I like to take pride in my searching abilities, but when it comes to doing research for products and actually shopping online, I suck. I don’t know what the trouble is, but Michael can hop online and within 20 minutes find what I can’t find for 3 hours of searching and wading through reviews. Part of my trouble is that I get stuck on one track and start blocking out other options. It’s really a horrible habit. Maybe some of it has to do with not taking enough breaks while searching. After a while I just get so numbed to reviews, and it’s gets frustrating because you have half a dozen reviews that say “this camera rocks!” and then you come across two that say “I hate it.”
Just for fun and comparison I decided to look up some reviews of this old HP one that we have, and some people actually said they liked it! It was comforting to discover that it is a particularly bad camera, and lots of people had trouble with the flash stopping working, and it being a battery hog.
Anyway, after all the recommendations (thanks to everyone) I was able to get on the right track with exactly what I wanted.
I was quite interested in an Olympus recommended by Sam, but then Michael mentioned his preference for compact flash cards (apparently we do have a couple small ones around).
I went to that camera review site with a list of a few recommended cameras that used CF cards.
The Canon s410 (which is the newer version of s400, recommended by a bunch of people) is nice. Unfortunately it’s expensive ($379.94 at amazon, I did price checking elsewhere, but amazon proved to be a pretty good basic indicator), and I really wasn’t sure we wanted to push the $400 mark if we didn’t have to.
I looked at a relatively higher end Nikon Coolpix 4300 that brinkecw suggested. Well this is a pretty nice camera, 4 megapixels, but the price tag was $343.88 at amazon. I also discovered that it doesnt take AA batteries, it takes either a rechargable battery pack, or a 2CR5 Photo 6 Volt Lithium Battery. I want to stick with AA batteries in case I am stuck at a lan party with a dead camera and need some quick replacement. Sorry Nikon!
Michael dropped by spoofee.com and saw that they had a Canon PowerShot A70 for $218.39! 3.2 megapixels, which is fine, getting more for under $300 is difficult. I checked out the DCRP Reviews and was quite pleased with the one for this camera. I went through and read user reviews, and the only issue people really seem to have with it is that it’s not very durable (broke when they dropped it). That’s reasonable, I think I can handle that.
Of course now that I had seen the A70 I HAD to check out the A80 *drool* this is a pretty slick camera! Quite simliar to the A70, but it was 4 megapixels, more durable, less redeye trouble, and had a couple trivial features that I didn’t really care much about. Price tag at amazon: $339.94. We agonized over it, and in the end decided that it really wasn’t worth the extra money.
I spent a bit of the afternoon going through reviews of flash card cameras without much more luck. Apparently the Canons really are the best out there in the $200-400 price range, even compared to Kodak, and most of the Nikons are pretty sad in co
mparison.
So we’ll talk about it tonight, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be going with the Canon A70. And since the price of the camera + next day shipping is STILL cheaper than trying to find the camera at a store, we should have it here by friday %)
Enough about digital cameras. If I look at another hi res digital test picture today I’m going to be ill.
Yesterday I did as planned, some yard work in the morning, showered, ate lunch, and then walked up to the library. I love libraries so much. Libraries make me want to lock myself away forever and just read. I want to check out 2318903 books and fill my head with everything that’s in them. Well since that’s not possible I picked up a Second Foundation, a sociology book, and The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary which I have been wanting to read since it came out but kept forgetting about it. Since I needed a break from Foundation (reading them too quickly) I decided to start on Professor and the Madman last night, and so far I’m quite pleased with it.
Last night we left the windows open again, it got cold. I’m not sure how cold it got last night, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was in the 40s. As a result, our little temperature sensative kitten snuggled under the covers the *entire* night. It was so adorable. When Michael got up this morning to get ready for work Caligula kept crawling out of the bed, following him for a bit, and then coming back to snuggle under the covers with me. When I got up out of bed he followed me (and my comforter, it WAS cold!) upstairs and snuggled in with me again. Even though it’s warmed up he’s been like this most of the day. I was even able to trim his claws! I love having a cat.
That’s it for now. *wanders off*