Confederate

Well it's tax rebate time and I've budgeted about $350 give or take $50 for a new digital camera.
I'll try to give you all the info on what I'm looking for.
5 or more mega-pixels
Quick shutter speed, in case of action shots at sports games and such.
Also a slow shutter for night-time shots.
Around 3x optical zoom (which seems to be standard)
A nice macro selection would be nice, for a variety of shots, up close and far away.
Preferably it won't run off of AA batteries, I've had no luck with them and they tend to not last long.
My last camera was a sony DSC-P72, and when it took good pics they looked amazing, but if there was any kind of movement in the frame the whole picture went blurry, so crisp clear shots were a rarity even when stabilizing the camera.
I've been looking at these lately and could use some help making a wise decision.
Canon PowerShot S500
NIKON COOLPIX 5900
Sony DSC-P200
Kodak EasyShare LS753
If anyone can endorse any of these, or give me some good advice, I'd greatly appreciate it.

WillyPete

Make sure it has image stabilisation.

Watching the image bounce around makes you nauseous after a while. And you WILL feel the need to film whilst in motion. It's inevitable.

jwoody

I'm no photographer but through my work I've owned Canon, Konica, Sony and Kodak digital cameras.

In my opinion, Canon make the best (low cost) cameras by far. Build quality is excellent and you seem to get far more features for your money, lithium battery being one of the most important to me.

Konichiwaneko

for a point and shoot Olympus has been the best for me. Otherwise this canon 20D is an amazing camera but unfortunately it's not $350.

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shakran

All images produced by still cameras are by definition stable

I agree with those recommending Canon. They make the best low cost cameras on the market.

uncle_el

first, i'd tell you to check out www.dpreview.com and use the buying guide there, as you can enter all of the parameters you're looking for (price, mega pixels, features, etc) and it will come up with a list of cameras that fit the bill.

but, you already have a list of cameras. i would still tell you to use dpreview, to see what other info you can find about each of the cameras, and you can see the type of pictures that each camera can produce.

i used the nikon 5900 for a day or two (one of my friend's bought it, and had no idea how to use it). took better macro shots than i anticipated. zoom was so-so. time from hitting power button to use of the camera was a bit sluggish to me.

most everyone i know that has a canon point and shoot raves about it.

from previous experience with a kodak point and shoot camera, i thought it was average at best.

i'm happy with my sony, but it's a dsc-f717 which is a "higher end" camera compared to the sony you selected. sony point and shoot users also tend to be pretty happy with their cameras. the drawback many sony cameras have is that they only use a memory stick- which is sony only. i.e. you can't use a compact flash card in it (i think there are only 2 sony cameras which now accept cf cards, but it's no consequence here as the one you've selected doesn't).

other things to think about with your budget:
1. memory card, or memory stick
2. tripod

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Confederate

Thanks everyone for the tips, I already have a tripod, should have mentioned that. I guess I shouldn't have narrowed down the search so much to begin with, those cameras were just a starting point to show what I was interested in.

clavus

I love my Coolpix. I've had it for a couple of years now and have no complaints. Well...actually I have a lot of complaints, but none about the camera. Its a great camera, but I hate when I try to pour cereal out of a box, and the plastic bag that contains said cereal inside the aforementioned box slides out into my bowl. Jesus. When I was a kid, you just poured the cereal right out of a cardboard box and into our lead-glazed bowls. You'd think with all the technology available nowdays, they could figure out a way to affix the bag to the inside of the box, or make a box that didn't need to have a plastic bag inside. And what's the deal with the plastic bag anyway? Does it somehow make the cereal safer? Last time I checked, plastic bags were dangerous, and supposed to be kept AWAY from children. But now we include them with every box of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, like its some sort of toy surprise from Hell. Suprise! You're suffocating!

What was the question again?

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WillyPete

DOH!
Teach me not to read it properly.
I though he meant vidcam.

ah well.

DJ Happy

I was thinking back to when I bought my digital camera (a Nikon Coolpix 3200) and was thinking, "There's no way you'll get a 5 megapixel camera for $350." Then I clicked on the links and now I can't believe how much digital cameras have gone down in price.

Anyway, no complaints about the Nikon. Batteries tend to die quite quickly, but other than that it's great. Simple, easy to use, good quality pictures (I actually had to reduce the size of the pictures I was taking because they were of a higher definition than I will ever have to use in my lifetime). Even the wife has learned how to use it.

89transam

Kepp an eye on fatwallet.com hot deals forum , every week or so they find a way to get a certain camera for %50 off or so. (pricematching , coupons, etc)

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