Digital Camera suggestions?

[guppyman]

My mom will be receiving a nice digital camera for Christmas. I have been asked for advice on what to get, but my knowledge of digital cameras is basically nothing. I have borrowed a friend's Sony MVC-FD88 Mavica... I really like this camera. Other than that, I'm clueless.

She wants a cam that will put images on floppy. Is there a difference in saving to floppy or memory stick?

Basically- what I am looking for are some good quality camera recomendations.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

[slimjim]

I have a Sony FD73, now as a FD75. It is a low resolution but good for the web and has a 10X optical zoom, a must. If I had to buy now, I would get a Sony FD92 as it uses both a floppy and a stick, has 8X zoom, 37mm lens which there are a lot of addons for it and MPEG. MSRP is $499.00. I have a 2X addon, and a wide angle for my FD72. A must have for a sony is an extra battery. The one that comes with it is good for 120 min and the one I bought is for 240 min.

[ 19 December 2001: Message edited by: slimjim ]

[Gats]

The advantage of saving to floppy disc is the ease of transferring the images to your PC but the disadvantage is the image size restrictions and/or the number of images you can get per floppy. Remember, floppies have a 1.44M capacity.
Memory cards on the other hand allow more flexibility in storing the images but you may need to go one step further and have a reader to place the card into so you can transfer them. Most mid-range cameras have USB connections negating the reader.
Sony does have a camera that saves to a special CD-RW disc, smaller than a standard CD, but reusable. The downside of these is the individual cost and I believe you still need to connect the camera to your PC for transferring (not sure if the small CD-RW is readable in a standard CD-ROM drive).

There's plenty of 'net resources to look at if you are still looking. I always recommend Steve's Digi-cams (http://www.steves-digicams.com) for impartial reviews of available cameras. The site have links to online stores that sell them so you may check pricing.

Hope this helps.

Gary.

[imported_Art]

I have a junkey $170.00 poloroid pdc 640 without telephoto. As long as you are within a reasonable distance it takes excellent pics. With Adobe Active share and Adobe Photoelements Photos can be turned into excellent products.

Art.

[ 09 January 2002: Message edited by: Art ]

[Gary Lewis]

Better late than never suggestion. Pay peanuts and you get monkeys, don't buy a cheap digital camera if you want to take good pictures. I paid my money and got a Toshiba PDR-M70, now replaced by the M-71 which should be just as good. Take a look at the Kato USA Photo Gallery site and look for a 3/4 shot of an N scale Kato Mikado taken by Gary Lewis B.C. Canada. You'll see the quality, because this photo was not taken with a closeup lens.