Camera
While this is primarily about the Canon A300 (... relatively old these days), there are links to camera review sites near the bottom of the page.
After my first brief look into digital cameras I landed on the Canon PowerShot A300 based on its low price (@ $160 it was by far the cheapest recommended camera on photoxels.com).
Three months later I took another more involved look. The Fuji FinePix A205 looks real good for the price ($105). I was looking at other sites this time and focusing on indoor and macro shots with relatively low light as well as on low price. I expanded out from the Fuji then back down to the Fuji and the Canon PowerShot A300. I had completely forgotten about my first foray and the Canon. It wasn't until I opened up my eBay bidding software, and saw that my last two bids (~3mo ago) were on Canon PowerShot A300's, that I realized I had taken a different/longer route and ended up in the same spot.
After sniping on a number of A300 auctions I saw that folks were willing to consistently bid more (even on refurbished cameras) than the camera was selling for elsewhere on the internet. I did find one guy selling at a Buy it Now price that was almost $10 lower (shipped price - new, complete, and not refurbished or used) than the best price I could find elsewhere. I paid $145 shipped...I've seen cheaper sale prices @ OfficeMax (Oct? 04).
...I made a good choice. I've used the macro setting without the flash quite a bit. It can get in real close and the results are great. I always turn off the flash when I fire up the camera. In most cases the flash isn't required and the pictures are better. I hadn't really considered it when when shopping but the video mode is nice. The 15fps quality is better than I would have expected. I cannot comment on the digital only zoom (VS the preferred optical zoom) because I've never used the zoom function.
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A300 Video Conversion
Its pretty easy to convert A300 created .avi files to Xvid/mp3 .avi's. All you need is VirtualDub and Xvid/mp3 codecs, all free and easy to find on Google. Click on the thumbnail then next to page through the five easy steps. The resultant file size will be 1/10 (that's right a mere fraction) the size of the original with no noticeable loss of quality.
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Links
- A300 review at The Imaging Resource
- The combination of features and image quality offered by the A300 is quite unusual for an entry-level camera, yet it retains excellent ease of use in full-auto mode, making it very suitable for novice users. While I'm not personally a fan of non-zoom cameras, I recognize that they have an important place in the market, and the A300 deserves a good look if you're shopping in that category.
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- A300 review at Steves Digicams
- Canon's new Powershot A300 is an excellent choice for those desiring an easy to use and compact size 3.2 megapixel camera...
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- A300 review at Photoxels
- The Canon PowerShot A300 is an entry-level point-and-shoot digital camera with 3.2 megapixels resolution [MSRP] US$189.99 This is by far the cheapest in Photoxels recommended point and shoot category.
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- A300 reviews at Epinions
- Excellent picture quality, great value, ability to control photography in manual mode...This is a very good entry level camera. It also has some impressive manual features...
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- Digital Cameras at Epinions
- Compare Prices and Read Reviews - Buyer's Guide - Digital Cameras Wizard
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- HardwareCentral.DealTime
- Digital Cameras - Prices and Reviews. I'm pretty sure its the same reviews and pricing as on Epinions (Epinions reviews and DealTime pricing)
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- Digital Photography Review
- reviews of the latest digital cameras ... a digital camera buyers guide, side-by-side comparisons and the most comprehensive database of digital camera features and specifications.
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- Steve's Digicams
- digital camera reviews
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- Imaging Resource
- THE online source for digital camera reviews.
One of the better review sites I found. Lots of details and categories. Nice features like image comparison.
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