Recommend me a digital camera!

robotbebop

So I'm looking at a digital camera, mainly for PAX. I have an old-ass Pentax Optio digital camera and the quality is less than great.

I few years ago I bought a camera of the same brand within the $200 range and it was... worse.

I know that Nikon and Canon have some pretty decent point and shoots, but I dunno what I should really go for.

I'm looking at spending around $250 tops. Is this realistic? I'm not a photographer or camera snob by any stretch, don't give a shit about filters or macros or whatever photography jargon you can think of. I just want to take pictures that don't look like grainy poop.

Video capabilities would be nice but are not really a deal breaker.

Dark Moon

Pick up the Canon Powershot SD-series camera that best fits your budget if you want a small camera. The Powershot A-series gives you an optical viewfinder and a few more manual controls, if that's your thing, but is a bit bigger. Don't expect any miracles, though. Point and shoots still can't shoot in indoor ambient light without flash and not produce very grainy images - it's the nature of their tiny little sensors.

robotbebop

How about this one

Dark Moon

A fine little camera. Certainly better than the Pentax P+S line which is…less than stellar in all regards.

robotbebop

Do websites that review these things take pictures and upload the results? That would be really sweet actually.

Dark Moon

Well, DPReview is probably the largest camera reviewer, but they tend to focus on DSLRs in their massive 20 page reviews. They do some point and shoots, but there are just so many of the little buggers that it'd be a huge feat to review them all (and a bit redundant, as many are so very similar down to the components they use). Imaging-Resource is another fairly decent reviewer that spends a bit more time on reviews of compacts. The only review of the A3000 I could find is this one at CNet, which has no photos but basically confirms what you'd expect for a sub-$200 compact: It's okay.

illig

An interesting and useful new feature is the addition of a front facing 2nd LCD... this is great for framing shots when you are in front of the camera....

Samsung has this on the TL2__ series such as this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Dual-12-2MP-Digital-Camera/dp/B0035EFZPI/ref=pd_cp_p_1

I recently realized that me and my fiance take lots of pics when we travel, but despite having hundreds of shots when we get back, only a handfull of them have both of us nicely framed... this should be a good solution

Backstop

I'd second the Canon recommendation. I bought an SD 1200 IS last fall and it's been the best point-and-shoot I've owned. It just works. And it's small to slip in a pocket. They are only $150-225 on Amazon depending on color.

robotbebop

In case anybody cares, I just picked up my camera. I settled on the [strike]SD730[/strike] SD780 cause the only power shots they had were baby-blue or hot pink, and $50 for a better camera seemed like a good idea anyway.

Seems like a pretty good camera, thing is TINY too.