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Old 05-26-2009, 10:59 PM   #12 (permalink)
Anatoray
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That completely depends on what kind of camera you're looking for. If you want a versatile, full featured camera, one of the "Bridge" cameras usually are best, those are the big ones that look like mini DSLRs. These offer all of the features of the smaller compact point and shoot cameras, and throw in better components for zoom, picture quality, flash, as well as finer manual controls, but be warned that most of these only offer digital control of those manuals, so you won't be able to make a fine personal touch like with a DSLR. When it comes to these types of cameras, Sony and Canon seem to make the better ones, both having just released new Top models. They cost 300-700, depending on which one you get and where you go. Bear in mind, that these usually use the smaller memory card types, and in order to use their top features you will need to use the fastest versions of these cards, so do your research on those.

For compact point and shoot, the field is obviously much bigger. If all you want is an ok camera you can carry around anywhere and shoot the odd video, pick your poison. Nikon, Sony, and Canon all make really good point and shoot cameras, each with their own set of problems when compared to each other. Samsung has been getting better with their cameras, and can usually be had for much cheaper than those 3.

Finally, you have the DSLRs. These are the big ones that professionals use, and for these, I would recommend Nikon or Canon. Which model you want depends on what you want to do with it, but also remember that for these, you need to buy different lenses for different jobs. The benefit of this is that the lenses are universal, so if you ever need to buy a new DSLR down the road, you can purchase the body only for much cheaper. Sony does make DSLRs, but I find them to be lacking due to poor sensors thus far. I have not tried their newest alpha though. These are the ones I check out the least, since they have the least amount of uses for me, but if you're into photography, the Canon XT Rebel is a cheap DSLR that is fairly nice.

Ultra compacts... screw them. These cameras do everything that point and shoots do, except poorly, and for much more money. Sacrifices are made to make these, and you lose out on the sensor size. This flaw has been hidden with the whole 1080p photo BS the companies seem to like feeding people these days, but if you ever shoot at their advertised MPs the photos come out grainy as hell if the light isn't good.

If I remember Son'ys naming correctly, the T33 is an ultra compact and runs on Memory stick duos. So maybe a Sony camera is in order for you since you can reuse the media. Sony's cameras all use Memory stick duos, but the alpha DSLRs also support compact flash. Right now, they are phasing out the W300, so you may be able to find one for cheap from a store trying to dump the rest of their stock.
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