Camera Purchasing Advice . Review on Choosing a Camera

First of all - don't go by brandname. See my review of the N-60 camera to know what I mean. I would avoid the Nikon brand name unless you want to pay more and buy a poor quality product.

In my experience, you should no longer waste money purchasing film based cameras. If you must buy a film camera, get yourself a point and shoot for low cost now and upgrade to a digital one later on - prices are falling and quality is advancing all the time. I have found Fuji Film based Point and Shoots to be amazingly good. However, Digital camera's have advanced to the point that some of them take better pictures than film based cameras. Even National Geographic recently shot an entire article entirely using Digital Camera's.

If you don't want to listen to me and must buy an SLR, the Minoltas take the best pictures. Its better to buy other brand lenses such as Tokina, Sigma and Tamron. and save some money in the process.

For a point and shoot digital camera - my current favorite is the Olympus D-560 owned by my kid brother. Shirtpocket size, it takes exceptional pictures. Two friends who bought this camera on my advice, are also very happy with their purchases. Two rechargeable batteries will allow you to take about 50 pictures with plenty of flash usage. The LCD display at the back of the camera is huge - almost occupies the height of the camera. There is much more to a digital camera than Megapixels. The CCD noise (which shows up as a grainy picture), the color fidelity, and abilty to handle large variations in light are very important. Equally important is the quality of the lens (color fringing, sharpness, barrel distortion), the accuracy of exposure and the ability to accurately adjust white balance.

Higher price and brand name does not necessarily translate to better pictures. For instance, a Sony 3.2 MegaPixel camera that an acquaintance bought took far far poorer quality pictures than the Olympus D560. The Sony also cost quite a bit more to purchase. Sony might make good televisions, but that does not translate into an expertise in cameras. If you want a good camera, stick to a camera company. Just as you might not buy a TV made by Olympus, don't buy a camera made by Sony.

For a more substantial digital camera - one that can adjust any parameter you can think of (and many that you are not aware of), my favorite is the C5050 olympus. There is no extra advantage in getting a digital SLR (other than being able to use interchangeable lenses). Using the LCD screen, one can easily compose pictures while viewing them ''thru the lens''. I myself own an Olympus C-4000 (paid $350). Don't know if it is still being sold - but if it is - its a killer camera. I was left gawking at my 8X10 photo prints. Just read its review on Amazon or someplace like that and you will know what I mean.  People with decent photographic experience generally give this camera 5 stars.

I personally dislike the software that comes with Olympus camera's - but thats a small price to pay for high quality pictures. The other company making really good digital cameras is Canon - but I like their more expensive camera's (the G2's and G3's). The picture quality on the lower end ''A'' prefixed models seems poorer than the Olympus and they cost quite a bit more. Plus, they have small LCD screens. Another camera that I have personally examined and found takes nice pictures is the Fuji 3800.

for a picture that is sized 8X10, a 2 megapixel camera is actually sufficient and 3.2 megapixel is overkill. The advantage I have found (with more megapixels) is that one can crop an image substantially and still obtain good looking enlargements.

There is also not much advantage by going in for zoom lenses longer than 3 - 4X. It is very hard to hold the camera sufficiently steady with long zooms (like a 10X zoom) - unless you are shooting in bright light and the shutter speed is inherently very high. Plus they tend to have smaller apertures and are generally poorer quality than a lens with a smaller zoom.

Ignore the ''digital zoom'' rating on a camera. That is nonsense. You will get the same effect by cropping a picture. Only look at the optical zoom parameter. 3X is quite decent for practical purposes.

One last bit of advice -  you must use Nickel Metal Hydride rechargeable batteries ( unless lithium batteries are built in). Regular AA batteries just cannot provide the power surge demanded by these cameras and quickly fatigue (if they work at all) - frequently within a couple of shots. I would even suggest that you first buy the rechargeable batteries - and then the camera!!

Keep the batteries cool if you want them to last long. Don't get them too warm during charging and neither should you charge/drain warm batteries.