Ben721 said:
It looks good, I checked it out at ebay, even though I've never used ebay before. Anyway I think I am going to stop looking for cheap cameras and make an investment that will last a while. I'll be on the lookout for a $200 camera and will be checking the sales on Sunday.
what is it , you are looking for in a camera?
i wanted a better camera, but i soon learned you can't choose by megapixel alone. my sony was about 500 bucks a few months ago, and can be had for 400 now.but it too, is 2.1 megapixel.
it uses cd's for memory, which are 156-210 mb depending on the cd you use. it is a very nice camera, and the flash is synchronized almost perfectly. it is excellent for macro shots . i used it to take pics of my cpu bridges before and after i unlocked.
so, it seems to me, the sony mvc-cd250 cost so much because it's memory system is a cdrw drive, but made for 3" cd's, and it uses a nice high quality lens, a large bright lcd, a quality built in flash, and so on. it also has a brother " mvc-cd400 " which is 4 megapixel, and has a few more options and features than the mvc-cd250, and can probably be had for the price i paid for my sony.
both camera's come with a recharger, and a very nice ni-mh rechargable battery.
these sony's are also a bit bulky. another one i considered was the fugi 3800, or something like that. it is a bulkier looking camera like the sony, but to hold one, you will see it is much smaller and lighter, and i believe it has a more powerful optical zoom.
as far as zoom on a digital camera, consider the optical zoom capabilities, and forget the digital capabilities when determining price/performance ratio. example, if 2 identical camera's were 200 bucks, and one had a 2x optical, and 3x digital zoom, and the other had 3x optical, and 2x digital zoom, although both have an available 6x zoom, the second one, with 3x optical is going to give better quality images. i rarely use digital zoom on a digital camera.
and last, i have not had a digital camera that doesn't have issues with the red-eye reduction. it's best to take candid shots at parties anyways. those portrait photo's will be full of red-eyed guests.
sooooooooo, let us know what your prioities are, and maybe we can help you select some camera's in your price/performance range that would do what you want.