Camera advice for STJ

[ripnero]

you all have some fablulous photos - anyone have a sugguestions for a good camera that is not crazy expensive? we leave next month fpr STJ and our camera is just ok - i would hate to miss out on pictures like these!

[California Girl]

I have a Canon SD880 IS, and I LOVE IT! It's small enough to slip into your pocket, takes awesome pictures and you can get an underwater case for it. I usually process all my photos in Photoshop for the ultimate results, but if you check Part 3 of my trip report, you can see that the picture of Marina Cay is just as it came out of the camera!

[baseball0717]

bought a olympus 720w 2 years ago off of ebay .it has worked great.in and out of water.

[Pete (Mr. Marcia)]

Right before our trip to STJ this year, I bought a Canon Power Shot SX10 IS. It has a 20X optical zoom, digital zoom after that. It also takes decent videos.

I'm completely satisfied. It takes great pictures. It cost in the low $300s.

[Pete (Mr. Marcia)]

For example, this was taken from about 40 yards away

[California Girl]

I love my camera, but I have to admit I'm jealous of your zoom!! Excellent photo, Pete!

[mindehankins]

WOW! I'm having major zoom-envy!

[lprof]

Pete, that is a great iguana shot...

reminds me of my son's pet iguana, "Manuel"...who when several years old laid eggs, and thereafter was known as "Manuella"
she grew to be over three feet long and lived to be 8 or 9

anyway...I like the picture...thanks

[Teresa_Rae]

I had gotten sick of those throw-away underwater cameras that take terrible pictures so I bought an Olympus Stylus 1030SW for our trip last year so I could take good underwater pictures. It's a pretty good point and shoot so I didn't take another camera with me for out of water shots. Then it died on day 2 or 3 and I didn't have a camera for the last 7 or 8 days of our trip. So if you do decide to get one of the waterproof ones, take something else as a backup

[jmq]

For point n shoots, the Canon PowerShot series always grade out well in any reviews, handle a very wide range of lighting real well, and take high quality images.
Maybe go to Target and look at the 4x zoom A1000 for $150, 4x zoom A1100 for $200, or the 10x zoom SX110 for $250. Compare them with similar models from Nikon. See what fits your hand and budget best.
Note that the new waterproof Canon D10 you can take snorkeling is also available now for $329.

[flip-flop]

I love my canon powershot. It's small and takes good pics. Not crazy high quality but a lot of bang for the buck and very DURABLE. I am very hard on electronics, just ask my iphone.

[PA Girl]

Right before our trip to STJ this year, I bought a Canon Power Shot SX10 IS. It has a 20X optical zoom, digital zoom after that. It also takes decent videos.

I'm completely satisfied. It takes great pictures. It cost in the low $300s.

I have the prior version of Pete's camera and I love it! I will definately buy the newer model when it comes time to replace mine.

[Bob & Anita]

WOW! I'm having major zoom-envy!

Ditto on that.

We have a couple of Canons. The are great cameras.

[jmq]

Big zooms on the PowerShots are fun.

Wide
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Ra ... site"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8poT_jdtsYw/RopN- ... 6.JPG"></a>

10x Zoom
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/gz ... site"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8poT_jdtsYw/RopN3 ... 1.JPG"></a>

Image quality can suffer compared to the SLRs at the zoom extremes because the lens just isnt as good as the SLR zooms. You can compensate for that somewhat if you override the higher ISO setting the camera may be choosing for you to a lower ISO number to keep the grain down and the image sharp. These were taken with an older S series that only has 6.0 mp so I have to pay attention to this stuff if I dont want noisy images.