Need to buy camera About This Page:

[PURPLEPRINCESS]

I want to buy a new camera for our upcoming trip. This will be the first time my niece and nephrew will have gone to Disney. I would love to get good pictures. I currently have a Kodak that has 8 mp that is about two or three years old. It takes good pics most of the time but not so good at night and when things are moving and far away. I would like to have something that takes good clear pictures for when we are are at the character meals, T-rex, parade, rides and gatorland. I am not an expet at taking pictures but I would like to be able to take some of the nice pictures I see on here. Any advice will be appreciated. Our trip is at the end of August to the first week of September.

Dawn

[Tonichelle]

well the camera can't do everything, you have to practice. I'd love to upgrade my camera to something newer and "better" but I do just fine with what I have.

That being said - I'd look into the canon powershot series. I wouldn't go to anything that's an SLR type camera unless you plan on learning how to use all of the features - if that seems overwhelming then don't buy more camera than you need.

[MichaelF]

I agree with Toni on practice. The best equipment is no good if you don't know how to use it. I would recommend that when you buy a new camera be sure to go through the manual to learn how it works and then practice a lot. The best thing about digital cameras is you can have unlimited practice and it doesn't cost anything. When buying a new camera my advise would be to stick with Nikon or Canon brands and you will get a good camera.

[PURPLEPRINCESS]

Thanks for the advice. I do not want a high power or professional camera. Just a nce everyday camera. The kodak I have take pretty good pictures in natural light and in well -lit areas but not so good at night or dim areas. I just wanted to know what would be a good upgrade from what i Hvae since there are so many on the market now.

[WillCAD]

Originally Posted by PURPLEPRINCESS

I want to buy a new camera for our upcoming trip. This will be the first time my niece and nephrew will have gone to Disney. I would love to get good pictures. I currently have a Kodak that has 8 mp that is about two or three years old. It takes good pics most of the time but not so good at night and when things are moving and far away. I would like to have something that takes good clear pictures for when we are are at the character meals, T-rex, parade, rides and gatorland. I am not an expet at taking pictures but I would like to be able to take some of the nice pictures I see on here. Any advice will be appreciated. Our trip is at the end of August to the first week of September.

Dawn

Simply buying a new camera, especially if you don't want to buy a higher-end P&S or bridge camera, let alone get into the SLRs, will not improve your pictures much, if at all. It would be like buying a fancy new tennis racket, and then not bothering to practice; the racket is great, but it doesn't hit the ball, YOU do. Likewise, your camera doesn't take pictures - YOU do. The camera is nothing but a tool you use in the process.

The specific situations you mention - low light, moving subjects, and distant subjects - are some of the most difficult situations to capture in a photo. Better cameras can help, up to a point. Newer cameras have higher ISO ratings, which helps them take better pics in low light; many come with longer lenses, which will help you to get pics of more distant subjects; and most now have higher-speed shutters, which can freeze moving objects with less motion blur. However, combine all three of those things - say, a moving subject a long distance away in low light - and even the best camera is going to choke.

All of which is why people immediately jump in to say, "Don't buy a new camera, learn photographic skills instead!" whenever someone asks camera advice.

So here's my advice: While you are shopping for that new camera (I'll give you a recommendation at the end of this post), take your current camera out and start shooting with it, and learn just a few basic photographic skills.

Composition:
Composition is the arrangement of the image, i.e. where the subject is within the frame. There are two very simple rules that you should practice, and I guarantee that your photos will look a LOT better just from learning these, even if you use a cheap, crappy camera.

1) The Rule Of Thirds.
Imagine drawing a tic-tac-toe board on your photos, dividing them into thirds horizontally, and thirds vertically. Instead of centering your subjects, line up the subjects with one of those lines. When taking pics of people, put their heads on the top line (1/3 down from the top of the frame) instead of in the center. When taking pics with a horizon, or a line between water and land, line them up with the bottom line, 1/3 up from the bottom of the frame, instead of in the center. Lining up your subjects with those imaginary lines almost always makes them look better than centering them, and your photos will suddenly start to look better, though most people won't even realize why.

2) Fill the Frame.
Many people want to get a pic with plenty of background, to give it context, but they often wind up with too much background and not enough subject. When you take pics of people, zoom up on them. Don't be afraid to cut them off at the waist or even the shoulders, unless their bodies are doing something - like playing a sport or riding a horse or hugging a WDW character - that you want to capture. Take pics of the background separately, but zoom up on the subject of your pic enough to see details. (NOTE: This usually allows the camera to meter the light on your subject better, resulting in better exposures)

Exposure:
Exposure is tricky; it's the measure of the amount of light that passes through the lens and hits the sensor. A camera needs a minimum amount of light to hit the sensor to form an image; if it's dark, the camera will either open the shutter wider, or keep it open longer. Once the shutter is open as far as it will go, the only way to get more light is to leave it open longer - which makes the light streak across the sensor, forming a blurry image instead of a sharp one.

Imagine sweeping a can of spray paint across a wall; open the nozzel for a sec, and the wall gets a nice, round spot of paint. Leave it open longer, and the motion of the can forms a streak. Light does the same thing on a sensor.

Once you know how it works, you can use that knowledge to predict when a pic will or won't turn out - and to create special pics. Those waterfalls in Epcot's canada? The water moves; if you use a longer exposure (i.e. the shutter is open longer), the movement of the water will cause it to streak in the image, creating those beautiful, silky-looking streams of water. Keep the shutter open for a very short time, and the motion of the water won't be caught in the image, it will appear to be frozen in mid-air - which is a perfect technique for capturing the spitting fountains outside Captain EO (or a kid running across a soccer field).

Many cameras have "semi-auto" modes, where you can choose either the aperture (how far the shutter opens), or the shutter speed (how long it is open for). If you choose a new camera that has these modes, you can choose for yourself what technique to use to get those good pics. Shutter Speed Priority mode was the first mode I learned when I took up photography, and I have used it to good effect over the years.

Okay, enough lecturing. For your needs, I like the Fujifilm S-series. The current model seems to be the S4000, but there are a number of older models as well. They're bridge cameras, i.e. halfway between a Point & Shoot and an SLR. They don't have interchangable lenses, but they have good zoom ranges, good ISO performance (higher ISO means better performance in low light), automatic, manual, and semi-auto modes, and they're light weight and reasonably priced (generally under $300). I also like the sharpness and color balance on Fuji digitals; the pics tend to be very sharp, and they are balanced to really make the bright color like sky or grass POP in your images.
Fujifilm FinePix S4000 Camera - Preview

[GoofyMom]

Wow, where's the "like" button? Will, that's the best Cliff's Notes style Photography-for-Dummies explanation of all that techie photography stuff that I have ever read. It'd be nice to have a little more info like that available in this forum because I bet I'm not the only one confused by apertures and ISOs and F-stops and all the other blah-blah-blah that's important to learning how to take better photos.

[WillCAD]

Donna, here's a nice set of basic photo tips from Tim Devine's The Magic In Pixels (TMIP) site, with all sorts of useful photo tips.
Photography 101

[Teresa]

For choosing cameras, I love using My Product Advisor - Recommendations for Autos, Digital Cameras, Laptops, and TVs It walks you through what you want to do, how much you want to spend, etc. and will give you suggestions based on your answers.
It's how I chose my "new" DSLR about a year ago. I love the camera, and am having a great time doing what I bought it for. I'm still learning how to use all of the features, but the website was a great start!

Then - go PLAY with the cameras at the store. The website recommended a couple of cameras (actually 20, rated from exactly what I wanted it to do to most of what I want it to do). The #1 suggestion didn't work because I have huge hands and it felt tiny and awkward in my hands.
Take photos in the store - make sure you can hold the camera comfortably, and use the buttons easily. If it's not easy to use for you, you won't use it.

All that said - I love my Sony Cybershot cameras, they work great for casual photos and are very lightweight.