Candid Camera

I've been thinking of getting a new digital camera, even though I don't really need one. I've bought three so far. My first was a Minolta that my friend Justin picked up for me from Japan. It was red, had a periscope-like lens, and was fairly cool in a number of ways. Alas, Minolta is ditching their line of cameras, and favoring their copiers. The digital camera market is really really crowded.

This camera was a tiny, tiny camera, small enough that I could carry it everywhere. I didn't appreciate this although Justin had said a small camera would mean I could actually take more pictures. I remember I used to have a Nikon 2020 then eventually a Nikon 8008. These were huge beasts and you had to remember to bring it with you everywhere. They took nice pix, but really, I would only use them once or twice a year, say, to graduaations. I just didn't use them all that often.

With the Minolta, I brought it everywhere, and took pictures whereever. It was convenient.

I bought two more cameras, Canons, both of them. Canons appear to be the most popular camera line. Even though Canon and Nikon duked it out in the SLR market, with Minolta and Olympus way behind, and the German brands (Hasselblad, Leica) far too expensive for the average enthusiast, the digital camera market brought lots of companies that were never into cameras.

Kodak, never a serious SLR contender, decided to join the fray. But so did Casio (who make watches and calculators), Panasonic, Sony. There are probably easily tweny different companies making cameras, cranking out one camera after the next.

They mostly divide into two categories: ultra small and full-featured. Even the full-featured divide into lots of manual features and SLR-replacements which can be several thousand dollars (well, two).

I bought an A-80, which is 5 MP, and at the time, one of the top-of-the-line in the "A" series of Canon cameras. But it's too large too conveniently carry. I just don't use it nearly at all. I also bought an SD-200, which is now really at the bottom of the SD line. It's 3.2 MP. These days, 5 MP and 6 MP are becoming increasingly common, and at a price that you used to pay for 3 MP cameras.

I've learned MP aren't critical. They eat up memory, and I don't need fantastic quality. Still, as the numbers creep up, I'm tempted to move up to 5 MP.

Here are the features that I like and dislike since using the Canon SD-200.

• I don't like Canon's focus light. This bright orange light is a pain.
  
• I like that Canon is popular. I can find replacement parts easily enough.
  
• I like Canon's large display screen. The Minolta was tiny, and one reason
  I changed.
  
• I dislike Canon's inability to remember the flash setting when I turn on and
  off. My Minolta would remember I didn't want flash.
  
• I like Canon's ruggedness.
  
• The battery life could be better.
  
• I like tiny cameras.
  

I'm thinking of getting a Casio EX-Z600. Alas, it's missing a viewfinder, although many cameras are now ditching this feature, as few people use it (it's good if it's really sunny, and there's a lot of glare on the screen). It's price range is decent (under $300) but I need to see what features it does and doesn't have, and really ask if I want yet another camera or not.