The only site I'll ever need...

[Quality Start Machine]

Alright, on Monday I am heading out to Arizona and I hope to buy a camera before the trip. I'm looking for something that's less than $100 because I don't try to take pictures too often. Any suggestions on a brand that is best? I prefer it to be compatible with SD Cards because I have a 4gb microSD card for my phone along with the appropriate adapter. That compatibility is not necessarily required because I'm sure a 1gb card is cheap these days.

You can't go wrong with Canon. The compact PowerShot Digital Elphs you see hawked by Sharapova are sweet. Price-wise, older models seem to bottom out in the low $100 range.

Generally speaking, as a rule of thumb, restrict yourself to cameras made by camera or photo equipment makers (Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Kodak, Olympus) and avoid those from computer companies (avoid HP like the plague). One exception to this is Sony, who do make some well-regarded cameras.

Check out older models and don't get too terribly hung up on resolution. Try to find something offering at least 3 or 4 megapixels. Anything above and beyond 6 is more or less a waste, though. The optics in these tiny devices are such that, not only are compact cameras not able to take advantage of much more real detail than this, they actually see image quality decline inverse to the pixel count due to the an increase in noise. (More on this phenomenon here.)

As far as card formats go, SD is probably what you will end up with if you don't go with Sony (Memory Stick—proprietary), or Olympus or Fuji (xD). The latter two are less common and tend to be more expensive.

Disposable ones are available at Walgreen's for like 2 bucks.  You take all your pictures, THEN YOU JUST THROW THE CAMERA AWAY!
What an age we live in.

Yeah, Walgreens dominates.

[flannj]

I agree with what Furious George, Wheezer, and RD have said. Even though I am a Nikon guy if you are looking at a digital point and shoot, Canon is the way to go. Nikon doesn't meet their features quite as well at your price point. CHDK adds a lot (the ability to shoot in RAW is great if you wish to do anything beyond basic editing) but if you seldom use the camera it is not a big deal. I'm not quite as happy with the AA battery feature, my experience is that it eats them pretty fast.

[flannj]

DPD.
Since I'm an audio dork...
This is a great deal, Klipsch headphones half price.
I don't have anything to do with the company, I just really like their products.
In case Santa needs some help these are very nice phones.

[Philberto]

Alright. Thank you for the help. Thrill, the only tough thing about keeping with a lower megapixel is that they don't seam to sell them as much. Best Buy and Circuit City's websites both have 7 and up, for the most part. This finding is mainly online. I am going to the store today on my lunch to check them out some more. See if the store has anything different. Would any of these look like they'd be good? (I'm not really a fan of the red on the last one but it is a Canon, within the price range, and lower on the megapixel end)

[Eli]

See if the store has anything different. Would any of these look like they'd be good? (I'm not really a fan of the red on the last one but it is a Canon, within the price range, and lower on the megapixel end)

I've had bad luck with Olympus cameras, so I'd recommend staying away from them. 

Like people above said, it's hard to go wrong with a Nikon or Canon.  Find your price range and buy something from either of those two brands.  You'll probably be happy with it, if you're just looking for a point-and-shoot.

Also, that third camera you linked to is pushing past red into pink. 



More latent tendencies, Yeti?

[HST Redux]

Alright. Thank you for the help. Thrill, the only tough thing about keeping with a lower megapixel is that they don't seam to sell them as much. Best Buy and Circuit City's websites both have 7 and up, for the most part. This finding is mainly online. I am going to the store today on my lunch to check them out some more. See if the store has anything different. Would any of these look like they'd be good? (I'm not really a fan of the red on the last one but it is a Canon, within the price range, and lower on the megapixel end)

I have a Canon PowerShot A590IS.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830120256

Perfect for what I wanted. Then again, I was happy with my old Sony Cybershot too.

I recommend looking at www.newegg.com. They have that Canon A470 for $10 cheaper (in gray too) and throw in a 2G SD card. Decent user/reader reviews there too. Never had a bad experience with newegg in several orders.

[Philberto]

Alright. Thank you for the help. Thrill, the only tough thing about keeping with a lower megapixel is that they don't seam to sell them as much. Best Buy and Circuit City's websites both have 7 and up, for the most part. This finding is mainly online. I am going to the store today on my lunch to check them out some more. See if the store has anything different. Would any of these look like they'd be good? (I'm not really a fan of the red on the last one but it is a Canon, within the price range, and lower on the megapixel end)

I have a Canon PowerShot A590IS.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830120256

Perfect for what I wanted. Then again, I was happy with my old Sony Cybershot too.

I recommend looking at www.newegg.com. They have that Canon A470 for $10 cheaper (in gray too) and throw in a 2G SD card. Decent user/reader reviews there too. Never had a bad experience with newegg in several orders.

I really like that A470. Plus the card would alleviate any potential compatibility issues with my microSD card adapter. I'm really thinking I'll buy it.

[flannj]

Alright. Thank you for the help. Thrill, the only tough thing about keeping with a lower megapixel is that they don't seam to sell them as much. Best Buy and Circuit City's websites both have 7 and up, for the most part. This finding is mainly online. I am going to the store today on my lunch to check them out some more. See if the store has anything different. Would any of these look like they'd be good? (I'm not really a fan of the red on the last one but it is a Canon, within the price range, and lower on the megapixel end)

I have a Canon PowerShot A590IS.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830120256

Perfect for what I wanted. Then again, I was happy with my old Sony Cybershot too.

I recommend looking at www.newegg.com. They have that Canon A470 for $10 cheaper (in gray too) and throw in a 2G SD card. Decent user/reader reviews there too. Never had a bad experience with newegg in several orders.

I really like that A470. Plus the card would alleviate any potential compatibility issues with my microSD card adapter. I'm really thinking I'll buy it.

A little cheaper but without the SD card but free shipping.

[Philberto]

Alright. Thank you for the help. Thrill, the only tough thing about keeping with a lower megapixel is that they don't seam to sell them as much. Best Buy and Circuit City's websites both have 7 and up, for the most part. This finding is mainly online. I am going to the store today on my lunch to check them out some more. See if the store has anything different. Would any of these look like they'd be good? (I'm not really a fan of the red on the last one but it is a Canon, within the price range, and lower on the megapixel end)

I have a Canon PowerShot A590IS.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830120256

Perfect for what I wanted. Then again, I was happy with my old Sony Cybershot too.

I recommend looking at www.newegg.com. They have that Canon A470 for $10 cheaper (in gray too) and throw in a 2G SD card. Decent user/reader reviews there too. Never had a bad experience with newegg in several orders.

I really like that A470. Plus the card would alleviate any potential compatibility issues with my microSD card adapter. I'm really thinking I'll buy it.

A little cheaper but without the SD card but free shipping.

Thanks for the help. I went with the one at Newegg because I needed UPS 2day shipping so it wasn't free for me and B&H. Plus the memory card and case (which I guess I didn't really need but was nice to have) kind of sealed the deal. Thanks for proving once again that this is The Only Site I'll Ever Need.

[Tank]

Alright. Thank you for the help. Thrill, the only tough thing about keeping with a lower megapixel is that they don't seam to sell them as much. Best Buy and Circuit City's websites both have 7 and up, for the most part.

I wouldn't sweat a difference of 1 or 2 megapixels.

The difference between 6.0 MP and 7.1 MP is the difference between around 2121x2828- and 2308x3077-pixel sensors. That's a difference of around 8% in each direction.

This is another reason megapixel counts can be misleading. To double the linear, pixels-per-inch resolution, you need to quadruple the megapixels: say, from 6 to 24.

A bigger concern than resolution is color. And this is why I said to avoid HP: as far as I've seen it, their color blows.

[Wheezer]

I'm not quite as happy with the AA battery feature, my experience is that it eats them pretty fast.

True enough, but my reasoning was that, in a pinch, being able to toss in easily available batteries could come in handy.  Once the Energizer lithiums I now have in the camera give up the ghost, I'm going to see how the Sanyo Eneloops play out--at $10 for four, an alleged 1000 charges available, and only 15% self-discharge over a year, on paper they seem like a pretty inexpensive option.

[Tank]

I'm not quite as happy with the AA battery feature, my experience is that it eats them pretty fast.

True enough, but my reasoning was that, in a pinch, being able to toss in easily available batteries could come in handy.  Once the Energizer lithiums I now have in the camera give up the ghost, I'm going to see how the Sanyo Eneloops play out--at $10 for four, an alleged 1000 charges available, and only 15% self-discharge over a year, on paper they seem like a pretty inexpensive option.

With AAs, you're going to want to go with rechargeables, and to have a second set charging while you use the first. Camera LCDs drain these things like nobody's business, so you'll find yourself swapping often if you use the camera a lot on a trip.

If your camera comes with a proprietary battery, hopefully it also comes with an external charger for it. If so, buy yourself a spare to have charging as a backup. Finding these can sometimes be hit or miss, with the wide variety of batteries used even by cameras from the same manufacturer. Order one online, or check out Best Buy (when I was hunting around for a spare Nikon D80 battery this summer, I found they had the best selection by far).

[Oleg]

Alright. Thank you for the help. Thrill, the only tough thing about keeping with a lower megapixel is that they don't seam to sell them as much. Best Buy and Circuit City's websites both have 7 and up, for the most part. This finding is mainly online. I am going to the store today on my lunch to check them out some more. See if the store has anything different. Would any of these look like they'd be good? (I'm not really a fan of the red on the last one but it is a Canon, within the price range, and lower on the megapixel end)

I have a Canon PowerShot A590IS.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830120256

Perfect for what I wanted. Then again, I was happy with my old Sony Cybershot too.

I recommend looking at www.newegg.com. They have that Canon A470 for $10 cheaper (in gray too) and throw in a 2G SD card. Decent user/reader reviews there too. Never had a bad experience with newegg in several orders.

I really like that A470. Plus the card would alleviate any potential compatibility issues with my microSD card adapter. I'm really thinking I'll buy it.

A little cheaper but without the SD card but free shipping.

Thanks for the help. I went with the one at Newegg because I needed UPS 2day shipping so it wasn't free for me and B&H. Plus the memory card and case (which I guess I didn't really need but was nice to have) kind of sealed the deal. Thanks for proving once again that this is The Only Site I'll Ever Need.

You got a pink one, right?

[JD]

Is this tv any good?

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsung-50-Series-5-Plasma-HDTV-PN50A550/sem/rpsm/oid/208372/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

[Kerm]

Is this tv any good?

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsung-50-Series-5-Plasma-HDTV-PN50A550/sem/rpsm/oid/208372/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

I can't vouch for that particular TV, but I can vouch for Samsung.  I have a Samsung DLP that I love, and their customer service (which I've only had to use once in three and a half years) is very good.