A
ancientgeek
Guest
I haven't visited this forum before. But the things I've found wrong with cameras don't seem to bother the people here! Manufacturers focus on what's easy (eg pixel count). Doesn't mean that it's important for taking pictures. What I find important is:
short shutter lag (essential for pets/children/sports) (rules out nearly everything)
decent LCD you can see in daylight (rules out many), or SLR
decent wide angle (that rules out 99% of the products available)
external flash facility (also rules out nearly everything)
pocketable if possible, otherwise don't care about size
reasonable macro facility
non proprietary memory format (no memory stick for me)
supported by the manufacturer now and in the future rather than being a disposable item (just leaves me with Nikon then!)
finally of course price is important because this is still a fairly fast evolving area. I usually buy used on ebay.
I have great respect for Nikon's integrity as a company, especially in regard of continuing support of cameras bought several years ago. So when there's only a small difference, I've tended to choose Nikon. You can call that personal preference.
You'll notice I didn't even mention: pixel count, long telephoto, or even sharpness or colour balance of pictures. They are simply less important to me than the above because differences are mainly relatively small.
Current household cameras (both compromises) are: Coolpix 5400 (5Mpix) and Nikon D1 (2.7MPix). A D1 pixel is definitely worth at least 2 5400pixels.
short shutter lag (essential for pets/children/sports) (rules out nearly everything)
decent LCD you can see in daylight (rules out many), or SLR
decent wide angle (that rules out 99% of the products available)
external flash facility (also rules out nearly everything)
pocketable if possible, otherwise don't care about size
reasonable macro facility
non proprietary memory format (no memory stick for me)
supported by the manufacturer now and in the future rather than being a disposable item (just leaves me with Nikon then!)
finally of course price is important because this is still a fairly fast evolving area. I usually buy used on ebay.
I have great respect for Nikon's integrity as a company, especially in regard of continuing support of cameras bought several years ago. So when there's only a small difference, I've tended to choose Nikon. You can call that personal preference.
You'll notice I didn't even mention: pixel count, long telephoto, or even sharpness or colour balance of pictures. They are simply less important to me than the above because differences are mainly relatively small.
Current household cameras (both compromises) are: Coolpix 5400 (5Mpix) and Nikon D1 (2.7MPix). A D1 pixel is definitely worth at least 2 5400pixels.