Last spring I bought a Canon PowerShot A590 from Amazon and love it. I got a special deal from Amazon - under $200. It's a great, idiot-proof little camera. I'd go with any of the Canon PowerShots without hesitation. I especially like Amazon because you can read lots of honest reviews from ordinary customers and skip all the techo stuff, if you're not into high-tech understanding.

I also use Canon cameras and love them. Sony also makes nice cameras too. Nikon is normally a good brand. No company is 100%.

I had a Canon Sure Shot back in the days before digital - that thing lasted more than 15 years!!! I looked at Canons when I got the Nikon, but I liked the layout of the Nikon more (the controls were more user-friendly for me), which is why I got it. Sigh....

i have a canon a630 ... and it is nice ... link to google

i wish for something more professional.. but wont be dropping 600 to a grand in this lifetime.. lol

check it out here:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/conif/msg091333365413.html?5

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

I think Ken hit the nail on the head when he said "wont be dropping 600 to a grand in this lifetime".

How much are you willing to spend?

I too had a Coolpix and took it on a trip to Italy. It was easy to use and the pictures were very good.
However, when I started to shoot pics of gardens (either mine or public) I found the color to be way too yellow/green and random shots were blurry. I was irritated to no end.

My DH got so sick of me complaining about it he insisted we buy a Nikon D60. I would have never considered spending the dough but he said it would be a good investment and he wouldn't have to hear me yap about awful garden pics! LOL!

I have never been happier with a camera. Lots of bells and whistles but still can do almost everything on automatic.

I bought a Canon SX10 IS back in February and am very happy with it. It is NOT a pocket camera. It's not quite a DSLR, it's an intermediate camera with a nice zoom and wide angle. I paid around $300 for it through NewEgg (online).

Since that time, I've used it for my gardening blog photos. I took it to France in May and here are a few examples of landscape, zoom and macro: {{gwi:269870}}From Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel

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Here is a link that might be useful: Canon SX10 IS

mine is a canon power shot sd 990 and you can see my pics distributed on here in different spots---I love it....

I hope you find your papers or check if by chance Nikon has a record of them. I've bought so much Canon gear, I guess I have to save my warranty cards and not send them in any more, can't remember, maybe register online! All my stuff would be out of warranty now anyway so it doesn't matter.

That's unusual for a Nikon to die on you so fast.

I don't know what your budget is, but my granddaughter has the Canon 40D and I have the 20D (discontinued, 40D is still pretty expensive). Yesterday she came in with about 1500 fantastic photos she took at a wedding.

What I'm driving at here is that the other photographer who works in a studio had the most fantastic video in low light inside of a dance, excellent quality and sound. He took stills, too, of course. I said that almost has to be the new 500D xti (she said it was Canon)??? (you could check at dpreview in the camera section). I think it's the only current Canon dslr that does video. Most all point and shoot cameras do though but I never cared about video until I saw this latest.

That would be one nice camera with just the 28-135mm kit lens; you can still use them as point and shoots with basic settings and build from there. It's hard to decide between Nikon and Canon, but Panasonic has some nice Lumix zooms out now.

mxk3,
My camera is a Nikon Cool Pix 8.0 which is a rebuilt replacement they sent me after my Nikon Cool Pix 5.0 died after one year of minimal use. My experience with Nikon's service department was a nightmare 3 times they returned my camera still broken and tried to charge me for it as well, finally I escalated the call to a higher up in the department and they sent me the 8.0.
One important thing I learned (after my purchase of course) is that when buying a digital camera you want to go with a company that does the best job of designing/building the computer/digital functions of a camera as all the camera companies can buy good quality lenses and many buy the same lens. To date Nikon's reputation for building a good computer/camera is still rather poor. This was really made evident to me when I took a photography class last year with Rick Darke. He had 12-15 of us (all with our own random cameras and from professional to novice) stand lined up and take a photo of the same object under the same light conditions. We then viewed and compared the different photo's.....there was a huge difference in quality and I was sad to see Nikon on the bottom. Rick Darke had shot with and recommended one or two different Canon cameras and it was clear why when we saw the quality of the photos. kt

After reading the last post I have a few more words if it's worth anything. They argue Nikon Canon on dpreview, and I don't like to get into it, have seen spectacular photos out of Nikon dslr's especially. Many pros use Nikon dslr's and I've seen some great work from them over the years. After waiting a long time and doing my homework, I opted for Canon dslr for three main reasons: the name, the lower noise at higher ISO's, (Nikon is supposed to have caught up on that, don't know), and the more extensive and cheaper other-party lens lineup. Usually I buy Canon lenses, but did buy one Sigma 105mm macro to save, now wish I'd waited and bought Canon for that, too.

I need to mention this. My 20D I bought in 2005 still has low picture count compared to some, in near mint condition. Granddaughter's I bought last year for her graduation, she takes good care of it. Canon service is excellent, and if you send in a dead camera, they really have some terrific deals on refurbished ones. You could call their 800# and see what they might have now in their repair shops around the country if you're worried about money.

I wanted to be sure and point out that I bought two S2 IS, it was a mistake but kept and paid for them, gave one to my adult daughter and one to my grandson, they loved them, both died before they should have. I bought my daughter an A95, she just loved it, but it has died, she has dropped it a couple times. And my gdaughter bought a Pro 1 (these are all Canon), it was a wonderful camera for a point and shoot, and it has died, too. All should be sent in to see if they can be repaired though; one cannot as it was a known defect on the S2 IS.

I think the ones I gave away they are a little more careless with them than I am with mine so that factors in, but it might be good to consider the Rebel series and on up for reliability compared to the smaller ones. I'd especially look at the Canon 500D.

I just remembered that two Canon dslr's now have video. The 500D and the just-released 7D dslr, but I can't find it anywhere on the market yet. It'll be available when dealers get their shipments, doubt you'll want to go that pricey but I'm considering it or waiting to see if they announce a 60D, nothing on that yet and may not be.

The Rebel series have been wonderful entry level dslr's for formerly inexperienced users, and they love them until they can upgrade to something with more features, start with the easy settings and work on up at their own speed the more advanced features.

Interesting previous post, thanks.

I had a Canon S1 IS that I loved for years and when I started to have issues due to a defective chip, Canon sent me a refurbished S3 IS at no cost... eventhough it was no longer under any warranty. I love this line of camera because it has plenty of auto and preset modes, but also has full manual controls as well. It has a good size. Small pocket cameras feel fragile and awkward to hold to me. These are chunkier with a good grip but not as large or heavy as a DSLR. I would love to have one of the Canon DSLR cameras, but this line is much more affordable too. Plus I absolutely love having an LCD screen that fully tilts and rotates.

Aliska's comment regarding video nudged my mind: I forgot to mention in my post that my little Canon PowerShot A590 (from Amazon, for UNDER $200 in a great Amazon "deal" (!!) - also takes GREAT VIDEOS!! So I guess it bottoms out to what you want to pay for the camera. But for what I paid, I'm really thrilled with the bells and whistles (inl. auto zoom, among others) that come with this one. Just sayin...

I just bought a new camera today!! Panasonic Lumix DSC-ZM3. $315.00 at Amazon. It's in a category they call "compact super zoom" (comparable to the Canon SX200 IS).

I researched and thought about this for a couple of months and decided on a Point & shoot with a strong zoom and HD movie capability, and one that would fit in my pocket while gardening or travel.

Don't have the time or money to invest in a DSLR right now, but would like to have a DSLR camera and take some serious photos someday.

Sorry that's the Panasonic Lumix DSC-ZS3 (not ZM3).

Well, I found the box/packaging, the receipt but no warranty papers! And I never registered it. Cr*p. Well, I'm taking it back to the camera store anyway, I don't see why they won't honor a warranty if I don't have the papers but have the receipt. DH made a comment this is one time my big mouth may come in handy LOL!!

DH made a comment this is one time my big mouth may come in handy LOL!!

LOL!

I'm not going to rant on about cameras, forgot that Panasonic that took nice HD videos. The Sx IS series wasn't quite what I wanted as a backup camera, but I did like the tilt screen and got some decent photos before I gave it away. It does take really nice macros. At the tele end, all I could see was a huge blur and the way you control the zoom, it took too long to get my subject in the viewfinder. I went for it because of the 12X zoom.

But to be fair, I have a nice telephone lens. It is tricky to use on moving subjects.

Well, I checked with Nikon, and the warranty is one year. I checked with the camera shop to see if there was anything they could do for me - nope.

So I'm SOL...

Told DH I'd like a new camera for Christmas and it better NOT be Nikon!!!!!

mxk3, that's a bummer, they could make it right for you if they wanted, would make me a return customer. As in good will. I buy all my camera gear online from just a couple reputable dealers and save a lot.

I wish you luck with your next one, finding just the right one. I don't have to tell you to register the warranty and keep a copy or the original, can't remember how mine worked, but I always try to dot every i and cross every t.

mxk3--

What did you end up with? I bought a Nikon Coolpix S570 back in September and yesterday when I turned it on, the display doesn't work. Can't see what you're shooting, can't review the photos on the camera. It still takes pictures, but you kind of lose the entire point of having a digital camera. I'm hoping it will be replaced, but discouraged by the discussion on this post!

--Johanna

Here is a link that might be useful: My place: Busy Solitude Farm

Johanna - I don't have a Nikon, but does your camera have a viewfinder as well as a LCD display? If so, you may have accidentally toggled to use the viewfinder only and that's why you aren't seeing the display. Just a SWAG.

Cameron

I ended up buying a Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS - was my Christmas present (well, the cash to buy it from DH was, anyway). I haven't really played around with it yet - took a few pics of the dogs, that's about it. Haven't even uploaded the software yet. I wish I could justify paying $$$ for a camera that actually feels like a good solid piece of equipment and not a toy - sigh....