Best digicam for under $500

[Jollymon]

I really would like to get one that works well for taking reef pics. Anything I should look for and brands.

[matrixnyc]

I think the best one for under $500 is the Nikon 995

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1394292258

I use it and have never had a bad thing to say about it, except that a week after i bought it the price droped $150.00 :(

If you need specs i can post them for you

[Pineapple House]

I would go with the Canon Powershot G2, from camera topia.com It is $494.00.
The only bad thing is....I ordered it 4 weeks ago, and aperently due to the high demand, it has been delayed 3-5 weeks, so im kinda mad at the place...soo mucg for 3-5 day shipping :roll:

ClickHere (http://www.cameratopia.com/products.asp?product_id=10030&engine=pricegrabber) to see it. 4.0 mega pixels, and very nice.

"As advance as the technology is, this camera is easy to master. At every step, you know exactly what your Powershot G2 sees and how it sees it. The image in the LCD monitor is true, bright, clear, and colorful, and contained within a 1.8-inch frame. The vari-angle monitor lets you compose shots at a wide variety of angles: directly overhead, on the ground, or at waist level. You also have a three point AF system to allow you to shoot subjects off-center. The G2 also supports Macro photography by allowing you to shoot 2.4 inches away from your subject. You also have three metering systems to choose from: SPOT METERING, CENTER-WEIGHTED METERING, EVALUATION METERING.



The G2 has eight automatic modes; including pan-focus, portrait, landscape, night scene, photo effect, stich assist, and a movie mode with will allow you to record up to 30 seconds of recording. You also have a full manual mode, an aperture priority mode, shutter speed priority mode and a program mode. The G2 also offers the flexibility of adding any of Canon"s speedlights to the camera; including their Macro Ring Lite MR-14ex for macro photography. They also have a line of converter lenses to increase the range of the G2 lens.



The Powershot G2 doesn"t even need a computer to produce high-quality prints. The compact Card Photo Printer CP-10 delivers high resolution - 300dpix300dpi - credit card sized images directly from the camera. A special cropping feature allows you to adjust the size of the image you want printed so that only the image that appears within the frame of the LCD monitor is printed.



Features:
The design of the Canon PowerShot G2 is based on the popular PowerShot G1, with an elegant champagne metallic coverplate and an enlarged handgrip for better ergonomics. The Canon G2 has many features in common with its predecessor, including a superb.


Specifications:
Image sensor 1/1.8-inch 4.2 Megapixel CCD with Primary Color Filter, 4 Million effective pixels Color depth 24 Bit RGB Picture modes JPEG (SuperFine, Fine or Normal), CCD-RAW Large: 2272x1704 Medium High: 1600x1200 Medium Low: 1024x768 Small: 640x480D "

PH =)

[phistio]

i would reccomend either fuji, olympus, or nikon for digital photograpy...megapixels over 3.0

fuji has a different recording system in their higher digital cameras called Super CCD...or SCCD...which allows actual recorded pixels to be doubled through a honeycomb-effect...if you bought a fuji with effective 3.1 megapixels, it would look like a camera that had 6.2 megapixel resolution...as it doubles the recorded pixels...

i highly reccomend the fuji S602, then the Nikon 4600 or 5700 models...and any olympus in the 3 or 4 series!

[ssgibby]

FWIW, My friend has a nikkon 995 and love it.

[Seadazed]

WOW, I'm loveing this site more and more. I posted a similar question on another board and got like one response.

[phistio]

also, another great feature of a camera would be a macro setting...it can allow for super close-ups...a must for great reef pictures!

incidentally, i was looking in the sunday ads today, and best buy had a few 3-4 megapixel cameras for under $500...circuit city as well....and office max had an olympus c4000 for $499.99...a great camera

[Jollymon]

Thanks everybody! My B-day is Weds. I thought I could talk my wife into looking at digicams, but she has already bought a gift. Maybe for Christmas. She just doesn't understand the need! :lol:

[Seadazed]

Another November baby. :D Happy B-day [early]

[eson]

Check out http://www.dpreview.com

The site review almost every digital camera and he is not affiliated with any manufacturer. Excellent and sometime too detailed reviews.

[phistio]

yeah...this is one of my favorite websites...nice to go ahead and post it for others to see...

i forgot to link this site, and you're right...sometimes the reviews can be pretty technical...but you can't ever have too much information!