recommendations on cameras

“I'm thinking of getting a camera quickly before I leave on my 1/3 of a thru-hike. Looking at my largish clunky 35mm camera has put me in the mood. (It was small for its time.)

Any thoughts, a quick trip to wal-mart today left me quite undecided. Its a 55 mile drive to best buy, but I'm willing.

Small and light weight is good, as is weather resistance and AAA batteries, but AA is OK (want something standard). I'd settle for 2 Mpixel but prefer the option to go 3-4 Mpixel. Prefer it to be under $200 and I'm undecided about the memory, but I think I like the idea of SD rather than a memory stick (can get 64Mb SD for $11) about the cost of a roll of film.

Probably I want a 3X or so optical zoom; could care less about digital zoom.”

“Check this site dude...

www.dpreview.com”

“Take a look at this one:

Canon PowerShot A400

Takes AA batteries and SD memory.
last edited: 5/04/05 3:56:14 PM”

“Pentax Option 33wr or 44wr. Class 7 Waterproof case. 2.7x optical zoom. Takes AA's. Small, light, etc.

Pentax Optio 43wr”

“You might also look at the Canon A75. It has a 3x zoom. I have the A85 which is similar, but has 4 MP. I was able to get it for under $200. That might be hard if you don't have too many stores near you.

Have you thought about mail order? Best Buy isn't much of a discounter and their service stinks and Wal-mart generally carries older models.

Try http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ or http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/home.asp”

“Good thread.
I'm thinking of a camera for my backpacking nephew for grad day.
Under $300.”

“or you could buy my Sony 2.1MP DSC-P50 for $70 with a 128meg memory stick. takes pretty good pics for a 2.1... aa batteries, and pretty tough.”

“I just bought my son an olympus Verve. It is a water resistant camera. It takes great pictures and is very easy to use. I did a lot of research before I bought this and I made the right choice. It has some cool sounds on start up which does nothing for the pictures but having your camera sound like a car starting up it pretty neat for a 11yr old. http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_product_lobbypage.asp?l=1&p=16&bc=27&product=1130”

“I have orsered 2 cameras and one very expensive video camera from Abes of Maine. Totally satisfied with the support and well as the prices whith these guys.

http://www.abesofmaine.com/”

“Hey Stove - check out the Canon S410 ELPH.

We got one for my daughter. Its super compact, nearly bulletproof and takes really impressive photos. The only drawback is that it takes proprietary batteries so if it dies on the trail, you have to have a backup which costs around $45. But like I said, I'm really impressed with the quality of the pictures it produces.”

“These guys will beat any price.....

www.jr.com”

“I see jr.com is an authorized dealer. That's important to determine before you buy. It would suck to save a few bucks only to find you have no warranty.”