Looking for a Camera for the Newborn.

CurrentlyPissed

CurrentlyPissed

New member
So I'm wanting to surprise the misses with a nice Camera since she's always taking pictures of the baby. Point and shoot would probably be best, but I wouldn't be against a good DSLR that's easy to use.

I'd like to stay around $200, if it's for something really good value I'd go to $300, but no more. I'd prefer something good at both outdoor, and indoor shots. Something that works well with both natural, and non-natural light.
 
I'm not great at P&S really, best I can do is point you to http://www.dpreview.com/buying-guid..._source=mainmenu&utm_medium=text&ref=mainmenu

...but as far as managing photos you will have to sort through hundreds, thousands, and that is time consuming, especially for just snapshots. My wife wants physical prints and it's a pain to sort for the few we want to print through our printer or the local Walgreens. There are thousands on my drives that sit just in memory and are never retrieved; it's not as satisfying as a photo book. We settled on Groovebook, http://groovebook.com/, which ships a 100 photo book every month for $3/mo. Not great quality, but they are there and dated so we can get better prints from the drive if needed later. She shoots a ton through just her cell phone then uploads directly. I'd suggest that as part of it anyway.
 
Snapsort is a good place to start also, you can adjust the price scale and they'll give you the rankings for various cameras in that price range.

They also have side by side comparisons.
 
At that price range and the main use is baby related, all I can say is choose speed over all other factors. Great image quality will do you no good if you can't focus and fire in time. I had to buy a Sony A6000 to keep up with my son, as my old Nex-5R missed too many shots and moments that will never occur again.

Obviously an A6000 with lenses is well out of ballpark range, but something like a Panasonic LX7 should do the job.

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-LX7K-Digital-Optical-3-0-inch/dp/B008MB719C
 
Absolutely positively the Nikon D3100.

http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-18-55mm-3-5-5-6-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B003ZYF3LO

Great DSLR and I cannot believe you can pick one up for $300. I paid $700 for mine when it came out. Fantastic FAST camera. Just make sure you pick up the F1.8 lens at some point.

Evan just got his first haircut two nights ago. Love this camera and I'm glad I learned how to shoot with it.

wZXX6n4.jpg
 
CurrentlyPissed said:
So I'm wanting to surprise the misses with a nice Camera since she's always taking pictures of the baby. Point and shoot would probably be best, but I wouldn't be against a good DSLR that's easy to use.

I'd like to stay around $200, if it's for something really good value I'd go to $300, but no more. I'd prefer something good at both outdoor, and indoor shots. Something that works well with both natural, and non-natural light.
Click to expand...

Whatever you get, make sure it can also take video for those moments where you need it.
 
Focus on quality low-light performance. Trust me. (2 kids here). Your smartphone can probably take capable enough outdoor photos if it's pretty new, but it can't do indoor, low light in comparison.
 
I don't know about that; the Nikon D3100, while awesome, would be relatively bulky and the wife may just keep it at home rather than carry it for the more awesomer shots. I know my wife would never carry the Canon 70D and even a small lens like the 50 f1.8. 99% of her shots are with her cell phone, so I made sure the cell phone camera was decent when I bought it for her. For better shots, it should really be a small P&S with good low light ratings and fast shutter response, IMO.
 
So many great options out there, really hard to pin point it down. There are pros and cons on everyone solution, but for me these would be the top three things to look out for.

1. Pic Quality - From high ISO performance (up to 3200 should be more than enough)
2. Autofocus speed - Especially in low light situations. Diff cameras diff lenses will all play a factor. You will really need to read up on this on the few choices you nail down.
3. Ergonomics - Especially when it comes to the menu and playing around with the options. Nothing worse than having a great camera and a lousy interface, this can really leave you frustrated and not use the gear.

Sorry, cant really nail out a specific one seeing that there are soo many to choose from and so little exp of handling them.
 
The zoom on that page lists the equivalent focal lengths incorrectly. It's 24-720 mm. Holy...I don't blame him for listing it incorrectly; that's quite a zoom range!
 
RFtinkerer said:
The zoom on that page lists the equivalent focal lengths incorrectly. It's 24-720 mm. Holy...I don't blame him for listing it incorrectly; that's quite a zoom range!
Click to expand...

Low-light performance will likely suffer to some extent like other "super zoom" compacts, so it may not be the best of the best. Maybe it's more of a camera for those with young kids and older.
 
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