Cheap Point and Shoot Camera

ManonvonSuperock

looking for the best point-and-shoot digital camera under a hundred bucks to hold me over until I can get a better one.

suggest away.

Dark Moon

If you're okay with buying used, get a Canon A570IS or similar for $50 in your local classifieds. Very difficult to go wrong with a Canon A-series camera. Spectacular value.

If you insist on a new camera (boo!) get this Canon A490. Not fantastic, but for a new camera at $87 you could do so much worse.

ManonvonSuperock

what are the cons of the a490 in your opinion?

fightinfilipino

http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/39211?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+SlickdealsnetFP+(SlickDeals.net+Frontpage)

ok so this isn't under $100, but i swear you will be getting your money's worth.

EWom

I used to work the photo area at walmart:

Brands to avoid $100 and under:

Kodak
Samsung
Sanyo
Vivitar

If you've never heard of the brand... stay away from it.

Brands to try and get $100 and under:

Canon
Sony
Nikon
(I feel like another should be here.. but I can't remember which)

Brands that could go either way $100 and under:

Fuji
Olympus
Panasonic


The brands to avoid, are in this category for one of two reasons (or both). 1) They take poorer quality pictures than other cameras in the same price range 2) They fall apart and break extremely easily, even what should be considered common usage. These brands are the ones that get returned the most.

The brands to look for, while they do put out some duds, are generally the better cameras to get for $100 and under.

The brands that can go either way, are tricky because half their stuff is good, and half their stuff is shit, and the only way to tell is to get it really.

Dark Moon

ManonvonSuperock wrote: »

what are the cons of the a490 in your opinion?

A sensor the size of a particularly small fleck of dust, leading to noisy shots above your base ISO. No manual mode, meaning you shoot at the whim of your light meter. Mediocre, relatively slow lens (max aperture f/3, goes to f/5.8 when you zoom in). Body is made of plastic but is arguably pretty well built, given the camera's "cereal box toy" price.

Honestly, at that price point a used camera is going to be a much better value. It's not like there's any little things to go wrong with a point and shoot, either - unlike a DSLR, where hidden problems can remain hidden for a while. If it powers and shoots and the images look clean, you have a perfect used camera. If, upon turning it on, water begins to pour out of the lens barrel and you realize the back LCD has been replaced with a piece of cardboard bearing a crayon drawing of a fish, you have an easily dismissed used camera.