I have $300 worth of Visa Christmas gift cards that I have decided to buy a camera with. I would like to get the best camera I can for the $300. I can go a little higher by chipping in some of my own money but not much. Maybe 350.

So tell me what I have to have in the line of mega pix and zoom. I have been told at least 6 pix and 10X zoom. I am a total digital novice so please put all advise in basic format.

TIA

I have a cybershot 7.2 camera and I REALLY like it. It is easy to use, and you can get it for about 200.00. I have also had the 5 mpg cybershot as well. I like the Sony cameras. My dad just spoiled me with the Sony 10.2 mpg SLR. I don't know how to work that one yet, but I can't wait to try it!

Good luck!

Shelley

My daughter bought a Panasonic digital camera several months ago and it's outstanding. I used it during my December WDW trip and the results were impressive for such a small, slim camera. It's small enough for me to keep in my pocket.

The Panasonic cameras are also reasonably priced. If you check around, for $300 you should be able to get the camera, a memory chip, and rechargable batteries. The chip and batteries are essential, so don't forget to include those costs in your purchase.

A digital camera comes with a chip, but it's very limited and just for demonstration purposes. Buy the "biggest" memory chip you can afford. It's very nice to take lots of pictures without worrying about running out of memory. Also, digital cameras will go through regular batteries very quickly. That's why good rechargables are a must.

Personally, I'd recommend getting a used one.

Also, keep in mind: what's your intended purpose? Do you want something as a backup for film cameras, or as a replacement for them? Do you want something small enough to stick in your pocket, or do you want something as big as a small film SLR? Maybe even as big as a big film SLR? Do you want interchangable lenses? And do you care what kind of memory card it takes? (For the record, CF is unique among memory card standards, in that CF cards are essentially miniaturized PCMCIA cards, designed to emulate a PCMCIA hard drive. As such, anything that can access a PCMCIA hard drive [even my antiquated DOS notebook computers] can, with a simple passive adapter, also access a CF card. Also, prices and maximum capacities may differ from one memory card standard to another)

For me, the best choice to replace the Kodak 4900 I lost in New Haven turned out to be a used Canon (an S50, I think it is) I found on eBay. Particularly since I wanted something small, and it had to use CF cards, and the only CF card cameras they make any more are high-end pro DSLRs.

I have a Sony Cyber-shot, 7.2 megapixel and it is great. It takes great indoor and outdoor pics. :)

Hubby and I are amateur photographers, and he is a full-time tech geek, and between us we are madly in love with one of our more recent camera purchases: the Panasonic Lumix. There are many models, and I always forget which one we got, since we reviewed so many so exhaustively. I believe it is the DMX-FX09 In any case, there are many very similar along these lines, and all have excellent stats.

We each have higher end cameras (I have a Rebel and he has a 20D) that we love, but are quite bulky for lugging around the parks. We have tried bringing our "fancy" cameras, and we always end up leaving the cameras in the room the rest of the time, because of the weight and bulk of these (however beloved) cameras. We want great pics, but we don't want our camera to hold us back from being as active and free to do everything we want to do! So we decided we really wanted to get a pocket-sized camera that would give us enough bells and whistles and great photo quality.

Enter our Panasonic Lumix. We had some friends who already had some earlier models and it had proved to be a wonderful little camera and at a reasonable price point ($300-$400 depending on the model). So I got it for hubby as an anniversary gift, and we adore it!

We actually used it to take a slew of wedding photos for hubby's sister's beach wedding, and even took some video of the ceremony. You can be shaking the camera--I mean actively shaking it around wildly--and take a photo or a video and it will be completely without a single blur. I honestly don't know how the technology could work that well, but it does! The images are just amazing--zoom in on them and see the tiniest detail, with very little artifacts.

I wish I had some pics on a public site right now to show you, but I am sure there is a wealth of info through Google if you want to see some sample images and video from this amazing line of cameras.

I completely endorse them! We are excited for our return trip to WDW. On our first trip, we didn't have a pocket/fanny pack sized camera, and we Seattlites were suffering enough from the sweltering (to us) heat without lugging a camera around our necks. So we got so few photos, it breaks my heart. :( But this trip, we will have the new baby with us, and look forward to taking some great shots to commemorate our trip as we would like!