Hey all,


Posted a few times but mostly lurk.


I am looking for some advice toward getting my father a digital camera for father's day. I would like to keep the cost to under $200 but my fudge factor is probably around $30. He will taking general pictures and landscapes and mostly likely alot of pics of his dog. He is 78 years old and not very tech savvy when it comes to cameras and computers. Not that he isnt a smart man...just not up on this type of technology.


I gave him my Fujifilm 1400 a couple years back and he really didnt like it because it was difficult for him to navigate through the menus and the Exif viewer to transfer the pics from the camera to the computer and then be able to locate them once transferred. I think this had more to do with USB 1.0 than the camera itself.


I think I am leaning toward a Canon or Sony point and shoot. They seem to produce the best pictures if one was to just press the shutter button without waiting for the autofocus to do its thing. Resolution isnt that big a deal. The big deal is ease of use. The easier the better.


Models I am considering:

Sony

W370

350

330

310


Canon

1300

1400

3100

495


Any insight is appreciated.


TIA

 

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It's funny, cause I was looking for a nice camera for my grandmother too. I need to do some research as well.

With her, I need to keep it as simple as possible, but be functional enough that it takes decent pictures. The one she has now has a 2 second picture delay and does not do well in almost all conditions.

 

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I've listened to what he's had to say and it seems to come down to not too many buttons to press to take a picture (not really sure what that means) and then to be able to just plug the camera into the computer and get the pictures off hte camera easily.

So, I've tried many many different cameras in store and read quite a few reviews (most of which seem to review models more expensive than I want to pay) and I think I've narrowed it down to


Sony

My brother and sister both have Sony's and agree they are easy to use. My only concern, if it can be considered that, is they tend to use the proprietary Sony memory stick. The newer models (most expensive of the group I have looked at) are designed to use SD & SDHC memory.


Canon

Highly rated brand name. No personal experience

 

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I just read a couple reviews for the Panasonic FH20 (FH22 larger LCD) and apparently it rates higher than both the Canon and

Sony for ease of use, low light pics, shutter lag. I gonna check it out later at BestBuy tonight since they are on sale right now $30 off and make the price $199. I really like my Panasonic Lumix so I think I may have a winner.

 

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I may have to look at that one

Let me know how simple it could be hehe.

 

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I bought the Panny. It combines a "mode" button that activates a touch screen that is easy to navigate. The jury is still out on the touch screen though. I dont know how long it will last before it gets scratched or worn. The newer cameras now allow the user to press the shutter button when you are in anything other than camera mode to automagically return to camera mode. That is a nice feature. I took a few pictures with the camera to see how it operates and in the iA mode the pictures all came out clear no matter where I was in the usable range of the lens. It would automatically switch between Macro mode and regular mode which is nice. It records in 720P and downloads a MOV file. I took a 13 second video and the file size from the camera was 48MB.


All in all, I think it was easy to use and I think it will be ideal for someone that just wants to be able to point and shoot.

 

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/tag!

 

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