<$500 camera

[Th3Franz]

Hey I was wondering if I could get a recommendation from some of the photo guys..
My sister wants to get a new digital camera for a graduation present. She has an Olympus right now, something about 3 megapixels. She wants to get a newer one with more manual controls, higher resolution, better zoom, better image quality, etc. But, the camera should be around $500 or less.

We were at the store today and were looking at some. There was a Panasonic zoom that looked pretty good but the one I liked was a new Canon S2 1S that just came out recently. It is 5 Megapixels, 12X optical zoom, image stabilizer, auto controls and pretty much full manual control, and a 2" LCD screen and good button layout. What do you think? Know of any other good possibilities? She mostly likes to do stills, but I would want to use it to take some cool car pictures during the day and also night stills.

[Verdugo]

I'm a big fan of the Canon point-and-shoots...they make some great cameras under $500 with a plethora of manual controls. You can't go wrong with the Nikon ones either. Check out these sites...I think they'll help a lot

http://www.dpreview.com

http://www.dcresource.com

[mykedude]

I agree with vurdugo, the Canon Powershot series carries great lenses and features at a decent price. My sister just bought a SD300 which is very tiny and slim, but has a good weight to it. It is good for those "party pics" photography type. She has been liking it because it is easier to fit into her purse than when she used to borrow my old canon S50 (which is still a very good camera with a good amount of manual controls).

I have been impressed with the durability of the Canon cameras. My S50 has been dropped numerous times and all it did was dent. The body of the Canon's are not plastic so they will only dent and not crack. This was the flaw i found in Nikon's point and shoots, they had plastic bodys with nice lenses. A friend dropped thier Nikon once an the buttons popped off and the body cracked.

Good luck with your search.

~myke

[GraysonSubaru]

i am thinking about a canon powershot 60 and selling my HP 945. I like the HP, but it has too many features that I wont ever use nor do i feel like reading about it to figure them all out. 10x zoom is great, but all of the other stuff will probably never be used by me.

[Th3Franz]

Well.. she decided on the S2 1S after input from me and the limited amount I read online. Seems like a solid camera.. Also got a 512 MB secure digital card which should be plenty. I can't wait to take some new pics of my car.

[zoinks]

I have a Kodak DX6490 and I'm quite pleased with it. Now the DX7590 is out and should be even better.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/kodakdx7590/