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Well hey everyone, I'm gonna be signing up for a photography class and wanted to get myself a camera. I have a budget for about 250-300 dollars. I honestly don't know anything about cameras accept point and click. I've always been interested in photography but never really gotten a camera for it. So I looked around for cameras in my price range and came up with these two.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Fujifilm/fuji_finepixs5700.asp

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Kodak/kodak_z712.asp


Can anyone help me decide which is a better camera, experience with them or the brand, or recommend a camera around the 250-300 price range if these aren't that good.

From what I've gathered some of the things that I would want in a camera are digital zoom, white balance, and macro. Right?

thanks

tigermom

actually, you want *optical* zoom. digital zoom is just an effect, optical zoom is the actual lenses enlarging the picture.

as for your choices, i would pick the fuji over the kodak. kodak's cameras haven't been as reliable as the other brands. plus, as i said above, you should be looking for optical zoom, so maybe you will have different choices with that bit of knowledge in hand. if you want to do some "real" photography you might want manual focus and shutter as well, but that can tend to drive your price up.

this is a nice camera in your price range and probably has all the features you are looking for. plus with a 10x optical zoom and super macro mode you can't really ask for much more! well, ok yes you can but you know what i mean....

---

"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

Hey,
Have a quick look through this thread

Of those two that you linked to I'd go with the fuji. Optical is what you want...it actually involves physical zooming which makes for clearer images. You do NOT want digital zoom like moondog said. Any post production program will let you do digital zoom later and possibly with cleaner results.


Ah bring back the days of fixed focal lenghts. That forced you do make some decisions! Shame they dont even teach that in photo classes anymore....

Anyway. Olympus are pretty good. My first digital was an olympus. Had a few odd things that weren't really an issue.
Survived most of my abuse until I decided to drop it in Haifa, it didnt' like the street too much.

^_^

Without even looking at those threads I would suggest the Fuji as they do make a quality camera. At that price range you are very much limited to a camera with all the latest wizbangs but good photos can still be taken if you know how to use the camera correctly.

Doing a camera class will be the best thing you will ever do. I have done several my camera store runs FREE courses for their customers who buy a camera or even lenses from them. If you can find a good camera store you can often pick up excellent display/demo cameras for well below the new price my Digital SLR was just over 50% off. I was looking at a super macro lens yesterday about 75% off new price and still with a good gurantee. Remember it was a full camera shop not a big super market store camear shop.

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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Wow thanks everyone this has really helped. So the Kodak will definitely be out of the question. I really like the look of the Olympus as well. Also thanks for the thread that really helps too.

I am now starting to think that Olympus would be my better choice in a camera for me. It looks to have the things I need in a camera and is one of the most common names that pops for a good camera. Again thanks, I'm going to look in to the Olympus for sure, and see if I can find it locally.

You'll are a lot of help

tigermom

Don't rule out my favorite, Canon or my arch enemy (okay they're really not bad it's just I'm a canon girl) Nikon.

Olympus does good, and is often a bit cheaper than Canon, and nikon. While you do get what you pay for, digital cameras really only "last" a few years before you start seriosly pondering new ones if you're pretty serious about your camera.

I'd always wanted a D-SLR but when they first hit the prosumer market they were just too expensive. Then still too expensive for me to justify (go figure I took up diving instead ). These days I don't think I could live without my Canon 30D that I asked for instead of engagement ring since there is such a big difference between how you shoot with a P&S vs how you shoot with an SLR.

Okay that probably made no sense, I'm going to find some coffee

^_^

BF D SLRs are certainly coming down especially when a new model hits the market. I bought mine as a store demo at well below about 60-70% off

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Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW