[David McGough]

My wife broke her Camera last week.
It was a RICOH R130 zoom 35m pretty easy for her to use
We have had it 2 forevers and time to get a new one.
The door close clip broke. It still automatic loads film
but I have to YES.. duct tape the door closed

Thinking about digital the kind with good zoom.
Id like to get a printer that prints the pic in the 5x7.
Does this work and give good pic

Like to spend $300 to $400. This would be pretty much her
camera. As of Aug last kid is gone to Miss State. No more
softball games or volleyball games for pic. Maybe Grandkids
in a few years..
Am I too cheap

If you got time what might foot the bill.
Should she go digital or stick with the regular.
David

[Mark Shannon]

There's a Photography Section on the Forum as well. Perhaps you'd get a better response there.

[SethH]

As Mark mentioned, this will probably be moved to the Photography section. But until then, definitely look at Sony digital cameras. You could definitely get into the 3-4 MegaPixel range in your price and you might be able to get one with a Carl Zeiss lens. I've found the lower-end Sony's to be easy to use and to have very good quality for the price.

You might take a look at the new Sony DSC-W1. It's at the top of your budget, but it's been getting very good reviews. Also remember that with digital you should include the price of an extra memory card in your budget because they usually come with very small memory cards. Look on eBay and you can get pretty good prices.

[Evan S]

I've heard good things about the Canon digital A80 and at $300 or so, it's in your price range. It's the one I am looking at for a future purchase.

[Patrick Sun]

Also, the A75 is a little less, but it also only does 3.2 megapixels (vs. 4.0Megapixels on the A80), but has a larger LCD screen, and the same 9-point autofocus as the A80, and the newer Digic processor to speed up write speeds and helps in autofocus accuracy.

[* Amelie *]

I have Canon PowerShot A75!!!
I do enjoy it... a lot of fun... large screen!!!
and !!! 3-minute movie !!!

[FredHD]

If you really do your homework, you may be able to get a Fuji S7000 under $400 or even it is more it is worth splurging. Great camera (and 6 MP to boot). If not you can always go for the F700. Ultra compact but takes great pictures (matrixed 6MP).

Here are some I took.
I shot at 3.2 MP and these are at 1/4 resolution so you can imagine how good pics can be.



Gallery

[David McGough]

Tell me about the picture printer.

What kind of printer do you have to have.
I was in Best Buy and it looked like a adapter you connect to the print the 5x7. Is the paper expensive?

How does all this compare to taking the roll out and off to Wall Mart. What is the quality of the pic like?
Is is something my wife would do Ok.
Got to be pretty easy for her

David

[Thomas Newton]

You can print 5x7 pictures on just about any inkjet except for the ones that are too small to take 5x7 paper.

You will need to resize photos, and chop off parts to make them fit that print size (digital P&S AR is 4:3, 35mm film AR is 3:2, neither is exactly 7:5).

As far as cost -- inkjet ink cartridges and good paper are fairly expensive. Figure at the very least $1.50 per page, not counting the amortization of the printer hardware. (I believe 8.5 x 11 "photo glossy" paper costs about 50 cents a sheet, and 8.5 x 11 "professional semi-gloss" paper 80 cents a sheet, when bought in 20-50 sheet packs. Ink cartridges go for $20 to $60 a pop.)

[Thomas Newton]

If you can live with 4x6 prints, 29-cent "one-hour" kiosks are hard to beat on price.

For 5x7s, home-made prints (at ~$1 each, 2/sheet) would be cheaper than "instant" kiosk ones (at ~$3.50 each, 2/sheet).