Cathy wrote:
Hi all,
I've been looking for the last few months for a digital camera in stores
and read tons and tons of reviews, and now am confused as to what I
should get.
I want a camera with at least a 1.8" LCD and a clear viewfinder that is
not blurry (to me at least).
I mainly want a camera for family indoor shots and scenery when I go
somewhere .
But many will be indoors, so I want to try to get one with not much red
eye, though I notice many seem to have that problem. I look at many
reviews and photo samples on Steves site and dresource.com. (I like
those two sites the best, but also have been to depreview.com.) I know
you can take red eye out with software, but I would prefer if possible
to try to get a camera that doesn't have a lot of red eye. I like
pictures that turn out clear and sharp.

A 3.2 MP is ok for me, as I don't want to pay much more than $250.00 US
or under. I am in Canada, but just to give you an idea of price.

Here's what I was considering:

Canon A75 or A85, but needing 4 batteries kind of puts me off. I would
prefer 2 batteries. Canon have recently brought out two new cameras, the
A510- 3 MP and the A520 - 4 MP which have two batteries and they take SD
memory cards. I was thinking of buying one of them, but the reviews on
all the sites I looked at, said they had a lot of red eye, and were not
as good as A75 and A85.

The difference in weight and bulk won't be much, but it may be enough to
matter to you. And depending on other differences between the two
cameras, there may not even be a significant difference at all. I'd be
much more concerned with the number of shots you can take -- will an A85
that uses four AAs and a CF card let you take more shots before
reloading than an A520 that uses only two AAs and sn SD card? (I don't
know the answer, but I'm sure someone here does. Or you can check one
of the several good Websites and magazines that do their own reviews.)

Kodak CX 7530, is a good price right now, and I like the look of Kodak
DX 7440, which is about $100.00 more.

Is the appearance of the DX 7440 (and any difference in features, of
course) worth the extra money to you? I know the way a camera looks
shouldn't matter all that much as long as it takes pictures that look
good, but it does to me too -- I want a camera that *looks* like serious
equipment, even if it isn't any more "serious" than one that looks like
a toy.

Or Olympus D 580, also a good price camera. The samples on dresource.com
were good of the Olympus D580, and very little redeye on indoor photo on
the site, but said the flash was weak unless taking small groups, but
that might not be a big problem for me.

Redeye is an annoyance, but it's usually easy to fix with software
before you begin printing -- except for cats and other creatures with
slit-shaped irises. If you don't mind an extra step, just about any
camera should work for you. (I photograph my cat using a Canon A20 in
"red-eye reduction" flash mode -- works well for me.)

Any and all comments or personal experiences with any of these cameras
would be much appreciated.

I'm a longtime fan of the Canon A-series, having begun with an A20 that
I still use more often than I care to admit. It's only 2 megapixels;
but the controls are right where my fingers expect them to be, it takes
lots of sharp photographs on a set of rechargeable AAs, and it doesn't
feel like an anchor when I'm carrying it. An ultracompact might might
be easier to carry, but I've never found one that was easier to actually
use; most are too small for my medium-size hands. Most advanced
compacts and DSLRs are capable of taking better pictures, but they're
also bigger and heavier -- and I don't need the extra quality for most
casual snapshots, which is why I still have the A20 and don't still have
the others.

Whatever you get, understand that no one camera is ideal and just look
for one that come acceptably close to satisfying your criteria. Then go
out and enjoy using it, because all the cameras you mentioned are pretty
good picture-takers and good values for the money IMHO.

--
Walter Luffman Medina, TN USA
Amateur curmudgeon, equal opportunity annoyer