I Need Help For Which Camera.......

I have never owned a digital camera. I need some advice on which one to buy. I would like to take small videos with it also. Should I get it off the internet or in store? Know of any good deals? I want to spend a maximum of $300 plus tax Canadian. I think that is about $200 plus tax American. What I want in my camera is low delay times because I take pics of sports, 5-7 megapixels, and zoom is not necessary.
BTW it doesn't have to be a Canon

Thanks in advance,
Colin.

At your price range, you won't find much that'll take good sports shorts specially if they are indoors. If I had to choose one, I'd say the Canon A630 which will go you $299 CDN on sale (I've been shopping for one for my wife). There is a good potential for price match between Black's Photography and Futureshop to save another 20 dollars CDN. The A540 is a little cheaper but I'm biased and don't like the 2XAA battery models. I've owned the A610 (previous model to the A630) and thought it was fantastic which is why I'm looking at the A630 for my wife.

Hope that helps.

I own the A630 - it's in that price range now ... and it's highly recommended if you want a starter camera with full manual ... so you can pretend to have a DSLR Or if you want to start trying to learn, like me

If you just want a point and shoot without fiddling with the settings too much, the SD range is better.

I love my A630!! Also - I take movies of my pets/family events and stuff ... 30FPS 640*480 - comes out great on the TV

-Rob

I have an A540 and have never had any problems with battery life but I understand that others have. I use it for personal photos as well as product shots for work.
The A540 takes short movies and is a good p&s camera and also has manual controls like the A630 mentioned earlier. I don’t know about the rest of the A-Series cameras but I think either the A540 or A630 would be a good camera to start with.
The one thing that I would like to add would be to get a good set of rechargeable batteries with no less than a one hour charger. I have a one hour charger and have had no problems but from what I have read on the POTN forum anything less, like a 15 minute charger, seems that the batteries tend to run down faster. Look for something with a one, two, four, or six hour charge time.
Good Luck.

Tanisark wrote in post #2579020
I have an A540 and have never had any problems with battery life but I understand that others have. I use it for personal photos as well as product shots for work.
The A540 takes short movies and is a good p&s camera and also has manual controls like the A630 mentioned earlier. I don’t know about the rest of the A-Series cameras but I think either the A540 or A630 would be a good camera to start with.
The one thing that I would like to add would be to get a good set of rechargeable batteries with no less than a one hour charger. I have a one hour charger and have had no problems but from what I have read on the POTN forum anything less, like a 15 minute charger, seems that the batteries tend to run down faster. Look for something with a one, two, four, or six hour charge time.
Good Luck.

Hi Tanisark,

How many shots do you get off of a set of rechargable batteries? My biggest problem with the A520 was definitely the number of shots I could get per charge but maybe I'm spoiled because of my S2 which gives me over 400 shots per charge. I'd love to see some of your photos as well... I think I've convinced my wife to keep the A520 for her to use with a good set of eneloop batteries as per the thread that's been active regarding batteries.

I have twelve of the Digital Concepts batteries in my camera case (two are in the camera) that I keep fully charged. I only have a 256mb cards which gives me 146 images. On a fully charged set I am able to get between 100 images and a full card before the low battery indicator comes on. That’s with flash and LCD on.
I'm looking into getting an XT. Since the new XTi came out the price of th XT has dropped so I'm trying to find a good deal on one. But that will have to wait until I find out how much I get back on income tax.
As far as the pictures I hope to have some posted soon. Most of them are product shots on my work computer and with the recent ice storm and snow this weekend I haven't had the opportunity to move any over to this one.

mishnogram wrote in post #2578428
At your price range, you won't find much that'll take good sports shorts specially if they are indoors. If I had to choose one, I'd say the Canon A630 which will go you $299 CDN on sale (I've been shopping for one for my wife). There is a good potential for price match between Black's Photography and Futureshop to save another 20 dollars CDN. The A540 is a little cheaper but I'm biased and don't like the 2XAA battery models. I've owned the A610 (previous model to the A630) and thought it was fantastic which is why I'm looking at the A630 for my wife.

Hope that helps.

This was the 1st post and I somewhat understand it so I'll respond to you.
So, where could I get a Canon A630 on sale for $300?
Does it take videos?
How long do the batteries last?
Rechargable batteries or double or triple A's?
Zoom?
Should I get it off the internetor in store?
What's the best site/store?

Sorry, but I know nothing about cameras, please respond though someone.

EDIT: How much cheaper is the 540? And what is the difference in batteries and battery times?

colinbeaton1 wrote in post #2582531
This was the 1st post and I somewhat understand it so I'll respond to you.
So, where could I get a Canon A630 on sale for $300?
Does it take videos?
How long do the batteries last?
Rechargable batteries or double or triple A's?
Zoom?
Should I get it off the internetor in store?
What's the best site/store?

Sorry, but I know nothing about cameras, please respond though someone.

EDIT: How much cheaper is the 540? And what is the difference in batteries and battery times?

1) You just missed a great sale at Blacks who had the A630 for 299 and some people took that to Future shop to have price matched. They seem to be back at 349 (319.99 at Staples) but my guess is that it'll go on sale again soon. As far as where, just go somewhere that carries it and will price match in case you find a lower price (futureshop, staples, walmart, pretty much most places in Canada have a price match policy including places like Sears).

2) the A540 and A630 both take 640X480 video which is DVD quality.

3) The A630 takes AA batteries and if you buy a set of NiMh batteries, they'll easily last you a couple of hundred if not over 300 shots. My S2 goes over 400 shots per charge.

4) The A630 ha 4X optical zoom. If you need more, you'll have to go to the A710 or S3 but are a little more money.

5) I think you can buy wherever you want. I would tell you that the most important part is to go to a place with a very liberal return policy such as Futureshop or Walmart, try the camera out and if you don't like, return it. You'll really quickly see what you like and what you don't like.

Last year when I was shopping for a camera, I had 3 cameras bought from 3 different stores in the house at the same time to compare. I ended up keeping the S2 and haven't regret it.

Hope that helps.