>I'm thinking about buying a digital camera and am interested in other people's recommendations. I want to stay in the mid-range ($200-$300) so I figured a 3 megapixel camera is probably what I'll end up with.
>
>If you have any strong opinions towards a specific camera or features I should have ... or strong opinions against a particular camera or feature ... please chime in!!
>
>TIA,
>Cathy

Hi Cathy,

My opinion is that the choice depends on what kind of photos you are going to make more than on price range. Are you going to print large pictures? Are you going to make pictures of nature/wildlife?

I make a lot of pictures when I travel, and I always prefer the big optical zoom. Digital zoom is useless as it only makes the picture quality worse. For the last 2 years I have Olympus C-720 3.2 megapixel camera with 8x optical zoom.

Using big optical zoom calls for optical image stabilizer which is rare feature in the digital cameras.

Also, big optical zoom means that camera probably will not be very compact, not the kind that you can keep in the purse.

For my next camera i am looking now at the newest 4.2 megapixel Panasonic FZ-10 camera that has 12X optical zoom and the optical image stabilizer. It is advertized that it has very small shutter lag. The first camera review should be available this week. It's suggested price is $599US This is more like high-end camera but the price range is very reasonable.

If you are looking at kind of photos we make at the conferences + general sightseeing pictures, then there is plenty of 5-megapixel cameras with 3x optical zoom.