Suggestions/Digital camera purchase

[Cudabait]

Hi all,

Have been shooting for years with point & shoot 35mm. Wife has recently become very interested in fish ID & photos. Am considering a diigital, with strobe & macro capability. Do not need to got to the top end to get into this. All suggestion will be appreciated. Someone told me that Sony makes a pretty good rig. Thanks, Cudabait.:guitar:

 

[Dee]

My first suggestion is to do a search on first digital or beginning camera, or best digital, etc. you get the idea. But a short answer....

Olympus and Canon are the two most used digital systems with Sony coming in 3rd. I'm not real familiar with Sony but with the Oly and Canon, there's no problem adding an external strobe later on. They both have reasinable priced clear housings available and you can get started with camera, housing, good rechargeable mAh batteries and extra memory cards for around $700 - 1000 or less, depending on which model you buy and how good a shopper you are.

I have an Olympus C-4040 which is now out of production but the C-4000 is still being produced. At 4MP it will make good prints to 11x14, depending on your jpg settings. The C-3040 is also a good choice for a very first foray into digital. At 3MP, prints are still good.

The C-5050 is the current top of Olympus' line and to be honest, I think it's a bit too confusing for beginners, especially if point and shoot is the only experience you have. 4 kinds of memory, 8 programable modes, jog dials for two handed use, super macro as well as regular macro....and each of these features has it's own set of 'rules' on how to use them. If that's what you're looking for, go for it, but it's just my opinion it's too task oriented for a first digital.

I'm sure some of the Canon and Sony users will pipe up shortly, all with suggestions. In the meantime, do that search and get a jump on it.