Decent Digital Camera Around 250? Possible?

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hell, my 3.1 megapixal Kodak DX3700 has pretty good quality and it's way under $250 nowadays. If I were to buy a new one, I'd definitely go better just because, but this one works great, isn't hard to use and I think you can do video too, but I never do. Mine was around $200 when I got it back in 2002, so they're under $100 now. I got a 128mb SD memory card and it holds a ton of pictures. I took nearly 300 pictures in Chicago a couple years ago.

If I were to get a new one, I would want a screen on the back (probably 2.5")...mine's only about 1.5" and I would want a more compact one since mine is quite large compared to the really small ones of today.

for $250, you could probably surf ebay and get a used digital video recorder that also does still shots...just saying.

Canon digital cameras are popular. Olympus is also a brand that's tossed around as very good. I like my Kodak.
 
How long of movies? My basic Sony Cybershot is pretty awesome for what it is, a cheap and point/shoot unit, and takes short videos. Can't compare it to DSLR cameras but I've seen some 8MP cameras that didn't produce pictures as good as this. Mine's only a 3.2 but I've used a 6MP Cybershot as well but noticed not much difference on-screen. Large prints would be another story though, I'm sure.

BTW - I think every digital camera ever, except the tiny/keychain-sized ones, have the LCD screen :p
 
Okay thanks for all the advice and hints thus far fellas. Yeah actually I guess I want something that does Video foremost and can take still shots. Basically i'd like to make a mount and be able to do driving videos in my cars. Still doable for 250? Canon sounds like a good brand so far.
 
I just bought a Canon Digital Elph, Powershot SD630, and it is by far THEE best digital camera I have ever had, and you can get them for under $250!!

I have had several digital cameras and know quite a bit about them. I've had a few of each: Kodak (mostly crap cameras), Sony (crappy battery life), and Nikon (ok, mostly "grandpa" cameras), but this Canon SD630 is just flat out awesome! It has a rechargeable lithium ion battery that lasts a long, long time and fully charges in about 30 mins, is 6 megapixels (more than enough for any kind of consumer use), it has a huge 3" screen that is just awesome, and it has very good video/sound quality, tons of display options and picture editing options.

I have a 1gb card (about $30) and I can take about 10minutes straight of 640x480 30fps video with sound, that's the same resolution as a TV, which is very high quality for a digital camera that will fit in your shirt pocket. You can also downgrade the quality to 320x240 and 15fps (which is still fairly decent quality) and get like 45 mins of video!

The only thing I don't like about it is that it only has 3x optical zoom, but it does have like 8x digial zoom.

Overall awesome camera for the price, I highly reccommend it.
 
If you look at the previous thread of mine I just started yesterday, I put some video links in there from a ski trip of mine. All of those pictures in that thread and both of those videos were all from my Canon SD630.

http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=700500

Keep in mind when I uploaded the videos to Google Video, they compress the videos so the quality is not near what it is on my computer in Divx Player, but you can tell from the slow motion shots that it has really good quality frame rate and such.
 
Wow thanks for the great help guys I was hoping for some specifics, way to come through. I was really starting to lean toward canon also, I think the SD 630 sounds right in my price range and will do what I want it to do! Is it set up like a mini handheld camcorder thing or a reg. digital camera with a screen on the back?
 
Got a Kodak CX4300, here. It's a slow, cumbersome, battery-eating turd, but it gets the job done, and the shots it catches ain't too horrible. I can't justify spending the cash on a better one quite yet - too many other needs/wants in line ahead of it. (Such as a better effects pedal, a bass, better editing/recording software, a camcorder that doesn't suck arse ... oh yeah, and paying off my debts. :D )