I have owned Kodak Easy Share and Fujifilm cameras in the past. Both had their plusses and minusses, and both are now obsolete. It is time for me to upgrade again. So far, various CASIO models appear to lead the league in consumer reviews and best prices on cnet.com and amazon.com, but I would like to take recommendations from all of you. I am looking for: -Quick speeds to be able to capture multiple frames per sec and snap a picture without a whole lot of refocussing and processing time -Soccer Game action without blurring so much due to the movement and/or fluorescent lighting. -Best Battery life available, I should be able to use the camera three to five times for heavy uses between charging overnight, since I attend numerous soccer tournaments in one day sometimes. -Normal SD card input -Video capture as well as high resolution JPEG capture -Ideally, Priced between $75 and $200, but I will consider paying $240 for advanced features and durability and battery life.
You're not going to get all that for $240. Some of the best digital camera sites on the web http://www.steves-digicams.com/ http://www.dpreview.com/ http://www.kenrockwell.com/
What is the best camera I can get for $180 to $240, then? As I mentioned in my post, I am looking at Casio models (but their $89 one is too cheap, and I suspect it might not be as durable or have the battery life). I could also settle for a top of the line brand with a model that is outdated by 1 or 2 years, because I would benefit from a deep discount. I can't afford a canon or the latest cutting edge models on your review sites, and I'm not a professional photographer looking to sell the photos or anything. I don't need extraordinary megapixels nor zoom because flickr and facebook produce thumbnails anyway, but I need it to work fast and have a long battery life. As I said, I am only willing to pay up to $240 (and would prefer to keep it under $140 unless limited features force the issue). Since my method for the camera is merely to take pictures at a few college, WPS and MLS matches and post them to a blog, My higher priority is affordability and durability, not shock value. It's not my business to spend $500 to $800 on a camera that could get lost, stolen or broken or too bulky to begin with.
Get a Canon Powershot for under $240 - should do the trick IMO. Can't complain. You can take batch pics, quality's good and battery life is solid. You can also buy a spare battery for cheap.
I agree. Canons tend to be easy to use and ahead of the pack in quality and features. Look at the Canon PowerShot SX130IS, which is at the limit of your price range. For soccer you will really need telephoto even if you are on the sidelines of your kid's games. Also look for cameras that use standard AA batteries, so you can keep extra charged ones in your pack and change them quickly when needed. Image stabilization is very useful for high telephoto and low light. Night pictures are tough for any compact camera (or any camera period). Stadium lights are way less bright than sunlight, so still photos of moving subjects will be grainy and/or blurry. You might get away with it if the player is standing still for a while. Night movies, on the other hand, will still look pretty good. Here's one I took a year ago with a Canon S3 (which is a pretty old model): [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri2rXpDzoxw"]YouTube - San Jose Earthquakes Preseason 2010 at Kezar[/ame]