We bought our Panasonic DMC-FZ30PP in Nov. of 2005. It's 8 mega pixel, the same as my iPhone6 is. Believe it or not, we have two 52mb media cards and today's digitals use 32gb ones. In 2005, the 52mb was the biggest media card there was. It has both a viewfinder and a flip-down screen/viewfinder, but the flip-down screen/viewfinder no longer works. We have got a ton of use out of this camera, but can definitely tell it's time for a new one. This camera cost us $700 back then and was a top-rated camera. We wanted a "point and shoot" type and found a Canon Power Shot SX530, 16mp w/50x Optical zoom (that is a BIG zoom) and 3" LCD in the back. This thing has a number of "bells and whistles" like the Panasonic, but one new technology thing did stun me.......the camera lens and shutter can be controlled from an iphone! It has a "blu-tooth" connection to the iPhone. Now, the cost, from Best Buy, $249. That is way below the $700 we paid for the Panasonic. I read that the two leading digital camera companies in the U.S. is Canon and Nikon. My wife use to have a Canon Sure Shot, when we first got married in 2001. It took descent photos, but compared to todays camera's, well, just can't compare back then with today's high technology. We will also buy an Accessories Package from an online camera website. Carrying case, UV Protective Lens and some other needed things for $54. So, do you have a digital and what kind is it?
We have 3 cameras, all Canon. The first one is a 4 megapixel that took our pictures starting in 2004. Sometime in 2010, it started acting up so we bought a flat Canon with a larger megapixel. After a year, I won in a photo contest and the grand prize is a Canon SX130 which looks like a small DSLR camera. What's good is that it uses ordinary rechargeable AAA batteries unlike the flat Canon that uses the flat lithium ion battery (which is inconvenient to recharge). With our experience in Canon, it's a good camera with the clear resolution and the videos are also good. However, since ours are old models so they are kind of slow in shooting. I had long wanted to buy a DSLR for my husband but he doesn't like it. His reason - the DSLR is pretty heavy and so expensive which seems exorbitant for our ordinary use. The DSLR is for professionals.
I have a very inexpensive digital camera without a zoom, a Vivitar ViviCam 46. I wish I bought a zoom digital camera for I want to sell things now. I got to find a free site for fixing or editing photos real quick that's not a download and is totally free. I love this camera for it's so simple to use, but without a zoom it's not so good for detailed photos of things you'd like to sell.
I used to have a Casio camera, and I just loved that little camera. It was a gift from my daughter, and I think that it was about $300 when she got it for me. I used it for many years. One of my favorite things about the Casio was that it had a charging dock, and I could always keep it charged up and ready , and never have to worry about batteries going dead. The dock was also great for uploading the pictures to my computer, and since I am not great at really technical things, I was glad to have something that worked so easy. All that changed when Robin got me my iPhone. Now, I take all of the pictures with the iPhone and it automatically puts everything on the iPad and the Dell desktop with no effort on my part at all. I have several photo-editing apps on the iPad; so I can crop , resize, and enhance all of my pictures for whatever I need. I gave the Casio away to a friend who needed a camera, and have never missed having a camera since then. I know that for real photography-oriented people, a camera is best, but for my needs and skills, the iPhone is perfect !
I have a Sony RX 100 M2 which produces the nearest photos to a DSLR camera I have come across, and it's small enough to put in your pocket. I discussed it with Holly somewhere on here but can't recall where. It's around $500 and the later models are between $700 and $950 Sony site and Amazon
It's quite surprising what one can pick up a little cheaper than expected. I've got a compact Canon IXUS that I bought for £200, which was £100 less than the other ones in the shop. The difference: the ones that cost £300 were black whereas the one I bought was white. The chap in the shop told me that people simply didn't like the white ones, so they had to try to sell them off cheaply. Fine - I don't care if it comes in pink and yellow stripes, as long as it does the same job.
We ended up getting the Canon PowerShot SX530, that was on sale at Best Buy. All the features are nice, the zoom incredible, HD 1080 video and using our iPhone as a remote. It didn't come with a memory card, so we bought a fast 64gb SanDisk one that was on sale as well. This card is fast for "burst" shooting, that I do a lot of sometimes and for video. It's unreal how names of things will change over the years. This memory card was called a media card when we bought our Panasonic in 2005 and, back then, a 52mb card was the largest one available. Today they make GB ones, which have much more space on it than a 52mb one did. We don't take as many pictures as we use to, but still take quite a number. We keep a few pictures on our iPhones, but none on our computer. I put all of our photos on USB's. I have two sets of USB's for photos, one set at home and another in our Safe Deposit Box at the bank. I mentioned this in another Thread that I have taken all, and I do mean all, of our printed photos, scanned them into a computer photo software and then onto USB's. Heck, I've got photos taken of Bull Elk in Rocky Mountain National Park, to Elk-White Tail Deer-Waterfalls and Buffalo in Yellowstone National Park, fireworks displays and numerous other places we've been to. We have quite a library of photos.
I have a Nikon Coolpix L830, which I am happy with. Like @Yvonne Smith, my wife loves the pictures she takes with her iPhone but, while I now have an iPhone too, I am not at all happy with the pictures I take with my iPhone. They are okay, I suppose, but it's hard for me to see just what sort of a picture I'm going to get so I have to take several in order to increase the likelihood that one of them will be what I want, and I don't think the pictures I take with my iPhone are as clear as those I take with a real camera. My chief complain with my Nikon is that it doesn't have a viewfinder. While I guess it's true that most people use the LCD screen to frame their photo, I much prefer the traditional viewfinder, which this camera does not have.
We both take photos with our Apple iPhones, but I still prefer a camera. With the iPhone, I have to connect, via USB, the iPhone to our desktop, open a software that we bought called Wondershare TunesGo Retro and download the photos to a photo editing software we have. Actually, with the same software (Wondershare), I can take photos off of a USB and put them on our iPhones. With the camera, I simply take the Memory Card out of the camera, put it into a Media slot on the front or our computer tower, clip on "Computer", click on the spot where the Memory Card is and my photos come up. I take a quick look at them, close the Memory Card spot and "Computer" and open my photo editing software and "Import" all the photos from the Memory Card. I've done this so many times, I could do it with my eyes shut! BTW, Ken, this new camera doesn't come with a traditional viewfinder either........only the 3" screen on the back. Myself, I'm use to using a viewfinder as well, but had also used the screen to review photos that I taken, go into the settings for something and, when on a tripod, seeing what I was taking a photo of on a Timer. Like on our iPhones, have to buy a Screen Protector for the camera. On the Panasonic, the screen flipped around into the camera, so it wouldn't get scratched or anything. The new camera doesn't do that. Plus, I have 75 pages of instructions to read concerning this "high tech" thing. Gee, "back in our day", what camera person would have thought that there would be a camera that could be remotely controlled via a mobile phone or run thru WiFi??? This "day and age" of technology is something else!
Oh, I do use my iPhone camera often, but only because I usually walk around with my iPhone and don't usually walk around carrying my camera. It takes decent pictures, but I prefer the camera. I also find transferring photos a little easier with the camera, if only because whenever I plug my iPhone in to my Mac, it wants to do other stuff as well. I still have some learning to do with my camera, too.
I have an iPad, and since the iPhone and iPad share everything, I do not have to do anything to get the pictures from one to the other. I didn't usually carry my camera around with me when I went somewhere unless I intended to take pictures; but I generally do have tho phone along, and ready to go if I spot something that I want a picture of. Once I have the picture, then it automatically transfers onto the iPad as well, and I have the photo-editing apps on the iPad where I can see everything better. I have to sync with iTunes about once each month, and I use the Dell computer to do that; so when I connect to the Dell, all of my pictures are automatically uploaded onto the Dell, as well. Since I rarely even use the Dell, I don't do anything with the pictures once there are on there; but nevertheless, it all happens effortlessly on my part. Plus.....the iPad has an instant sharing option with other Apple devices that are nearby; so if I take a picture and want to share it with Bobby, then I can instantly transfer it to his iPad, too.
I have the Canon PowerShot SX120IS with 10x Optical Zoom. Before that I had a Kodak digital camera that worked just fine for my first digital camera and close up pictures. My Canon works fine for close up and further away. I love taking pictures, especially family pictures and although I am far from a professional in this...my family will have lots of photos to trace our history through.
We have that as well "lots of photos to trace family history through" both from the time wife and I met in 2000 all the way to now (2016). I will sometimes, on Thursday or Friday, put an old family photo of my wife's family on Facebook. It is called Throwback Thursday and Flashback Friday. We get some "ooooo's and ahhhh's" about them.
Man, this new camera is even more "high tech" than I thought it was. Had to download a Canon software on the computer and three Canon iPhone Apps. to go with the camera. Also had to order, from Amazon, a Canon Lens Adapter ($27) in order to put a Protective Lens on the camera lens to protect it, plus bought a couple of 3" Canon Screen Protectors for the screen in the rear.
Well, was FINALLY able to connect the camera, via WiFi, to my iPhone 6 for remote control use. It only took me a couple of hours to figure out how to do it. Anyway, this "remote app" will come in handy for taking photos with the camera mounted to a tripod. Won't have to keep walking to the camera to adjust lens (for taking a picture) and then going back to get into the picture. Just connect the camera to my iPhone, thru WiFi and adjust everything with my iPhone. Today's technology.........just gotta love it (for some people, that is). Also found out that I only need one of the Canon Apps (not all three) for my iPhone. The other two Apps have been integrated into one.