Recommendations wanted: mid-range camera

I have a film SLR for quality work, and am looking to supplement it with
a moderately-priced digital camera for situations where I either want to
see the results quickly or want to take a lot of photos and select a few
to keep.

I've done a fair bit of reading in magazines and online but am still
finding it difficult to work out which camera would be best. (How many
times a month do you hear this?)

Requirements:

1) RELIABLE. I'm getting pretty fed up with flakey electronic devices
with intermittent faults. Information on the reliability of different
digital camera brands doesn't seem easy to find. (I did find one web
page which said that Kodak and Sony were best for reliability, but
having had problems with both the Sony devices I've bought in recent
years (a video-camera and a television), I'll need a lot of convincing
to buy a Sony camera.)

2) I reckon 3 Mpixels will be ample, as it's mostly for on-screen
viewing and occasional 6x4 prints.

3) Zoom: at least 35-135 (35mm equivalent); more would be nice.

4) Decently short shutter delay; at least good enough for action shots
of the kids. Doesn't need to be state-of-the-art, but I understand there
are still cameras for sale with delays of over half a second, which
would be completely unacceptable.

5) I think I want a manual-focus option, both for difficult focusing
situations and for eliminating AF delay where needed. But I've read that
viewfinders are rarely good enough to allow accurate manual focusing in
anything below top-of-the-range models. Thoughts?

6) Exposu some sort of manual option; but +2/+1/-1/-2 stop overrides
of the automatic meter would probably be good enough; full manual not
essential.

7) Storage: whatever is widely available, reasonably priced and
reliable. (Recommendations?)

8) Batteries: Given the price of replacement proprietary batteries I
think I want to go for AAs.

9) Cost: under EUR 500 for a complete kit including spare batteries,
charger, sensible-sized storage and anything else I'll definitely need
to have. Could perhaps go a little higher if there is a sufficiently
strong reason.

Size/weight is not a major issue; I'm used to carrying a lot of stuff
around.

Recommendations?

--
Stephen Poley

Greetings Stephen,

Personally, for the features you mention and the amount of money you want to
spend $500 Euro (not sure what that relates to in US), I would consider the
DX6490. They are quite popular and will do a lot. The camera has an
electronic viewfinder, an external flash synch (you can attach a full
fledged flash to it to extend flash range), a 10X optical zoom, and lots of
other great features. Check it out on the following page.

http://www.kodak.com/go/dx6490

http://www.kodak.com/go/digitalcameras

After a review of these, and you have some questions, please let me know, I
am here for you.

Ron Baird
Eastman Kodak Company



I have a film SLR for quality work, and am looking to supplement it with
a moderately-priced digital camera for situations where I either want to
see the results quickly or want to take a lot of photos and select a few
to keep.

I've done a fair bit of reading in magazines and online but am still
finding it difficult to work out which camera would be best. (How many
times a month do you hear this?)

Greetings Stephen,

Personally, for the features you mention and the amount of money you want to
spend $500 Euro (not sure what that relates to in US), I would consider the
DX6490. They are quite popular and will do a lot. The camera has an
electronic viewfinder, an external flash synch (you can attach a full
fledged flash to it to extend flash range), a 10X optical zoom, and lots of
other great features. Check it out on the following page.

http://www.kodak.com/go/dx6490

http://www.kodak.com/go/digitalcameras

After a review of these, and you have some questions, please let me know, I
am here for you.

Ron Baird
Eastman Kodak Company



I have a film SLR for quality work, and am looking to supplement it with
a moderately-priced digital camera for situations where I either want to
see the results quickly or want to take a lot of photos and select a few
to keep.

I've done a fair bit of reading in magazines and online but am still
finding it difficult to work out which camera would be best. (How many
times a month do you hear this?)

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 14:17:33 -0400, "Ron Baird"
wrote:

Personally, for the features you mention and the amount of money you want to
spend $500 Euro (not sure what that relates to in US),

The Euro is a bit more than one US dollar at present. But given higher
prices here for electronic equipment, it's probably somewhat under a US
dollar in terms of this discussion.

I would consider the
DX6490. They are quite popular and will do a lot. The camera has an
electronic viewfinder, an external flash synch (you can attach a full
fledged flash to it to extend flash range), a 10X optical zoom, and lots of
other great features. Check it out on the following page.

http://www.kodak.com/go/dx6490

http://www.kodak.com/go/digitalcameras

Thanks. However I note:
- lack of manual focus,
- no AA batteries,
- price close to top of my budget, perhaps over it with spare batteries;
- more than one reviewer has complained that even the finest
image-compression setting is too aggressive.

Taken together, I reckon it's probably not quite what I'm looking for,
but I've added it to my "long list" (currently 12 models and growing!)

--
Stephen Poley

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 14:17:33 -0400, "Ron Baird"
wrote:

Personally, for the features you mention and the amount of money you want to
spend $500 Euro (not sure what that relates to in US),

The Euro is a bit more than one US dollar at present. But given higher
prices here for electronic equipment, it's probably somewhat under a US
dollar in terms of this discussion.

I would consider the
DX6490. They are quite popular and will do a lot. The camera has an
electronic viewfinder, an external flash synch (you can attach a full
fledged flash to it to extend flash range), a 10X optical zoom, and lots of
other great features. Check it out on the following page.

http://www.kodak.com/go/dx6490

http://www.kodak.com/go/digitalcameras

Thanks. However I note:
- lack of manual focus,
- no AA batteries,
- price close to top of my budget, perhaps over it with spare batteries;
- more than one reviewer has complained that even the finest
image-compression setting is too aggressive.

Taken together, I reckon it's probably not quite what I'm looking for,
but I've added it to my "long list" (currently 12 models and growing!)

--
Stephen Poley

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 11:19:46 -0500, Roger wrote:

I use film for the majority of what I do. I just bought a Canon S60
for travel and because it was one of the first to have a 28mm lens
equivalent and focus assist for available dark photos.

OK, I'll read up on this one as well. Thanks.

--
Stephen Poley

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 11:19:46 -0500, Roger wrote:

I use film for the majority of what I do. I just bought a Canon S60
for travel and because it was one of the first to have a 28mm lens
equivalent and focus assist for available dark photos.

OK, I'll read up on this one as well. Thanks.

--
Stephen Poley