Looking for 35mm digital camera

[dw33]

Hi, I don't know anything about digital photography, but I would like to get a dependable, basic model for around $100 to pictures of my family, fishing trips, and so on. Any ideas on a camera that fits that description? Thanks in advance for any advise.

 

[gil850]

The Fuji A500 is a decent camera in that price range. Check out this link.

Fuji A500


Gil

 

[Farallon]

I recently purchased my first digital camera, after years of 35 mm film.

I wanted to try a digital. Talking with some friends, I went with an Olympus FE170 costs $130 on special ($150 reg price) for the starter kit: comes with cables, strap. 6 mega pixels, 2.5" LCD, 3x zoom.

Things to look for: Zoom, Pixel Count, and LCD size. The higher the pixel count the sharper the picture, for a $100 camera expect ~3 mega pixels. LCD is what the picture taker sees, the larger the LCD the better view of the subjects. My LCD is 2.5", large compared to the 1.5". You should also look for "image stabilization". This may have different names by different brands. If you want to take close ups, look for a macro (or close up) setting.

My Olympus came with memory for 3-6 pictures, a memory card was ~$50 (1GB), which should be good for ~600 pictures. Olympus uses the x-d format, x-d memory cards come in three flavors: high speed, high quality and high speed/high quality. The card I got was high speed/high quality. The cards come in different sizes.

My local newspaper has run several digital camera reviews, I saved the two editions with recent reviews, the local electronics store did not have the models reviewed. Nor did the store sell any of the models my friends recommended. I went in looking for an FE-100, cost a friend ~$100. He played with my FE-170 and said at $130 he was going to get one for himself and give the FE-100 to his daughter. The FE-170 is thinner than the FE-100.

My advice is to look for the three features I mentioned, get the best in your price range, look at size too, then remember you will probably have to buy an memory card, and also a camera bag ($10).