[John Hamilton]

I need a digital camera in the $200-$300 range that is good at taking pics of aquariuams.

[tray262]

canon,

[John Hamilton]

Okay let me rephrase my question to to get a better answer.
I want to buy a digital camera for my business and I do not need anything extraordinary. Now with that being said, I will be takling pictures of my fishtank, so the camera needs to be capable of taking good quality close-ups and the like.
I would appreciate a specific model, not an answer like "canon,", digital, macro, 4x, electric, little, Japanese, or "don't you have one on your cell phone?"

[smidoid]

Well you won't get much at the price point John.

There are a lot of compacts in that arena and the best are probably by Canon, Olympus and Fuji/Nikon. The old Olympus hyper-zoom that I have (10x) does a decent(ish) macro - not like the real 50mm prime I have for the 10d - but the catch is it has an electronic viewfinder. Fine for macro but crap anywhere else.

One thing to be very careful of is resolution. Large numbers of pixels do not good cameras make! I can get a 5MP video camera here for £70, yet a 6Mp or 8Mp Canon is still in 500+ range.

That's an extreme example, but it illustrates a point. The sensor size has a lot to do with this - very SMALL sensors (that's most of the cheap end cameras) have a massive depth of field which is good, but the drawback of those is that the light-sensitive areas are also very small and the result is noisy pictures.

As the sensor (ska CCD) gets larger, the DOF decreases, as does the noise - but the price goes UP - and fast too!

Most important: you need an OPTICAL zoom. I don't care if it can digital zoom all the way to Timbuktoo, it's no damn use!

Why not have a look-see at what you like the look of and come back to us?

Here's a starter mate (in your currency!):

http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/pric...s-ratings.html

Given that I'm a Canon user, I'd probably recommend this at $290:

http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/cano...l#user_reviews

Say Cheese - Photo Features
The five megapixel PowerShot S2 IS digital camera provides users with the high quality resolution, color and low noise that consumers have come to expect from Canon. The camera's fast f/2.7(W)-f/3.5(T) image stabilized 6.0-72.0mm 12x zoom lens (36-432mm equivalent) makes tack-sharp long telephoto shooting positively practical. When the optical zoom is augmented with the camera's 4x digital zoom, the maximum focal length effectively becomes equivalent to a 1728mm lens on a 35mm camera. Despite its extensive optical range, the lens is ultra-compact and retracts securely into the camera when it is powered down. In addition, there are two levels of close-up shooting, Macro and Super Macro. Super Macro mode enables extreme close-up shooting to 0 cm from the end of lens barrel, for creative shooting - great for shooting flowers to use in scrapbooks, on invitations and more.


High Definition 12x Optical Zoom Lens With Image Stabilizer
Canon used its unrivalled optical expertise to produce an ultra-compact 12x zoom lens that features 11 elements in nine groups, including one aspherical surface and one ultra-low dispersion glass (UD) element. The UD element is particularly effective at reducing chromatic aberration when the lens is zoomed out to its maximum telephoto range for enhanced sharpness and color fidelity.

[tray262]

Originally Posted by John Hamilton

Okay let me rephrase my question to to get a better answer.
I want to buy a digital camera for my business and I do not need anything extraordinary. Now with that being said, I will be takling pictures of my fishtank, so the camera needs to be capable of taking good quality close-ups and the like.
I would appreciate a specific model, not an answer like "canon,", digital, macro, 4x, electric, little, Japanese, or "don't you have one on your cell phone?"

Sorry I wasn't trying to be short. I would just say in the $200-$300 Any of the point of shoots by canon sould do a nice job.

[John Hamilton]

Cool, thanks.

[tray262]

I have a elph SD500 which is no longer made BUT they have new elph http://www.buy.com/prod/Canon_PowerS...201998025.html

They take really nice pictures, also they are super small. Let me tell you my dig camera story. I bought 3 in 4 months. lol. I bought a Kodak (it was crap), It took ok pictures, Then I bought a Sony (it was a little better but bulky). Then I bought the Canon I love it!!!!. I'm wanting to upgrade and I've only have it for about a year and half. (But the only reason I want to upgrade is because the screen on mine is small, the new ones like above are what I'm looking at. The thing I hate about cameras are I'm not a photographer so I don't like carry around camera equipment. I even hate carrying around just a camera case. That's why I love this one so much. I actually take a good bit of pictures, becasue every time we go somewhere to have a good time, I alway's throw my camera in my pocket (Yes it fits, with my cell phone.) If it didn't I would never take it anywhere. Also the new camera's are even smaller and lighter. Go to Bestbuy and take a look at it. Then buy it online beachcamera.com has great prices. Good luck.