I'm looking to buy a digital camera with amazing clarity, outdoor possibly waterproof. trying to spend around/below $300.00.

I'm not worried about video ability, just picture ability.

Any ideas? Thanks in Advance.

lots of people like the cannon cameras...
for the water proof... u gota buy the stuff as an attachment to make it water proof :)

I'm selling a Canon S2 IS, its a good camera however I might be out of your price range. I'm selling for around $430 but if your interested make me an offer.

Umm well for less than 300 I wouldn't expect "amazing picture quality". Nothing comapares to a 12.0 megapixel digi, good lord man. My 3.4 hasn't got crap on my brothers 8.0 and I spent 350 for it.

I just bought a Nikon Coolpix S4, 6 megapixel, 10x optical. Don't have a vast amount of experience with it yet, but so far I'm happy. Shop around on-line and you can find it for $325 or so...
www.nikonusa.com

Canon Powershot a610 -- can be had for $250 or less.

Also check out www.dpreview.com (including the links page for links to other review sites).

For the best reviews possible, check out Steve's Digicams (http://www.steves-digicams.com/)

I have a Minolta DiMage Z1 that you can buy now for under $200. The newest model, the Z10 is great. Check out my gallery and other threads of mine for examples... the software it comes with and the camera itself is wonderful!

JMW

Here's a pic of my camera:

http://sapicom.dk/images/Minolta%20Dimage%20Z2.jpg

Consider buying used if you want amazing picture quality for less than $300. BTW if you want amazing clarity the two main things you should be concerned with are lens quality and megapixel rating. The better the lens and the higher the megapixels, the sharper and clearer the picture will be (for the most part). But megapixels ain't everything. I have (among others) a Canon EOS Digital Rebel, which is a 6.3 MP camera, and it will take pictures that far exceed an 8, 10, or 12 MP "point and shoot" style camera given the right lens.

DPReview and Steve's Digicams are good sites, also you can check http://www.dcresource.com for more reviews.

I recommend the Panasonic FZ line of cameras, there are two versions, the FZ1/FZ2/FZ3/FZ4/FZ5 which are compact-sized cameras with a 12x zoom and optical image stabilization, the main difference between each model being the year it was introduced and the megapixel rating. The second set of FZ's is the FZ10/FZ15/FZ20/FZ30 and they are the larger, more expensive version. Same zoom range, also have image stabilization, but more features and more like a full-sized camera.

I don't know about the more expensive ones, but the compact FZ's can be found for less than $300 and you'll get a fantastic lens, it's a Leica-designed lens and the zoom range is very useful, especially coupled with the image stabilization.

These are just a few pics with my DiMage Z1...I have yet to even use the Software cleaning on them.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/johnrend/OpenRoadFocus.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/johnrend/CloseRearBrake.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/johnrend/SpideyIntake.jpg

That last pic was using a saturated color mode, where the colors' pigments are much more vibrant in aura...

^^ I hope you don't take too much offense, but I spy a problem in picture #2: purple fringing. That's a very common problem with digicams and you really have to do your research to find a camera that doesn't have that problem. Purple fringing shows up in areas of high contrast, exactly like the second picture, where you have a dark(ish) area and a very bright area like the sky. It depends on the subject of the photograph and the level of purple fringing, but it can be very distracting.

That's one of the reasons I recommended the FZ-series cameras, there is very little or no purple fringing in most pictures. However they do exhibit slight color fringing at full zoom, but it's reddish and less obvious-looking. Also once again I'll push the optical image stabilization - if you guys haven't used a camera with this feature you should try it. It makes indoor shots easier to do without flash or tripod, and since the camera has a long zoom and zoom shots tend to get blurry with even the most minute camera movements, it helps there too.

Here's a side-by-side comparison between the Minolta DiMAGE Z1 and the Panasonic Lumix FZ5. These are crops of full images, unmodified except obviously the crop and pasting them into the same frame. The "PF" or purple fringing is pretty bad with the Z1. You can see the full images and other images as well at the site I linked to in my last post.

http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/1782/comparison7af.th.jpg (http://img380.imageshack.us/my.php?image=comparison7af.jpg)

Oops. There was something I wanted to clarify. That side-by-side isn't totally fair because the Z1 is an older camera and the FZ5 is a newer camera, but if you take the time to check the galleries on dcresource you'll see that it wasn't until the Z5 that Minolta finally got the image quality higher. The Panasonic FZ series has been more consistent, it's been pretty good from the FZ1 up to the FZ5.

^^^Good point about the purple fringing, but most folks will have no clue what you are talking about, and unless you really want crazy good shots, my Z1 works just fine.

Another thing that seems unfair to me about that pic of yours, is that the FZ5 shot has zoomed in more, showing less sky... therefore less of a contrast, so the 'purple fringe' disease is less likely to be a problem.

Do you have any pics of the exact same shot to compare?

Also, if you are any sort of a decent Photographer, you can completely manipulate the settings to get rid of any sort of blemishes while you are taking the shot...the pic of my rear brakes was done in a hurry on 'AUTO' setting for a friend of mine, Viney266...

I could have very easily critiqued the shot while taking it, as my Z1 allows for many different combination shots... shutter speed, aperture settings, and exposure types...

Originally posted by JohnMichael
Do you have any pics of the exact same shot to compare?

No, because #1 I don't have a Z1 with which to do that, and #2, I don't think I can ask the owner of the site whose sample pictures I grabbed that from to please go back to Stanford and retake that picture with those two cameras from the EXACT same place, please. [rolleyes] [;)]

It's close enough, man, we're talking about him standing maybe a few feet in a different place and it's very nearly the same time of day, that's not going to make purple fringing suddenly disappear. But anyway, since you are pushing the Z1, I just wanted to point out that it has a purple fringing problem in the interest of fair disclosure.

Well, being a Biology major, I guess I'm a stickler for 'Control' groups and exact test data... [;)] But seriously, it's totally darker in the second pic.

By the way, where is the dude that started this thread? You'd think if he really wanted a new camera, he'd be checking out our awesome information... [:D]

Define "totally" for me. It looks a little later in the afternoon but that's it. I'm not saying you have a bad camera, just that is an issue to keep in mind if considering purchasing it. My first digicam was a Canon PowerShot A40 (still have it) and it had mild amounts of purple fringing in some pics but it didn't take away from the fun of using it.

Anyway all of this geeking out is probably going to be skipped over by the guy who asked the question - no one ever wants to hear the technical stuff, they just want you to say which one they should get.

'Totally' as in TOTALLY VALLEY GIRL!! [rofl]

I have a nice camera [:)]

yeah yeah....you have nice everything, snobby SVT driver... [rolleyes] [;)]

It's true, it's true! [;)]

Originally posted by LastRites
I have a nice camera [:)]

Well? Care to share what it is? [poke]

I don't know what it is. Have to go home in a few hours and look. All I know is that it is a Sony, has Carl Zeiss lens....and cost decent money for amateur stuff.

Ok, I have a Sony DSC-V1. Dont know if its good or bad by comparison but it does what I need. Haven't even gotten into any of the advanced features because in typical male fashion......I find it rather complicated, lol.

DSC-V1 has the cool night features, but I've seen some shots that have purple fringing with that camera too. [:D] Also seen some complaints that at "stock" settings the images look a little dull (they say if you bump up the saturation in camera it helps).

Yeah, I lust haven't gotten into the advance features but the night modes are pretty killer. Thing I like the best is that it's upgradeable if I find myself getting into taking shots there is a good amount of stuff vailable for it. Pretty tough too, I always just chunk it in the back pack and it bounces around all day when we are out skating, no problems....yet [:)]

Originally posted by LastRites
Yeah, I lust haven't gotten into the advance features but the night modes are pretty killer.

I am not even touching that one... [rofl]

Haha, well I think we know what was on HIS mind when he typed that. [hihi]

And it sure wasn't purple fringing...unless of course it was a part of the lingerie! [rofl]

Lol, you guys are bad, much worse than me! No kinky stuff yet although it's not a bad idea [}:)]

I'm in the Army and like to take pictures of training sometimes and at night in tactical situations flash burst are highly frowned upon hence why the night imaging is a cool feature. Also makes for great pictures of cars at late night meets.

Worse than you?... I highly doubt that. [;)] Anyways, I guess ole' Odublar isn't too interested in our vast knowledge of purple undergarments, so I shall continue this 'random' convo in a different thread! [:D]

I borrowed my sister's camera. It is a OLYMPUS 7.1mp. It takes awsome pics! Maybe not quite pro. quality, but really good for just car shots by an amateur.
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/10/web/778000-778999/778239_63_full.jpg

Originally posted by LastRites
Lol, you guys are bad, much worse than me! No kinky stuff yet although it's not a bad idea [}:)]

I'm in the Army and like to take pictures of training sometimes and at night in tactical situations flash burst are highly frowned upon hence why the night imaging is a cool feature. Also makes for great pictures of cars at late night meets.

if you like pictures alot then switch your MOS to a 46 series... I'm a 46romeo(broadcast journalist) and my counterpart is Quebec, which is photo journalist... we get to take really pimp training and combat photos all the time... We use the Nikon D1x with all the bells and whistles.

It's funny that you mention that, was actually looking into it. I have a good friend that used to be one of my clerks that did that, but it has to be for the National Guard. We are locked into our MOS so you have to get out and do that thing to get the job which is what she is doing over at Anaconda now. Might look into it more when I get home....National Guard, Reserves, Active Duty.....not much difference now days anyhow as far as time spent overseas.

yeah i know... i was in iraq for a year and a half.. been to anaconda many times. I was in Tikrit with 4ID and we took alot of trips down to Baqubah. spent the second half of my deployment in Fallujah and Ramadi with 82nd Airborne.. I'm a reservist out of indiana.. it's a mobile public affairs detachment.. As far as National guard goes.. they have Brodcast public affairs detachments.. they strictly deal with video.. which is my MOS. it's fun now.. cuz they got us smaller lighter cameras instead of the old 30 pounders... those suck to carry on raids...lol