OT- what kind of camera do you carry?

[deermaster1]

just wondering what kinda digi camera everybody was carrying in the field with ya.  my kodak c340 finally gave up the ghost, and i am looking for a small 6-10 mp.  i dont really have any need for an sli, and cant spend the money on one.  id appreciate it if you'd ley me know what you are using, and about how much is cost.  im looking to spend 250-300 tops.  thanks

[non-typical]

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ5. Light, ultra zoom, built in stabalizer. Takes fantastic pictures. Not 6-10 mp which is overkill.

[Killdeer]

Just bought one for my husband, Mockingbird. This gave me the opportunity to shop and compare features, and I ended up picking out a Canon Powershot SX 110 IS.

Clark isn't really into photography, so the camera is fairly simple to use. As he gets more proficient with it, however, there are features on it that he can explore and use to expand his capabilities.

I carry a G9, which is kinda pricey but a good camera. Clark's will do just about everything mine will, but costs less and runs on AA batteries. Don't forget a case!

Killdeer  

[John Nail]

what kind of batery life do you get with the Canon and Panasonic? I have a Fuji Finepix that EATS batteries. I wouldn't buy another one because of that.

[John3]

A few years ago I bought a Kodak EasyShare C643 without really knowing what I was getting as it was my first digital.  All I knew was that a high megapixal count was important. Needless to say I lucked out. A perfect camera with more features than I will ever use. Night/day settings, zoom, shoots video, 6.1 pixal count, ect, ect.. All that for just under $200.00..
Well made camera. It has been on many "adventures" to wild places from 100 degrees in SD to below zero in Kansas and always worked perfect.  
Shop a bit, you don't have to spend $800.00 to get a "good" camera.

John III

[John3]

I forgot to add... Spend the $20 to get set up with rechargable AA's and the charger.. I bought the 4pk of the best quality batteries. One pair is in the camera the other in the case. A few hours in the charger and all are good to go.

John III

[Flinttim]

John , my wife wanted a digi cam for Christmas. I decided to get her one I could "borrow" now and again. I bought a Fuji Finepix j10  8.2 mpx. Small and easy to use.BUT it came with a battery pack and charger. She used it Xmas morning (about 30 pics) and took it to the wedding Saturday and burned thru at least another 40 pics before the battery pack ran out.All indoors so the flash was used a lot. I can't swear to it w/o measuring but the battery pack is about the size and looks like 3 AAA batteries. Check your owner's manual, maybe you can get a pack and charger for your's.

 Technology is always a crap shoot. I bought a Sony digi cam when they first came out. 2 something MPX, big as an old 35 mm slr and cost around 400 bucks. Now you can get one that fits in your shirt pocket and has 10 MPX for a hundred dollars. Truthfully, I ain't so sure you should spend big bucks for one. Pay around $100 or less and use 'em. They'll be old news in a year or two anyway.

[BradLantz]

Canon PowerShot S2 ... only 5 meg but powerful optical zoom allows me to take some nice photo's .... with 10 megapixel cameras available and SLR's for just a couple a hundred I should updgrade ...

[Killdeer]

John,
My Canon G9 gets good battery life in mild weather. I may go through one a week when I am hunting. I bought a power inverter for the truck, but haven't needed to recharge in the field. I have a couple of spares and keep them charged up. My husband's runs on AAs, and I got him some rechargeables and a charger. He hasn't used it enough to run the batteries down yet.   :rolleyes:  

Killdeer

[non-typical]

The Panasonic is easy on batteries. I use rechargeable ones. If I have doubts about how much life is left on one I switch out before heading out the door. The nice thing about the Panasonic is it uses the same SD chips as my game cameras so I buy in bulk without a lot of hassle.

[myshootinstinks]

I can tell you what NOT to carry, the inexpensive disposable film cameras.  I had one in my day pack for taking hunt pics.  Shot a nice little buck w/ my 'curve bow last Sept.  Not a single pic developed.

[mwmwmb]

i carry an kodak easyshare i forget the model. but have used several models in the field. they are good I like the battery pack better than
batteries.

[Chris Surtees]

I also carry a G9, which is a little more expensive but takes great pics and has good battery life. With the new G10 out you may find one on the auction for a good price. This is a great camera and I highly recommend it.

Also the some to look at are the SX110 IS, SD990 IS, and SD790 IS.

Check out the Canon USA website. You can compare features between the cameras you may be interested in.

[metsastaja]

I use a Nikon coolpix with a 7inch Jobby wrap around tripod. The jobby allows me to attach camera to my stands or a branch. I keep the camera mounted by my left knee while on stand. This allows me to swivel zoom etc with very little movement.

Camera takes great pictures and ok videos.

Check B&H photo New York for online pricing. They are a very large professional camera outlet and frequently have the lowest prices and great service

[dino]

I carry a casio exilim ex-s600 which is a very compact 6 meg pixel camera.  You can shoot videos on it as well.  With a back up rechargeable battery I am good for 2 or 3 weeks without recharging taking 100s of pics.  I used to carry a larger canon that take awesome pics too, but becuase of its size it was a pain to carry and a hassle to take it out of my pack.  With a smaller pocket camera I could carry it in my pocket and tend to take many more pics while hunting if my camera is light and accessible. dino

[J-KID]

Canon SD1000.  7.1 MP, a variety of shooting modes, excellent video, rechargeable battery (I got an extra off auction site), very small.  I keep it in a small waterproof Otter case in my pack.  Can be purchased for $149.00 if you look around.  I've had 4 Canon's (my daughters seem to acquire them) and my next one will be the G10.

[wingnut]

Forgot my camera this year on our elk hunt and picked up a canon Power shot A470 at Cabelas.  It was $100 and is perfect for the pack.  It's a 7.1 meg camera with 3.4x optical zoom and takes very good pics.  Also it runs on AA batteries which is nice in camp.


Mike

[larry]

knowing nothing about cameras but wanting one, my wife got me a casio exilim ex-z9 for Christmas, it's very small, but has a real good size back screen, it does more stuff than I'll ever figure out, but it takes a real nice pic and does take videos, but I haven't got that far yet.

[John Nail]

My Fuji A210 will run down fresh Alkaline AA batteries in 2 weeks just sitting there TURNED OFF.

[JL]

I can only wish I had a G9....y'all are livin good!

I have been shooting digital ever since it really started and have bought/sold more cameras then I can remember. I currently own a Nikon DSLR and several point and shoot cameras.

For a point and shoot compact, it's hard to beat Canon for features and picture quality. I look for one that use's AA batteries. You can get AA's anywhere but if your cameras uses a proprietary cell and it looses it's charge, you have to recharge it before you can use the camera. The rechargable AA's are a very good choise and look at hybrid rechargeables. They have a much longer shelf life and retain their charge much longer then standard NiMH batteries. It's a good idea to load lithium batteries in your camera if you are going to be in a cold climate. They are the least affected by the cold and are strong batteries. Look for a strong optical zoom rating vs digital zoom. Digital zooms do all kinds of optical voodoo to picture quality. I personally never use the digital zoom feature on cameras. Again, some digital zooms are very good but there are cameras that have very good optical zooms. My Canon S3 IS (image stabilizer) has a 12X optical zoom and shoots great video to boot! The S3 is a great little camera (hint...)

Good thing about buying a used camera, a lot of folks are alway "upgrading" their equipment so there are deals to be had. I recently scored a Canon A540 with a 1 Gig card (great little camera) off fleabay for $39/delivered! Buy a decent size memory card (2 Gig SD card can be had for $10 or so, sometimes less) and always shoot at the highest resolution your camera offers. You can always reduce the size of the pic with any standard picture software (for emailing, posting pic's on the net,ect). You never know when your gonna capture that once in a lifetime shot and if your shooting in low resolution, well...

The world of digital cameras is always quickly evolving and new camera models seem to hit the market daily. I won't cost you much to land a good camera these days, they are everywhere. Some better then others (The Canon G series is a excellent line...) but you have to have the camera with you when you need it. Otherwise it's useless. Get a case to protect your camera from dust/rain/ect and always, always use that little wrist strap that comes with it. They are only good till the first drop (I know this from personal experience...). Lots of great choise's out there. I suggest doing a bit of research on what features you want in a camera first and go from there. $250-300 will get you a clean/used DSLR off fleabay these days.

Good luck in your search!

JL