who is here and what do you shoot with?

**Rhayne** · 02-22-2010, 10:16 AM

We have a Canon Powershot SD550 Digital Elph. I love it. It's about 4-6 years old and has some nicks and dings on it. But i's in perfect working order and takes great photos.

**Simplifymylife** · 02-23-2010, 06:55 PM

I use a Fuji S5Pro DSLR (A Nikon D200 body with a Fuji Brain). I picked it up on eBay brand new, but after it had been out on the market for about 18 months. Nikon had released several new models and that allowed me to save about 60% off the original price.

It was still an expensive purchase, but I did my homework and bought the best camera body that I could afford to pay cash for at the time.

After shooting with it for more than a year now, I still love this camera. It's great for shooting portraits. The skin tones are beautiful. The best thing is that it uses all of my Nikon lenses and accessories. It even works with the Nikon CLS (wireless flash system). The only complaint that I have is that it's not terribly fast at only 2 frames per second. This kind of limits it's usefullness for sports photography if you are a "spray and pray" type of shooter.

I've noticed lately, that the price has actually climbed up higher than I paid for mine in 2008, because they are getting harder to find. That's always nice considering how most electronics loose their value so fast.

I think it will be a while before I outgrow this camera. I really would have to turn pro to justify spending the money to get something that could out perform the Fuji (Nikon D700 or D3s).

**frugalfranny** · 02-24-2010, 12:47 AM

Thanks for all the info.

I have been thinking about a new one too so appreciate all the input.

Not sure I can 'justify' a DSLR and I like the macro that mine has for what I do ---bugs and flowers. It is an older Canon Power Shot A620 that I bought years ago. But would like a tiny one that fits in my pocket to take to quilt shows and etc.

They are getting some small 10MP and 12 MP that I will have to check out.

**Simplifymylife** · 03-08-2010, 04:31 PM

Besides my big professional DSLR, I have an Olympus camera that will fit in a shirt pocket. It's an 850SW. It has 8mp, is shockproof, and waterproof down to five feet, and takes very good photos (not compared to a DSLR, but compared to other small digital point and shoot cameras that I have owned). It's a lot of fun in the swimming pool and out playing in the snow. The kids and I have also shot some pretty good videos with this pocket camera, both above and below water.

Unless you are going to blow up your shots to larger than 11x14, 8mp would be more than enough megapixels to get a quality print. The number of megapixels is just a marketing trick to get people to feel like they need to upgrade their cameras. Once you get up over 6mp, what really matters for the quality of the photos is actually the size of the pixels, not how many there are crammed onto the sensor.

The problem with all of the small pocket-sized cameras is that the sensors have to be tiny, so the pixels are too. Lots of little pixels = lots of noise in your photos. Also, the flash is located so close to the lens, that they are on nearly the same focal plane and that is what causes red eye in your people pics. Should be fine for your macro shots of quilts and bugs, though.

Good luck with your camera shopping.

**frugalfranny** · 03-08-2010, 04:36 PM

Thanks simplifymylife-------- good info that I can use.

I need to get back to shopping for a small one....fell down in priority here lately.

If SIZE of the pixels is important------what --when shopping - tells you what size the pixels are for that camera? I have read about 'noise' on one of the camera sites.......but how will I know about it prior to buying the camera?