DSC W1, it is older but the TFT screen (viewer) pixel is what counts in my opinion. For some reason Sony dropped the newer models screen pixels to 115,000 instead of the 123,000. The 8,000 pixels made a difference in what you saw on the screen. It kinda like the WYSIWYG.

I lost my W1 and got the W5 as a replacement. I miss the screen clarity that the W1 had. It allow you to see micro shots in close detail and I noticed that I had to download the pic to the pc in order to see the representation of the image on the W5.

One

 

Get a camera that has a nice lens, Panasonic outsource their lenses from Leica. If you know Leica, they make 3-4k dollar cameras. They are pretty high end stuff. Sony is okay but im not too fond of their low light pictures, yes they use Zeiss lenses but they arent that great. Megapixels dont mean crap, the standard is 6-8 right now and i dont think it will be going any higher due to the fact there is no need to. Get one with a nice lens (canon, nikon, panasonic, fuji, sony) and low aperature of 2.8 or so with image stability for low light conditions. Anything higher than 5.6 as the lowest aperature will produce bad pictures in low light.

Also get a camera with optical zoom of 3x or better, digital zoom pictures are very pixelated.

go to www.dpreview.com they have indepth reviews of all makes of cameras

Kenneth

 

5 megapixel is enough for regular 6X4 photo prints
8 megapixel is enough for full 8X11 photo prints
but who really prints photo on paper these days.
I would suggest getting somewhere between 5-8 megapix.
+1 for fujifilm/canon/nikon
those are my 3 favorite camera maker.

 

i think digital 4x6 prints are about 18 cents at sams club. I usually print a few out to show people when you dont have a computer handy.

 

i have a 3.2 megapixel and it prints out 4x6 prints fine. especially for people pics (unless you want to see everyone's pores ).

if you want to so supermacro pics or nice scenery pics, then it might be a different story. but then again, you'd probably want a bigger print anyway.

like penguin said, it's the lens that matters.

 

I went back and reread your post, and have no idea why you put this, but whatever, I was just sharing my knowledge, since ISO 800 on a compact camera may not be as great as it sounds, because of noise.

 

personally i want to get a canon SLR for the function
and ultra compact camera something like nikon S6 or canon for the convienence.
you can't really replace SLR's functions with the ultra compact camera.

 

typically with any point and shoot cameras, you will have bad low light shots regardless of what marketing ploys the manufacture give you. anything over ISO 400 on P/S cameras have a lot of noise

 

just sell your car and get a hasselblad

http://www.hasselbladusa.com/

 

I really like the new Nikon D200 but since I have Canon lenses I stuck with the 30D. You can get a canon rebel xt for 5-700 online if you look around.

The manual settings on a SLR sets aparts what a regular shot is and what a shot that was thought out.

 

SLRs are cool but it would be a waste of cash for me since I would have to learn to use it. I think I would be good with either an S5/S6 type camera or one of the ones with 10x-12x optical zoom.

 

I love photography but just never had the chance to really explore it.
I have a old school nikon film camera.
I never really got into digital. I only have a 2 megapx fuji film camera.
I'm thinking of getting a ultra compact camera first for the convienence of bringing it where ever I travel.
and maybe in the future getting digital SLR for the advance photography.

for most ppl i suggest getting 6-8 mega pixel compact or ultra compact camera.
read the reviews before you buy.
camera these days have so much functions and technical mumbo jumbo it's hard to the regular joe to understand.

 

I love both of my digis, the E10 is nice and small, so I carry it for my Photo-A-Day project, and my DSLR is what I use when I'm actually planning to go out and shoot. They compliment each other very well.

 

My SD500 @ Kyoto

 

That looks real nice.