Post #247618 by Rev. Griz on Tue, Aug 8, 2006 12:57 PM

I took my mom to buy a new camera not long ago, and had I been buying, I would have come home with a Lumix model.

Back in the day I had a Canon EOS with 75-300 and 28-200 lenses. When I went digital I got an Olympus with a 3x optical zoom, which was the equivalent of 35 to 105, I really missed the long zoom. So then I upgraded to an Olympus c700 with 10x optical zoom which I still use, even though it's only 2 megapixels. I have had great luck with the Olympus, but I don't think the brand is really important, mostly the features.

Warning: only optical zoom matters. Digital zoom is worthless, you are better off cropping and enlarging the picture in software.

Focusing and writing speed is an issue, as others have mentioned, depending on what you're doing with the camera. If you're taking scenic shots or portraits, your subject is not likely to move much, if you're taking wildlife or action shots, you want it to focus and write the picture as quick as possible. The more the megapixels the longer writing the photo to the memory card will take.

Also to consider is the type of memory card the camera takes. If you have any devices that use memory cards, smart digital, memory stick, etc., you might want to look at cameras that use that same format. If you get a camera with a different format or are not using any kinds of memory card currently, buying additional memory cards will be a necessary extra expense. The cards that come with the cameras usually only hold a few pictures.

Some cameras come with software and cradles to make them easy to use with the computer. If you're not all that computer literate this might appeal, but might also mean that the camera will lack advanced features.

Good luck and have fun!