Photographers (and others) Fast, affordable, digital camera?
 

I got my GF a Vivitar camera. I don't have the specs but it is 8mp and the pictures are out of this world as far as clarity goes (in good lighting).

But indoors, like inside a gymnasium (our kids do various high school sports (Yes we are happily unmarried)) the pictures are grainier than fuck.

Also it takes a full 5 seconds from pushing the button to taking a picture.

I would like to get her something that will drop that time to 1/2 a second up to 1 second.

I would like the pictures to be clear no matter where she takes them.

Anyone got ideas on THAT camera?

Keep in mind that the pics are used in scrapbooks and shit and not for online use for money so I don't want to buy her a $1200 camera for typical family pictures.

That's what you need to spend for a decent camera, lens and flash I afraid to say.

Does depend on what you call decent.

Try and see what the deals are on the Nikon D50 or D70

Consider a Nikon d40. It's been said that it's an SLR for the consumer.

maybe a used canon rebel is the way to go. low light conditions are where our lesser cameras fall short, even in the over $500 price range. that's why we use a canon 20D - but even a used 10D has better low light performance than most other cameras.

I'd agree with mlove. I demo'd a D40x last week and it worked really well, it's buffer held close to 100 images and it could shoot around 3 times a second with a 120x SD card. It did fair in low lightning but as with all cameras it can't make gold out of straw.

Family photos... She doesn't need a camera with lens attachments... She needs a quick point and shoot camera that doesn't take 5 seconds to auto-focus.

Then she needs to pay a proper price. I want a car that performs like a Jaguar, but drive a Ford. :winkwink:

Hmm... Canon Digital Rebel and Nikon D40's both seem like great options.

Can anyone discuss the pros and cons of both?

http://www.dpreview.com

nice place to start researching

IMHO Nikon D70 is better option than Nikon D40/Nikon D40X

shutter speed 1/8000 vs 1/4000

and Canon Digital Rebel has very nice noise reduction
(it means less grained pictures)

http://www.lisegagne.com shoots very nice photos with Canon

Canon 350d / 400d
Canon 20d/30d
both, with good lenses.
It should do the job just great.

:) :) :)

Just a point, if you are looking at SLR digital cameras the lens is more important for shooting indoors, if you get a fast simple lens say f2 that will give you 4 or 8 times more light than a zoom, this will mean better pictures in lower light, turn up the ISO to 400 or 800 and you should get some good results indoors

Check out Canon 20d, 30d, 5d

Sorry, but as far as quick and easy I love my Kodak EasyShare.

When it comes to autofocus, with red eye reduction on, I have yet to find a camera that responds as quickly . . . and believe me, I have looked.

I would love to find a slimmer camera, but they are all to damn slow for my use.

you can find good deals on canon rebel xt's but the only thing is it ships with a crappy lens if you are wanting to shoot sports n stuff so you are lookin at another 200-500 for a decent lens

I shoot with a Canon Digital Rebel. Cheap. You can squeeze off 4 super fast shots and it will buffer them up while writing. They're a lot more advanced Canons out now, but I've had this for 3+ years now.

http://gamerchicks.com/images/models...40/640x480.jpg

If you want to shoot sports, you will want to go with a SLR, like the nikon or canon rebel. I have the original version of the rebel and shoot sports with it. You just need a faster lens.

Anything Kodak.... :)