I need to replace my digital camera. I've had my Canon Powershot A85 for years, and it was cheap and easy to use. After sporadic misbehavior, it seems to have died completely now. Any recommendations for another one?

The best feature of this one was the Photo Stitch capability, where it's easy to put together a panarama from several consecutive shots. It comes in handy when I'm designing a landcape to be able to take wide views.

I love my camera, but I moved up to the 35mm type. My last point 'n shoot was an Olympus that took fantastic shots.

You might want to go to B&H's website and put "panorama" in their search engine. I don't know of any cameras with that feature (not that I know everything about cameras, or even close). I wonder if there's software that lets you do the same thing.

I figure since I bought my last one, photo technology must have changed a lot. Mine is probably considered a dinosaur among cameras.

Yeah, but the thing is, unless you want to blow your pictures up to poster size, much of what has been changed doesn't effect you too much, as far as the smaller cameras go. Even the larger ones - mine still does everything *I* need it to do, and it's about 6 years old. True, the megapixels are about the same on my phone, but I mostly view mine on my computer and don't blow them up, so what do I care?

I just bought a Nikon P90 at the end of summer and I love it. Got some great pics from it on my trip to New Mexico and some great daylily shots

Nikon all the way. I'm still using an older Nikon D100 and I love it.

I've been stalling on dealing with this camera issue. Since I'm desperate for some more photos to go with my Landscape Design articles, I may be out camera shopping this weekend. Thanks for all the suggestions on brands & models.

here is a link to my Photobucket account on the pictures from a trip that I used my Nikon on. I'd have to do a lot of searching just to find the daylily pics I took with it. http://smg.photobucket.com/alb...

If like me you just take pictures to keep records of where you've been and your plants I recommend the Kodak Easy Share line. Most amateurs don't need all the bells and whistles that appeal to the pro (and add to the cost!). My old one that went belly up at about 4 or 5 years of age was a 2.0 mega pixels (CX4230). I bought an extra card for it that held up to 150 pictures and never needed more than that. More recently I used my ex's Kodak from the same line and got some really beautiful shots with it (see sample below). Sorry about the DG copyright. A virus ate my files and I replaced them by going through the DG post I had made over the years.

MollyD

I loved my Canon PowerShot, but I love my Kodak now.

with taking pics outside, I found that there were times that I couldn't see the LED screen in the sunlight. So I searched and searched and found that Kodak had one that I could switch from the 'peep hole' when I needed it. what I 'don't' like about it is that its not recharchable. batteries are expensive.

I agree on the batteries. My poor, dead camera used 4 AA batteries, which sounds convenient because they are readily available. You go through them pretty fast, though, and they add a lot of weight to the camera.

I've been reading a lot of camera reviews tonight, which is making it harder rather than easier to choose. Is it really necessary to have 1000's of different cameras on the market? Tomorrow I'm going to Best Buy to actually get my hands on some cameras. I don't want to buy anything sight unseen, and the way it feels is important.

I'm kind of lusting after the Sony DSC-TX5, which is going to be released next month. My wallet says no, but my eyes say yes. What I like about it is it has a really nice panarama feature and it's built to take abuse - shock, extreme temps, moisture, etc. Not that I'm going to be trekking in the wilderness, but I suspect my current camera succumbed to abuse from the short people inhabiting the house. I'd like to improve my odds of long-term camera survival.

LOL!

Red,

My college-aged daughter has been using an Olympus Stylus, and it surely takes abuse! I've seen it in action...LOL! It can be used underwater, can be dropped and still work, has macro and super macro availability, and has panorama feature I believe, especially in the 10 MP model. So you might look at that one also. It is just a point and shoot model, so no lens changing ability if you're looking for that. It's a great little camera, one I'd like to have as a purse model, instead of toting the case and camera for the Nikon.

I wasn't able to get to Best Buy, but when I stopped in to Walmart (needed a cheap frame for a certificate), I checked out what they had for selections. Most of the cameras are SO tiny! There's no place to put my fingers. Another thing I noticed is there's no viewfinder on most of them. You have to look at the LCD screen to take a shot. This afternoon I tried repairing the old camera, without success. I'm having a hard time letting go of my dinosaur.

From the handful Walmart had laying around (yes, hanging off their little display stands, with various parts missing) it seemed like the cheapest I could go and get a decent feature set was something like a Nikon Coolpix L20 for $79.. Of course, all reviews are a combination of "Best camera ever!" to "The pictures were so blurry I took it back to the store." Grr.

I'm torn between cheaping out, and getting something right away, or waiting to buy a better camera that costs more. Having all this rain has lessened the urgency to buy something immediately, but eventually the monsoons will stop and I'll be back in camera desperation mode.

In the meantime, I could always pull out our old 35mm regular camera and just get the developing done onto a CD. Let's see, I bought the digital back in Oct '04, so there's decent odds that the old camera has a 6 1/2 yr old roll of film in it.

the view finder....LOL.....thats what I was calling the peephole
Good Luck, ...thats why I searched so long. i love to take closeups of my flowers and its impossible to take them in the sunlight. or beach shots. the clerk at HH Gregg told me that the viewfinder was useless...the picture taken is not based on what you see thru it but I'm not convinced.

this has a 12X optical zoom but I think most of em' have panoramic views now, don't they? seems like my dad's $79 point and shoot did.

my BF got hers at Sam's club. and don't forget QVC =) they might have easy pays, lol.

it's hard to get anything developed now. I bought a disposable camera back in January and when I took it back to Walmart this month they acted like I was talking about deciphering a stone tablet! Told me it would cost extra and take a whole week to get it on CD. I then took it to CVS where they were able to do it in two days (their equipment broke down) for $3.69 to put it on cd. They acted offended that I did not want paper copies too.

MollyD

It has all gotten very strange.

I mis my digital camera cause I was able to see my pictures right away and print out the ones I wanted on Kodak paper any size I wanted. Hopefully sometime this summer I can bite the bullet and get a cheap one.

MollyD

Or a new phone, lol.... (I'm kidding!)

Seriously, though - they're dropping in price all of the time.

My phone has a camera but I can't take anything worthwhile with it plus it cost to get it off the camera and onto the computer.

MollyD