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So maybe 11 PM isn't the best time for painting your toenails.
Tomorrow I'm doing the restaurant week thing and going to Poste with Perky K. I am wearing a skirt and strappy black sandals, so someone better appreciate the non-denim lengths I've gone to. (Things I love about my job #57: "well, you're cleaning your workspace with bleach solution" dress code! This leaves me with very little motivation to upgrade my clothes.)
Pursuant to shirts, this weekend I walked into Macy's looking for a camisole-type thingie and walked out with... a blue v-neck t-shirt. Yes, I know: you are all shocked by this break from tradition.
Also, shopping appeal: I'm breaking down and buying a digital camera. I'm soliciting opinions. HOWEVER, comma, I am on a budget. I'm looking in the $200 - $250 range, with an absolute limit of three hundred fifty dollars ($350) for the camera and basic accessories (second battery, larger memory card, etc). I really would like a digital SLR, but it's not happening this year. CNET has a real crush on the Canon Powershot series; does anyone else have nice or nasty things to say as I reach for the sales papers? I want instant gratification at high resolution, but I'll settle for decent warmup and shot-to-shot time, good picture quality, 7+ mpix, and an optical viewfinder.
Pursuant to shirts, this weekend I walked into Macy's looking for a camisole-type thingie and walked out with... a blue v-neck t-shirt. Yes, I know: you are all shocked by this break from tradition.
Also, shopping appeal: I'm breaking down and buying a digital camera. I'm soliciting opinions. HOWEVER, comma, I am on a budget. I'm looking in the $200 - $250 range, with an absolute limit of three hundred fifty dollars ($350) for the camera and basic accessories (second battery, larger memory card, etc). I really would like a digital SLR, but it's not happening this year. CNET has a real crush on the Canon Powershot series; does anyone else have nice or nasty things to say as I reach for the sales papers? I want instant gratification at high resolution, but I'll settle for decent warmup and shot-to-shot time, good picture quality, 7+ mpix, and an optical viewfinder.
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Remember, megapixels only determine how large you can blow up the image. It's kind of a false premise with the idea that more mp = better camera.
Also remember, with DSLRs, the lens makes more of a difference than the camera itself. My favorite lens is a 50mm f/1.4 (what I shoot my portrait shots with) and it was $300. You can get a 50mm f/1.8 for about $120 and it's damn near as good. As for my zoom shots, I use a crappier 70-300mm lens that I think is around $150. So it's not all that expensive to expand lenses.
And if you get nikon lenses, then they will be compatible with future nikon bodies if/when you decide to get a new camera.
If you haven't seen. Examples of my work:
1. My store (http://backprint.com/storefront.asp?PID=bp%18yCp)
2. My flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordtennisanyone/)
3. My Model Mayhem page (http://www.modelmayhem.com/514861)
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Also? Super-jealous of your camera, which has, like, actual depth of field. Try that on a $200 p&s.
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So few things in this world aren't made with planned obsolescence anymore.
The depth of field was done in 2 ways. One was the 50mm lens set at around f/2.8 for most portraits. The other was the 70-300mm lens focusing on something far away. It's all about the lenses.
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You can get some nice used point and shoot digitals on eBay. I seriously considered upgrading my semi-broken Nikon Coolpix 5400 with a 8700, (8MP, 7X optical zoom, many user controls (same CF and battery)), but I wanted to stay with something smaller and lighter. The 8700 seems to go for about $200. I've been very happy with my succession of Coolpixes over the years. If you prefer a simpler (less accessible user controls) smaller new camera, 8MP is easily in your range.
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Since a lot of dSLR users seem to wind up with a small-to-ultracompact point and shoot, getting a $200 camera now and a dSLR later might be the way to go. I'm really tired of washed-out LCDs in sunlight, but a lot of low-end cameras are eliminating optical viewfinders. I need to make a list of candidates and handle the physical cameras this weekend.
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On a side note, I would suggest holding off on getting a second battery until your shooting patterns dictate that you blow through an entire battery in a single day. In the whole year and a half since I got my D40 I haven't needed a second battery. Even on heavy shooting days (ex. Anime Central) I'd be closer to running out of card space before running out of battery. Again shooting styles may vary, I'm a natural light fiend (no flash = less battery consumption). Also, w/r/t the megapixels, you will get diminishing returns the higher you kick up the MP count thanks to physics and sensor noise. Go with whatever you think will be the largest print size you will need. And yes Virginia, you can make a 20x30 inch poster with a mere 6 megapixels. Looks fabulous to boot.
This does break your hard limit, but as others have noted, you really do want to save up to make a DSLR happen if that is your end goal.
If you're willing to cheat a little on the "digital" part, you might want to consider getting a nice used film SLR and getting your film digitized at the local Costco.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/free-digital-camera.htm
Other than that, I'd go with the suggestions on this page - and yes the PowerShots are really popular for good cause.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/recommended-cameras.htm
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Please go back and read the stuff in bold.
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W/r/t your aversion to AA batteries, you can use rechargeable AA's in most digital cameras that take AA's. Big advantage in that replacements are cheap and plentiful and likely to be in production for as long as the floppy disk which is more than I can say for my D40's battery when/if they decide to discontinue it. Second bonus - left the charger at home? Nothing a short trip to the local inconvenience store can't solve. For both AA's and custom packs, as long as you play smart with turning off some of the more battery consuming parts of the camera you probably won't need a second rechargeable pack right away.
And if you can deal with used and eBay, there are some decent looking D40's out and about in the $270 price window... caveat emptor though.
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Yep. This is $250 I shouldn't be spending. However, replacing my (camera)phone after its unexpected mechanical failure from being thrown against a wall for its unacceptable photos is also money I shouldn't be spending.
Apparently I didn't express myself well; I've been using rechargable AA's for years. I'd actually be more annoyed with a proprietary battery, as harder to replace on the road; however, if the batteries needed charging less often, I could totally get behind them.
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As for me - I've got a Casio Exilim that I've been very happy with for almost two years now. I've never emptied the battery - even when I've let it run down before using it. I'd agree with the recommendation of getting the more memory card and waiting on the battery.
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I'm shopping for a new camera right now myself. The battery for my Canon Powershot S200 won't hold much of charge anymore and list price for a replacement battery is about $80. With the recalls and exploding laptop battery issues, I'm not sure I want to go for a cut-rate lithium ion battery right now, so I'm weighting my camera search towards camera's that can use AA batteries. Not as many shots on a single charge, but much cheaper backup batteries.
I'm leaning towards a used or new PowerShot S3IS (and will download CHDK immediately). I'm also tempted by the Pentax K100D, but that's probably because my Dad has several old Pentax lenses that he doesn't use anymore.
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I've had AA cameras in the past; they eat batteries so badly rechargeable batteries are practically mandatory. At least, as much as I was using mine.
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DSLRs use far less battery than point and shoot digitals...I think I've only gotten into the second battery after about 400-500 shots, over a long weekend.
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My Exilim has a rechargeable LiON that holds a huge charge compared to the draw per picture. But I can understand wanting rechargeables if you're using AA's! I remember going through AA's for something in the past.
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I have a G7 which I love desperately (except for its inability to RAW which it looks like CHDK can fix), but which is outside the budget. When I was looking at cameras I thought very hard about getting a Powershot A5xx (which is basically the lower-budget version of the G series) and honestly if I only had ~250 to spend that's what I'd do (amazon says A580 goes for $260) - but it takes AA's, which you say below you don't like so much.
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I'm screaming at myself to stay in my budget, but I'm also thinking about what nonessential money I've spent money on this year (five days in Boston, one super-expensive dinner, eating out 2 - 5 times a month) and there's a small devil pointing out that really, how many costs do I have? But even if I get a dSLR, having a small point-and-shoot for occasions when the full rig is problematic makes some sense.
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Speaking of my comprehension problems, I wrote thinking "camera that is as manual as possible to get over that hump before gettting a dSLR."
If the question is instead dSLR + PS, = get one of the canon powershot SD series (preferably one of the recent ones with image stabilization). They are relatively cheap, tiny, fit everywhere where you wouldn't want to take an SLR, take great pics, and we've been really happy with ours. And it looks like this CHSK thing even lets you do some manual stuff with it.
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I was super-vague because, hey, can't everyone on the internet read my mind? Basically, I'm pretty sure I'm transiting toward a dSLR (hey, I have a photography icon), but the budget this year doesn't include $500 of non-critical electronics. Slating in a March 2009 splurge looks a lot less damaging. (Michelle Singletary would be so proud of my budgeting attempts.) I've handled a few Powershots, so now I need to poke at the competition and decide which I like more. Anyone who provides me with a viewfinder gets some points: my last camera (Kodak C875) didn't have one, and trying to shoot in bright sun, and thinking about the battery drain, drove me nuts.
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But if you are going to be transitioning pretty quickly, something like the SD is nice for getting convenient shots after you get the dSLR as well. (And it has a small viewfinder... but it does have one!)
Why yes, I am a Canon groupie! Though my IR-converted Coolpix has been really good to me, so I shoudn't leave Nikon out either.
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I'm just a point and shoot person, but this beats my film camera all to heck and back.
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