Re: Finding a digital Camera.
My understanding is that Minolta is a sister company of Contax, as is Yashica. All three of those camera companies are owned by Kyocera, the copier company. Kyocera wants out of the consumer (Yashica and Minolta) and pro-sumer (Contax) camera markets, shut down production about 6-mons ago. Fwiw, Contax had a couple of the highest quality, and most expensive, subcompact digital cameras.<br /><br />Canon is running away with the sub-compact digi camera market. Fuji also has some nice products but overall cant get up there with Canon when comparing all of the features of a camera. Fuji is well known as an optics company, the only enlarger lenses I own, all are Fujinon.<br /><br />Nikon used to dominate, but now the CoolPix line is rated mediocre. Sony is up near the top, but (IMO) overpriced.<br /><br />Std for subcompact digi cameras is OPTICAL zoom = 3x, and DIGITAL zoom =4x, 12x total. There are a couple 3.4x optical zoom cameras, and I think there is a 5x out there. Keep in mind there isnt much happening that requires zoom beyond 3x on a subcompact digi camera, equiv to about 135mm lens on a 35mm camera.<br /><br />The software suit that came with my Canon is pretty cool. Last night I took a half dozen pix in a row and the s/w stitched them together, seamlessly, to make a big panoramic image. You might also want to consider the s/w that comes with the digi camera you buy.<br /><br />Fwiw, the image quality of the smaller subcompact digi cameras is kicking the butts of the other digi cameras until you get up to the pro-sumer lines. Just read that in Consumer Reports.<br /><br />I just did the subcompact digi camera shopping thing. I opted for the Canon DS550 ($350 at Costco). Its a little more camera than what you specified for your daughter. I was headed toward Fuji for the optics, but decided to go for the middle of the pack, then get another camera, more mega-pix, with Zeiss optics (Schotts glass) later.<br /><br />You might also want to keep the leaning curve in mind. If you daughter already knows how to operate your Fuji, maybe getting her a Fuji means an easier learning curve?!?<br /><br /><br />Edit: 2.5 screen seems to be settling in as the std size, tho the Sony is bigger, and a few others are smaller. The smaller the LCD, the less the batt gets sucked by the display. Also, if you get a camera with a viewfinder, your daughter can turn off the LCD all together and save a bunch of batt power. Fwiw, I dont think batt power is much of an issue anymore if you have access to a charger every day or two. My camera is rated to take about 500 photos (based on that std for comparing digi cameras) on a single battery charge, with LCD on. Most of the subcompacts are in the 300-600 photos per batt charge range.<br /><br />Edit Edit: Pass on a camera that take AA batteries. They have the poorest battery performance of all of the cameras, least number of shots per batt change. This means getting stuck with a proprietary battery, but in the long run it is cheaper to operate...supposedly.
...<br /><br />Carry on!...
