Back in the market for a camera (Read 1781 times)

thanks for the photoshopping ideas..i'm downloading gimp at the moment.

only one piece of advice for cameras...DO NOT, and i mean DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE buy a Kodak.  They are a bugger to try and do anything with on the computer.  My mom did not follow my advice and bought my sister one, while i suggested fujifilm or canon, and i have had problems with it for 1.5 years.

I have a couple of Olympus Tough cameras and love them.  If you tend to subject your camera to water, impacts, etc, these are the way to go.  They aren't exceptional in picture quality or features, although both are certainly good.  One of them (forget the model number) has a feature where you can just tap the sides of the camera to operate it... great if you are in the water or wearing gloves.

I'm a Gimp user.  

But the Gimp's sleeping...

I have a couple of Olympus Tough cameras and love them.  If you tend to subject your camera to water, impacts, etc, these are the way to go.  They aren't exceptional in picture quality or features, although both are certainly good.  One of them (forget the model number) has a feature where you can just tap the sides of the camera to operate it... great if you are in the water or wearing gloves.

 I also have the Olympus Tough camera and love it!  I bring it on all my trail runs.  It has an awesome sport mode that allows me to capture photos without really stopping.  It will even take video under water.  Love it.

It has the tap feature but I've never dedicated enough time to learn how to use it.

I'm a Gimp user.  There's not much it can't do, but be prepared for a learning curve.  If you stick with it, though, you'll be an awesome photoshopper (lower case - sorry, Adobe, you're losing control of that trademark).

 

I still need to climb that learning curve.

Olympus TOUGH series are great for durability. A friend dragged one from the back of a powerboat going 30MPH. No problem. Should be able to handle any chore if durability is an issue. Image quality is good. You're always going to sacrifice something to get the durability.

 

Canon's ultacompact is the 'digital elph'.  I've had two over the years.  The first one was circa 2002 (when 3 Mpix was the standard).  It did what I wanted it to do and was durable.  Towards the end of 2008, the images started getting blurry.

 

So I replaced it with the SD780 IS.  I'm pretty sure it has all the features you are looking for... it certainly has all the features I need.  Then again, I'm barely a photographer.  Anyway, definitely ultracompact and loaded with features including image stabilization (the IS in the name... which can be turned off).  It seems just as sturdy as the 2002 model I had, though I haven't beat it up to check.

 

It is now NOT the top of the line Elph camera... you can do better.  There's an SD1000 and an SD1200.  I don't know anything about them.  I do know you can still get the 780 for about 180-200 bucks.

 

If you want beat-the-crap-out-of-it durability in an ultra-compact, Olympus has a line of those.  And they can get wet... even dunkable... without giving up.

Olympus Tough 6020. Waterproof, shockproof, great image quality. So far so good (a few weeks). Best thing is, I just stick it into a pocket and don't worry about protecting it, has a metal shutter that covers the lens when it's off.