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General discussion

whats the best camara for a backpacker??

by Rick Griswold May 22, 2006 12:56PM PDT

i am getting rid of my old travel companion. a sony mavica cd 1000. its been with me for more than 5 yrs and now i want to get a new one. i bought this camera for 3 reasons. 1) when i was in india i had an olympus z2000c with a smart media card. i lost more than 100 pics of a tibetan festival because the memory failed. so i figured with the sony i wouldnt have that problem since it stores on cd. 2) back in 2000 memory cards werent that big and downloading them to a cd at internet cafes was a big pain because they werent available everywhere so i travelled around with a notebook computer to download my pictures, had a rickshaw accident and a wheel ran over my notebook and cracked the screen, so with 100 cds for a trip i wouldnt need to carry my notebook. 3)in the yr 2000 there werent that many cameras that had a optical 10x zoom. most of these problems are gone now. so i can let my camera retire. so now i want to get a new camera. something not as big and heavy as the cd1000 (it was a real pain on bicycle trips) i want at least a 10x zoom. i take a lot of pics of wildlife, macro (insects) and very far away so i need something that will take very good quality pics very upclose and very far away with the camera moving. and i like it to be very sensitive so i can take outdoor pics and indoor pics without flash and very dark condicions. there are many places where flash is not allowed, so i need something that will take non blurry pics without a tripod. (the olympus was great on this, sometimes i used to see if there is something there because i couldnt see it but the camera could) and i also like to take night pics of building and cities without flash. i would like it to be able to have manual controls like an slr but i want to be able to point and shoot (i dont really know how to work an slr but i know how to use some of the features of my sony). please help me pic my next camera. i looked into the sony h5 and it looks good but im not an expert and i dont know how to compare different cameras. thanks so much for ur help

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4 Posts
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Digital Cameras
by snapshot2 Forum moderator May 22, 2006 1:33PM PDT
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by Rick Griswold May 23, 2006 6:26AM PDT

i read the info on the h5 thru the link nd i went into the forum for it. the problem is that i am not a professional and the things they talk about are too technical for me and i dont understand them. and i was hoping that someone would let me know whats good about a particular camera and whats bad. because looking at the specs of the cameras helps a little but i dont know what the camera does well and what it doesnt. thanks

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Digital Cameras
by snapshot2 Forum moderator May 23, 2006 9:51AM PDT

There is no need to know everything about a camera.
Just put the camera in Auto mode and enjoy.
You can delve into the manual when you feel the urge to learn about a particular feature.

All of the cameras I mentioned are after the exact same customer. There are differences but there is no bad. When you get to this class of camera, the bads are gone.

Go back to that link I provided and look just under the red stars in each column. There you will find the opinions of owners of that camera. The red stars are the consolidated score from those opinions.
Check out the opinions and see what owners say.

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by Rick Griswold May 23, 2006 10:59AM PDT

ok, i guess i will wait until the sony h5 comes out and people put their opinions on it. i am leaning towards the sony because it has iso 1000. but i need to get something new because im going for a couple of months to central america and i would like to have a pocket camera too. hopefully something that has a scuba case available. and it will probably be a sony too so i can use the same memory stick on both. thanks

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