I have a current computer science and AI major (age 20) that is currently converting old VHS tapes and cds to flash drives for me. She has all the equipment. We were chatting yesterday and she said she and her friends are now purchasing digital cameras and transferring the photos to their phones are laptops. The pics are so much better.
I’ve always felt hard copies of photos from phones quite subpar to cameras and since I now won’t look like a complete geek, am contemplating buying one.
Have you heard of this and would you consider purchasing one if you still like hard copies? Phone Photos look great on the phone, so if you never printed them it would probably be not worth it.
Printing photos is one of life’s areas that I have greatly failed since iPhone cameras/photos!
My youngest daughter has had a digital camera for a couple years, not an expensive one, and she loves it. She uploads to her computer and edits or deletes and then either prints from there or makes photo books. Luck for me, most Christmas she prints me a book or makes prints and puts in a photo album for me of family photos.
So yes, I know digital cameras are back! There is one that is inexpensive and I’ve looked at … called Camp or something??
Thank you for that link! Thats a good price and I lovehow it’s screen free! I always hated that. I liked looking thru the viewfinder. I think I might that.
I have a very nice digital SLR with pro-quality lenses, etc. I play around with it locally, take it on car trips, etc., and it takes excellent pictures, as one would expect.
However when travelling by plane, the last thing I want to worry about is keeping track of this cumbersome (and expensive) equipment. For that, I have a nice Canon point and shoot digital camera. It has 40x OPTICAL (not digital) zoom, and fits in my coat pocket! And it takes a very nice picture!
The one place where I use my phone instead of the point-and-shoot is in a museum—-The ultra-wide angle on my Android phone does a much better job than the P&S. Also, in very dim light the phone camera is more sensitive.
The one thing that spoils me is the AI erase feature on the Android. Being able to get rid of some of the random people, traffic, street signs, etc., in some shots is nice! I find myself emailing shots from the digital camera to myself and editing them on my phone. I’m sure there is a similar product available online, I just need to look for it.
For my husband (an avid photo hobbyist), the digital camera never went away. Each new model just gets more fancy / expensive. I’m ok with that - he likes to do nature shots, which encourages us to take some nice hikes.
A couple of years ago, I decided to splurge on a decent digital camera for upcoming big trips. After lots of research, I picked the Sony A6100. At that time (late 2024), the best deal was a bundle from B&H Photo. Amazon had/has comparable pricing.
I liked it because I wanted a viewfinder and a hand grip; also lightweight. It got very good reviews overall. It went with me to Yosemite, New Zealand and Sydney, up the coast of Southern California, and to Seattle. I found it very easy to use and comfortable in my hand. I can grab photos very quickly. It also takes videos but I just use my iPhone for that.
Thee are tons of features, of which I have learned those most useful to me. I thought I would do lots of creative setups of aperature, shutter speed, etc. But in the end my photo opportunities were fast paced so I generally stayed on auto.
I technically have learned how to download from the camera to my phone via Bluetooth but those photos are smaller pixel size so I don’t bother. I plug into my desktop and download there.
I bought various accessories - a leather case, lens filters, and extra batteries and cards.
I’ve been posting pictures here frequently from that camera. Generally I’m happy with the quality of photos. But I also do a lot of editing once photos are downloaded - cropping, eliminating unwanted elements, playing with brightness, etc.
I haven’t printed individual photos but did make a Yosemite photo book. I want to do the same for NZ/Oz - if husband ever goes through his phone pictures just in case any are preferable to my camera or phone.
I just went to look to see if we had any left. I forgot my husband bought an Olympus underwater point and shoot when we went to Hawaii 8 years ago. Problem solved. But it’s a little heavy.
Yes. It has been back for an about two years but it’s not the same as your old digital camera from ten years ago. It’s very trendy between certain young people who post photos online and also is very expensive. The best ones are well over $1000 and the cheapest ones are in $400s.
I think it just depends what you are looking for. If you just don’t want to be tied to your phone and want something that captures a memory but is not necessary winning any photo contests then a more inexpensive camera is probably ok. If you like to tinker lots with editing or have lots of nature shots or want to zoom in and have quality maybe something more expensive is warranted.The Camp Snap I posted above is fun, easy breezy and lightweight to drop in a purse or sling pouch and easy to upload.
On the one above or digital in general? I haven’t used the Campsnap - my daughter has something different so I’ve reached out to her but haven’t heard back yet what she has.
I see the CampSnap cameras are 8 megapixels. The newest iPhones are 48 MP. My Sony is 24. My old 12 mini iPhone is 12. If you want to print photos, the higher the pixels the better.
My photo editing software is Adobe Photoshop Elements 2024 and like the camera, I don’t know a large portion of what it can do. But it does a lot of fun stuff! Like when husband just couldn’t get me placed where I wanted to be in relation to a landmark, I could photoshop myself into the right place. So far I mainly just try to make photos the best they can be, as opposed to becoming artistic. Although that’s fun too.
A newer iphone can take near professional quality photos. A great digital camera can beat it by allowing you to do more close-up work or high zoom for those far away shots without sacrificing picture quality which is more important depending on how big you want to enlarge a photo. So if you want photos enlarged beyond a 8x10 you’d be better off with a digital camera with high pixels and the best optical zoom. The trade off is extra equipment to lug around (and the learning curve to get the most use from it)
So…if you want fab photos in scenic places that require wide angle like national parks, or close-up nature photos. great tourist spots, sports photos etc. you’ll do pretty well with your phone but better with a great digital camera that has more features.
The Camp Snap 1 and 2 give “retro” photos. They are low resolution. I have no idea why one would opt for that over your phone these days. If you want “no screen” go for a decent digital that allows viewing through an eye piece as well as a screen to view your pix.
I personally enjoy having photos on my phone. I have a Canon Selphy to print photos I want. It only does 4x6 photos but are perfect for albums or sharing with others. The printing is excellent and the inks are archival to 100 years.
I still dig out my almost 14 year-old Nikon DSLR for large family gatherings, but it requires some effort to haul out the tripod and ensure that the camera batteries and remote batteries are charged, since I never use the camera otherwise.
It is a 24.3 megapixel full frame format. It was great when I was shooting high school sports because of its ISO range and shutter speed. Neither of these are needed when shooting large groups of people who are standing still, but the camera takes far better photos than the iPhone.
My son has started shooting film on old cameras he buys off the Internet. He also bought an old pocket digital. None of the old cameras I had in the house met his criteria. I never bothered buying a good pocket digital camera, but instead went to DSLR once the price dropped to $1200 for the body & lens.
