Digital camera advice needed

[HUSKERBUCK]

Well the wife thinks we need a digital camera. My constant begging must have broken her down. My question to you is what kind should I look at. We will use it for all of the usual family stuff (birthdays, vacations and so on). I would also like to use it to take some pictures form the stand and in the field. What do some of you use? What should I look for as far as specifications and features? How many megapixels? How much zoom? Any other things I should look at. Anything special that I should look for for taking pictures in the field and from the stand? Thanks for any and all advice in advance.

 

[Baby-G]

The best bang for the buck is the Cannon GL-1. Professional quality video and takes still photo's also.

 

[ironwood]

I have looked just a bit and will probably get a new one this year. The Nikon cameras look to have great zoom features and have my attention right now.

 

[deadeye]

Well without very much info it is hard to say. What kind of price range are we in??? Do you want a point and click or a cam with more advanced features? How important is clarity? How important is zoom?

I just bought an Olympus. The C-series is a very good series. They have all kinds. I would check out their website and then shop at Tom's Hardware under digital camera's and see who has the best price. I agree that the Nikon's are a very good cam, but for what I wanted the Olympus was cheaper for about the same thing.

My recommendation is get one that has some permanent settings (sports mode, scenery, people picture up close - stuff like that) with a good megapixel. I would recommend at least 3 for a good family camera. Optical zoom is by far better than digital.

I would start looking at different camera's in stores to see what you like and read reviews online. Then I would look online to purchase. You can almost ALWAYS save money ordering online.

 

[Critter]

I would also recommend an Olympus C-series. We bought one two years ago and really like it. At the time it was the only camera we could find with a larger optical zoom. Ours is 10X and I wouldn't want anything less. If you want to take pics. from your stand, you're not going to want a camera with less than 10X optical. Hope that helps.
CRITR