Camera Suggestions

[bizzybee]

My husband and I are interested in purchasing a good quality digital camera that can be used by a novice. I have read some good reviews on the Canon Rebel recently. We are cruising the Inside Passage and would like to return home with memorable pictures of the glaciers and wildlife. Any suggestions?

[f-mattox]

The Canon Rebel is an excellent camera. There are, however, much smaller cameras that, to my novice eye, take just as good pictures, i.e. Canon Digital ELF or even Canon Sure-Shot.
I like something small enough it can fit in a pocket so it's always at the ready without being a nuisance.
On the other hand, for good wildlife photos there is really no way around a good SLR with a long lens. That's just more than I want to bother with.
For Alaska I would suggest a really good pair of binoculars; compacts are good but I prefer a good quality 8x30 or 10x50; image stabilization is really helpful also, but not absolutely necessary.
One more tip: use your new camera A LOT before you go; nothing worse than fumbling with an unfamiliar camera as that perfect photo op slips away.

[gdjoslin]

You might want to try this (http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1010) forum for that answer. When I was looking for a camera they were real helpful. BTW I got a Cann S2IS and love it. My son got a Rebel and it DOES take some nice pics.

[Ptur]

BTW I got a Cann S2IS and love it.

Snap I bought the S3IS and think that it is a fantastic camera for the price.

[Frase]

On my last cruise I took along my Panasonic Lumix FX-01 digital camera and I thought it was great.

- First of all, it's really small so it can fit in the smallest pockets.

- It has a Leica lens on the front of it. For those of you who know the famous German lens maker Leica, you know that is a good thing.

- That Leica lens has a 3.5X optical zoom which starts at a wide angle, which is very handy onboard the ship in confined places, when getting most of ships detail in the shot, and when getting allot of people in a group shot.

- I also purchased the Panasonic underwater housing case that is custom made for the camera. I used it on the cruise and took incredible underwater pictures of the coral reef at Trunk Bay during my shore excursion there.

Anyway, here is a link to a very detailed review of the FX-01 on the dpreview website:
Panasonic FX-01 review from dpreview.com

And here is a link to some information on the optional underwater housing case for the FX-01, on the B&H website:Underwater Case For FX-01 at B&H Photo and Video webiste

[jroth31]

Hi There. We are going on our first cruise in September and decided we needed a good digital camera. We just this weekend bought the Pentax W20....it is a small sleek camera that has an internal zoom. It is get this.....waterproof! That's right...we can take it in the water with us when we snorkel!!!! No more buying those expensive under water cameras at 10.00 each! It has a ton of awesome features! At around 300.00 I think this was a great choice. Oh, it also takes video, making it a tiny video camera!