The P&WV Hi-Line

[PWV101]

Took these shots at the crossing in Castle Shannon as they headed for Rook.

[Guest]

Digital camera question.
What make & model of digital camera would you purchase if planning on your first digital camera?
Consider lag, battery, lens and card.
TX

[PWV101]

Well, I guess it all comes down to (as it always does) to money. There is a big image quality jump with the 35mm style interchangeable lens camera. All of those cameras have virtually no lag, big sensors for good quality and a multitude of controls for any situation. Price with a lens 699.00 on up. I think the Canon 20D is a good value. It has 8 megapixel and great image quality. As far as the non interchangeable lens cameras go you can get a mostly auto 5.0 megapixel 3X optical zoom camera with not much control of items like shutter speed, f-Stop and ISO for 200.00 and up. For the most part ,these type all have lag and are hard to use for action or speed photography. In between we have SLR type cameras with fixed zoom lenses. They usually have shutter speed and f-Stop priority modes and the ability to select ISO. The optical zooms can be 6 to 12X. Power on and lag is less but still there. But they still have a small sensor. Image quality is greatly affected by the physical size of the sensor. The small sensors at higher ISO get very noisy. A 6 meg large sensor beats a 8 meg small sensor hands down every time. Noise appears as grain and degraded image quality. But, if you just post to the net and print 4x6 prints and occasional 8x10 or 11x14 the SLR fixed lens would be just fine.
As you can see there are so many things to be decided as to which type of camera would give you image quality you find acceptable.

I would say you can't go wrong with Nikon and Canon in most of their product line. I use a Nikon D70. I have had it for over 2 years and it has worked perfectly. The images are very good. I have made some 16X20 prints that are exceptional. I hope this answered some questions.
If you have any specific questions don't hesitate to contact me.

BTW. My profession is photographic digital imaging. I have been using and servicing commercial digital imaging equipment for the past 10 years.
I remember drooling over a 1.7 megapixel camera that cost a few thousand dollars.

JR