a charm. I don't know if the newer models need it, but my older one did.

I have a Sony now, but I miss some of the convenience it had.

[/$0.02]