Which Digital Camera?

[SuzyQ]

Hubby and I are trying to figure out which digital camera to buy. We went through this a few months ago and decided to wait until our Christmas trip to see if prices went down.

Here are features we are looking for:

Under $300
Preferable 4x+ optical zoom (has anyone found that 3x works just fine for pics at WDW? I keep thinking 3x wouldn't be enough to capture, say, the lions at AK)
Fairly easy to use/understand
Probably 3mp


As you can see, we aren't exactly sure what we want. We just know our price range and that we would like something that is fairly easy to download and will be able to take good pictures at WDW (of course!).

Does anyone have any suggestions?

THANKS!
~Suzy

[Barb D]

Hi Suzi, You saw what my camera look like last summer and its a 3X Optical,. We paid about $299 I think about a year and a half ago. It also does movie clips bbut no sound. My friend got one with sound and I have ot say its so much better feature to have. I print out my pictures all the time and they look great. We have a Sony Cybershot 3.2 Megapixel Im not to sure what else to tell you about it. I did see it listed in a rating of top camera on MSN recently.

I say get as much as you can afford. And higher is better for megapixel and zoom. We also have several memory sticks to get extra pictures on vacation (Though we are toying with getting a lap top to download next trip)

Good luck and Im sure others will have loads of ideas on this. There are some really intelligent people about digital world here. I do love my digital camera in fact I no longer have my regular film camera anymore now that Im happy with my print outs of this camera.

Barb

[WillCAD]

The Fuji Finepix 3800 is pretty nice. I've seen it around for about $300. It's 3.2mp with a 6x optical zoom.
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/F3800/F38A.HTM

The Casio Exilim EX-Z3 was just given a top rating by the guys on The Screen Savers. It's a little more than you were looking to spend, $330 to $350, but is very easy to use and takes excellent pictures. It's a 3.2mp with 3x optical zoom
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/Z3/Z3A.HTM

The Kodak EasyShareCX6340 is a 3.1mp camera with a 3.5x optical zoom. It's about $300 and has gotten good reviews, and the Kodak EasyShare line is very popular with folks who want simple, easy-to-use digicams:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/DX6340/D63A.HTM

[Bookwood]

Suzy,
We just got a Nikon Coolpix 4300. I don't know about the price (DH got it on points from AMEX) but it certianly is easy to use and the book is very easy to read.

Bookwood