I am new to digital photography and am looking at purchasing my first camera. I am primarily interested in a camara for general home use only. I want ease of use, good quality, and something that will grow with me as I get more involved with the hobby. My question is this, what is the best camara in the 5-700 dollar range and then again 7-1000 dollar range. Based on these criteria, after reading many of the reviews on your web page I am leaning toward the Nikon E900, however the new Sony is interesting, especially with its storage medium being a floppy drive. Comments Thank you in advance for your help.

-- Todd Feider (T.Feider@mcione.com), December 27, 1998

Answers

My recommendation is a bit lower than the price ranges you stated, but for around $350-$400 you could buy a Toshiba PDR-M1 via several dealers that advertise on the web. I bought mine for about $350 via mail from Harmony Computer in Brooklyn, NY and love it.

It has a manual mode that would allow you to experiment a bit and would help the camera to "grow with you." The only complaints I can muster are the lack of a zoom lens and that it takes about 10 seconds between shots. If those features are worth several hundred dollars to you I suppose you should go for the Nikon 900s or a similar model from Olympus (D400?). I probably would have, if I had really believed how well megapixel images would print and how wonderful they would look on a screen.

The only other thing that comes to mind is that rumor is that Toshiba is going to release a 3X(?) zoom version of the PDR-M1 early this spring. By the way, the battery issue that some people complained about with the PDR-M1 is totally non-existant if you use NiMh rechargeables. I get around 200 shots with the flash and LCD display turned on from a single charge using Nexcell AA's.

If you're going to spend nearer a $1000 for a camera, perhaps you should have a good long look at the Sony's with huge(~10X or larger) zoom lenses.

PS I don't own Toshiba stock, but I do like this camera and don't feel it can currently be beaten based on price/features. :)

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@francorp.francomm.com), December 28, 1998.