Help? I plan to buy a decent digital camera before I return home. What should I be looking for? I've tried searching the net but now I want advice from some 'real' people.
I want a camera that will zoom in and out, will be able to take pictures of people moving, will be able to take pictures of sun-rises and of dusk - a camera that can take good pictures.
What are people's favourite cameras? Which brands are safe to buy in China?
Some good articles:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Travel_photographyhttp://www.photo.net/I've seen several articles (including comments from pros who have high-end cameras but also want a small cheap camera they can carry everywhere) rating the Fuji F30 as having much the best low-light performance in its class. If you want a point-and-shoot, look at it. I think there's a F31 now.
Image stabilisation (IS) or anti-shake technology is becoming widely available lately. Quite a few of the lower cost point-and-shoot cameras have it, including some Olympus models that are also weather sealed, rain and dust resistant. A friend bought one of those (stylus 730?) for 2700 or so, was happy with it, had it stolen, bought another, FE190?, for 2000 or so, is happy.
People seem to be almost unanimous that the Canon 5D with its full frame sensor is among the best digital cameras available, but at over $2000 for the body alone and then you have to buy lenses, you won't be getting it on a Chinese salary. Also, it is large, heavy and complex to operate.
In digital SLRs Canon and Nikon are the most popular brands, but they build their IS into lenses which makes the lenses heavier and more expensive and means you don't get it for all lenses.
The Pentax K10D and cheaper K100D have IS in the body. Olympus has announced an E510 with IS in the body. To my way of thinking, those are the DSLRs to consider.