Digital Cameras

I want a digital camera for Christmas and my parents have no clue what to buy. (neither do I)
Which is the best one? I MUST be under $300.00.
There are so many different kinds.

Thanks

We have a Fujifilm Finepix that I love, we took it to China and took hundreds of picture without worring about carrying film!

I have the same one as Karen and Paul and love it too!

I am looking into getting a little more fancier one though because I've been taking about 200 pics a week and get good use out of it.

We bought a Canon about six months ago and love it. Great lens quality, long battery life and easy to use and upload pics.

There are some good digital camera web sites around. These ones might be useful:

http://www.dpreview.com
http://www.megapixel.net/html/issueindex.html

I just bought a sony 2 weeks ago and I love it! I found on circuit city's website that it was voted the best dig. cam under $300 and I think they are right! It's got a lot of cool features and I love not having to go to the photo store!

Hey , great thread ! We are about to buy a digital , and so we are lurking around to make a good choice ! So , those web-sites I saw here wil be very usefull !
I know that Niina has a Sony , and the pics she makes with it are SUPER !

We have a Nikon Coolpix 950 (old) and are very content with it. :) But it's rather expensive. Go for a welknown one with a good optical zoom. They sometimes review digital cameras in computer magazines (MacWorld) and compare different brands.
I found this site - have a look! (click on Forums in the left field, and you can choose)

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1007

Hey Staci,

We have a Olympus D-510. I think it takes wonderful pictures & it was $299 (right in your range!). I got it at Staples.
It has zoom & takes short movie clips & has alot of other features. I'd definatly say shop around & find the right one for you. Here's the thread I started before we bought ours, maybe it will help you too. Paul tells alot about them in his post.
Digital Camera's

I really like the Olympus...we have a D-550. This is our second one, and they are fairly simple to use & figure out the features. Whichever one you get, I hope you like it!!!! :D

What a great site , Randi !
EVERY brand is there ; WAW !

We have an Olympus C-700.

I like it but it is my first experience with digital!

It was a gift from my husband so I don't know cost....

I would go with the camera with the most bang for the buck. Look for the number of megapixels and zoom capabilities. Mike likes the cameras with the smartmedia cards. We just have a little cheap Fugi that has basically no zoom, but we couldn't afford anymore at the time. I guess my advice is to not look necessarily at the brand name, but what is available for it.

We have the Cannon S30 its an awesome camera... I love it

We have a Nikon around $500 (too expensive for a newbie- LIKE ME!) I have taken 3 memory cards full of pictures........I just need to work on getting them where I want them!

There were some very good tips from Paul, but I do have a comment concerning batteries. Of course one should buy a camera using AA batteries, but I don't think you save money by buying normal AA batteries. These cameras eat batteries like there's no tomorrow. I have personaly found it's cheaper in the long run to buy rechargables. (Buy 2 sets otherwise they always run out at the worst possible moment!)

john