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I like to sketch from photos sometimes. What would be the best camera for me to get when I am out walking and see a little scence or animal I could take pictures of to use as my inspiration?

Do you have a cell phone that takes pictures? My friend mentioned to me today, that she snaps pictures of things that she wants to remember. So, I tried it today and it does work pretty well to help jog my memory. That might be all you need.

Trish

Hi there Phyllis, thanks very much for your question!

I'd highly recommend a digital compact camera to you Phyllis. My first digital camera was a Canon Powershot A60, (2 mega pixels) and I still use it now all the time today. Much like you're hoping to do, to record things whilst I'm out and about to use as reference later in my own artwork and photography. It's a great little camera, compact, good to hold, great lens with a super macro function for close ups and takes 4 AA batteries.

Any digital camera with 3 mega pixels+ will give you good A4 (and up to A3) sized printouts that you can work from. From my own experience with my camera the later Canon Powershot A range (A75, A80, A85, etc..) are one I would recommend if you fancied purchasing a Canon compact. You can purchase them second hand on eBay at a good price so it makes them much more affordable. And you won't be so worried about taking it out and about all the time, and getting it lost or broken like you would if you bought a very expensive new one. Drawback is that it can be a bit slow when taking action pictures in succession quickly. I've never found that to be too much of a problem generally so you'll be able to get enough images of those animals you come across before they scurry away. Hope this helps.

Thanks, Kaye. Your info does help, a lot. The pictures I would be snapping are generally still life or some little animal quite a distance from me. I would not have to worry about any action photos. Thank you so much!

Hi Phyllis,

If you want to photograph small animals at a distance you will not see very much of the animal if you are using a compact camera.

Try to find a camera that has an OPTICAL ZOOM of more than 3X. There are cameras out there now that have optical zooms of about 10x or 12x.

You want to be looking at optical zoom on the camera and not digital zoom. Digital zoom is basically software manipulation that makes the subject look closer but it really isn't and that is not what you want.

A couple of years ago I came across two squirrels playing together and I had a 3x camera and I was about 25 feet away from them and the image came out fine but I wished that I could have been closer. A 10X optical zoom would have been nice to have, but they didn't have them back then.

Go to a camera store and compare the zoom feature of cameras that have a optical zoom of 3X and one that has an optical zoom of 10x or 12x and see the difference for yourself.

Of course these cameras will cost more money but they fit your need more.

grdbum, your suggestions are excellent! My husband hunts and often sees little creatures that he would like to photograph, and your suggestions will help him make a decision about what kind of camera would be good to get. My digital is great for closeups of flowers and animals that sit still, like my kitty, but doesn't do much for long distance pictures like my son on stage playing music. Do you have any suggestions on what to do if you want to take pictures in inclement weather? Same thing with movies? Is it possible to do without spending a fortune?

And for quick pictures while walking, Phyllis, I was serious about using my camera phone! It gives me a great way to capture pictures of my bulbs and flowers as they bloom, birds that are eating in my yard and even strange street signs I see while I walk. Cell phones "nowadays" have a pretty large amount of pixels and take much better pictures than they did four or five years ago. I don't have picture mail service because I don't want to pay money in order send pictures to other people, BUT... I like to take pictures and move them to my computer. (Only need a cable to be able to transfer them, altough I have not done any of that, yet.)

Trish

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Yes, most definitely it's worth purchasing a DSLR if you want to make a good investment in your photography. Just like Dataman's Canon 450D. Canon and Nikon are the market leaders in DSLRs. The lenses are interchangeable, so you can go from macro close-ups with one lens to long distance shot with a telephoto lens, but these are all additional investments and as dataman rightly says more to carry about with you!

Also as grdum mentions, certainly opt for a camera that has better optical zoom, rather than a digital zoom. In basic terms Optical zoom is where the camera uses the lens to zoom in closer to the subject. But when the camera uses a digital zoom, it actually does not physically zoom in on the subject but gets closer by electronically cropping the image down, giving you the appearance of zooming in. This always results in poor image quality, as the camera has already relied on its *digital powers* to zoom in. And certainly if you want to do any kind of photo editing to the picture afterwards too (more cropping in Photoshop, etc) you'll end up with pixelated pictures.

But for Phyllis, I think a compact such as my own one I mentioned above would be a good starting point with her uses in mind, (which does have optical zoom aswell). Many cell phone cameras rely on digital zoom, although the latest models are branching out to be more sophisticated. Certainly Phyllis if you carry a cell phone everywhere or are planning on getting a cell phone soon, as Babyquacker says it would be good for you to purchase a camera phone with some optical zoom to take those quick snaps out and about. Although personally I have one and never use it because of the poorer image quality. And as Babyquacker also mentions she�s yet to download hers off her phone!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions so far, and do let us know how you get on Phyllis, and why not share some of your artwork here too!

I want to get into magazine photography - nature, people, animals. So -- what camera can I start with? Inexpensive as possible but good quality.

I use the Kodak EASYSHARE Z740 - with 10X optical zoom and 5X advanced digital zoom (50X total zoom). It's an affordable mid-range camera that allows you to take professional photos. Check out the "swan" photo on the current issue of Mused. I took that photo with this camera. It is an incredible camera - very versatile! I love it. It is a big, bulky camera though. However, it is light weight. I think I paid around $250 for it, but the prices may have come down because I bought mine a year ago. It is wonderful for nature and people photos.