because i enjoy stalking

[Duff-e]

im looking into buying a nice digital camera or camcorder

im kind of torn between which i want because im not sure what i would enjoy more. at first i saw one of those sony mavica cameras and thought they were great. THEN i saw a canon xls1 or whatever and thought it was amazing too. im looking to spend as much as is required, so money is no object (by this i mean less then 3k). i just want to know what camera/camcorder you would all buy if you had the money. and of course if you already have a camera, how you feel about it.

[KidDynamite]

It deffintally isn't state of the art but its treated me well over the years. :x

[Duff-e]

whats that like 2 megapixels? so nub

[Zazi]

A digital camera that has served me well is the Pentax Optio S4(http://www.pentaxusa.com/products/camer ... ctid=18283). It's small, making it very portable, and has great specs, given its size.

If you're not completely hell-bent on digital cameras, I strongly suggest a digital SLR hybrid type of camera. Pentax makes a good one that I've used a little, and I loved it. It also offers you the advantage of getting pictures in both digital and negative formats, making it pretty damn swank. Give it a look if you're willing to spend a little money.

[Mazy]

hmmmm~

[JynxDaddy]

My sister has the same one as Zazi, its VERY NIOCE!@!!!!! uber small but uber good ;O lots of features n stuff to get confused over. Its the size of a credit card and about half the thickness of a deck of cards.

Also it has OPTICAL ZOOM. digital zoom = teh gay, its the same as zoom in photoshop. nubtastic!.

[Zazi]

Still, nothing beats a SLR. I love my ZX-60. Add a 210mm, and a 800mm lense, and you've got yourself quite the beast. Oh yeah, I also have a macro lense too, but I forget how big that one is. Oh yeah, I also modified a bit of the winding mechanisms, so instead of taking a rapid three pictures per second, I can take about ten pictures per second, but I certainly wouldn't try doing this by yourself at home.

As Jynx man says, the Optio S4 is the size of a credit card and the thickness of a deck of cards. The optical zoom is definately a plus, as most digital cameras nowadays use a digital zoom rather than an optical zoom... no wonder so many digital cameras take shitty pictures.

[Duff-e]

thats kind of what im looking for. im new to photo(anything) so i need/want a camera that i can pick up and use on the fly but as i get a desire to learn more advanced concepts, i dont have to drop another $600 for the feature. CAN I GET AN AMEN BROTHER?

[Zazi]

If you're just learning photography, then I suggest a good SLR camera. Sure you can't download them to your computer instantly, but for beginners, and quality, SLR cameras are far superior to their digital counterparts. Nikon and Pentax make the best SLR cameras(and digital cameras, too) to date, so get something from them.

[Duff-e]

could you give me a little background on what exactly an slr camera is and what it offers over other cameras? i looked around on google but only found explainations that included about 9 pages about the history of photography (its not that im not interested, its just i dont have the time to sit down and read it atm)

[Zazi]

SLR is short for "single lense reflex"... I think. Yeah. Anyway, it's basically a high quality 35mm camera that can take different lenses and a whole lot of other shit. Advantages over digital cameras are too many to list, but you can setup your own shots... focus on certain areas in a picture, blah blah... uhm... you can switch out lenses to take close up shots, or shots miles away. What else... oh yeah, since it's film it'll offer a much higher quality than a digital camera.

I don't know how else I could explain it to you, so yeah.

[chips]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-lens_reflex_camera

God bless wikipedia.

[Duff-e]

if you actually read what i asked chips you would see that i wanted an explaination from him on what it was, not from some 300 page tutorial (like the ones i found on google) that went on and on about old cameras. BUT THANKS FOR THE REFERENCE LOVER

[chips]

The first paragraph explains it adaquately, and there is even some pretty pictures for those of limited concentration.

[Duff-e]

i wanted his opinion and point of view. im new to the entire field of photography so im not quite sure on what websites reviews to trust (seeing as how many of them are most likely getting paid off to promote certain brands, or at least the larger sites)