Recommend Cheap Older Digital Camera

[TromboneAl]

DD would like a digital camera for her birthday. I'm probably going to bid on this one, which is the same model that I have.

I know what you're saying: "Gee, Al, that thing dates from the turn of the century!" But it works fine for us, and it is solid as a rock (I once dropped it four feet onto granite bedrock. Sure, some parts broke off, but it still works fine!). Example of picture from our camera:

But if some of you can recommend an older model camera that you have experience with, I'll check those out on Ebay, too.

 

[justin]

similar to your camera I guess... Canon powershot a400. 3.1 megapixel. Great picture quality - easy to use. Decent video recording w/ sound. Quick enough to snap action shots. Looks like ~$60-70 on ebay including shipping. Not a lot of zooming power (3x optical I think) - that's DW's only complaint - well, and that it isn't a brand new camera : .

I think ours was $130 brand new a few years ago (2004?).

 

[Sam]

I agree with Justin. The Canon A410 is also good. But the best deal is the A310 or A300. Very good pictures. But the best feature is AA batteries. I had the A300 for a long time and was very happy with it.

 

[justin]

I'd have to add battery life is great. 2 AA batteries last us a LONG time. My parents have a olympia something-or-other (a much more expensive camera). It's good for 30-40 pictures and then the batteries are dead. Ours lasts ~150+ pictures at least. If I were to go on a long vacation somewhere, I could probably get by comfortably without extra batteries, just charging the 2 in the camera at night.

 

[wabmester]

A used digicam for a birthday present? Isn't that taking fugality a bit far?

I give my almost-4-year-old my old digicams to play with, but not for birthday presents. (She gets my old toys for birthdays.)

 

[laurence]

We have a Canon Powershot that has a 3.2 Mp and 3x optical zoom. Looks like a brick now, but the pics turn out so well, when we ( when I ) busted the preview screen we went on ebay and got another ( for about $60)

 

[wabmester]

Has anybody else noticed that digicams seem to have a limited shelf life? I have a couple that are probably close to 10 years old that have developed dead/stuck pixels in their CCDs. As the pixel density increases, it's probably harder to detect, but it's obvious in the old sub-2M cameras.

 

[laurence]

As in, you view the picture on the computer screen and have black dots? I haven't had a pixel go out on me yet....

 

[wabmester]

As in, you view the picture on the computer screen and have black dots? I haven't had a pixel go out on me yet....

Sometimes a stuck color pixel, so not necessarily a black dot. I'm not sure if CCDs degrade with time, or my old cameras got dropped when I wasn't looking.

 

[laurence]

Of course you realize now I'm going to have to pour over my pics...

 

[Empty Pockets]

Hey, that looks like my NEW digital camera.

Looks like a good deal to me, love my little canon.

 

[sailor]

T-Al,
I second (third?) Powershot vs. Elph recommendation - AA batteries are cheap to replace.
I have both, and I replaced LiIon batteries 4 times already on my S400 Elph.
Poweshots are not as small, making it little harder to fitting in a shirt pocket.
Picture qualities seem to be similar with models about the same age (meaning both have cheap glass lenses, but good electronics, namely DIGIC series processors)

 

[REWahoo]

Al, one more...

I have a Powershot A510, which has been an excellent camera. My only complaint is the time between shots, which is about 3-5 seconds. Other than that, it has been great.

 

[TromboneAl]

Thanks, guys. I Buy Now'd one that was $65 with S&H, and included two new batteries.

A used digicam for a birthday present? Isn't that taking fugality a bit far?

$65 is frugal?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Humidity does condense inside the beasties over time and its worse if you change elevations a lot.

We take our camera up to the grandparents house +3000 elevation from us and to tahoe +5000-9000 elevation a lot and about every 3 years we lose one to excess interior moisture buildup.

I cant complain about the canons with the liion cells. The one i'm using right now is over 2 years old and we've used the living heck out of it. Batteries still hold a charge for several hundred shots or 18+ minutes of video.

I also had some 1 megapixel olympus units (still have a pair of them in fact) that produced surprisingly good shots and you could fit a heck of a lot of them on a smaller flash chip. I think those are D-1000's.

 

[donheff]

Watch woot.com for daily specials. I have seen a few 5mp cameras going for under $100 recently.

 

[doah001]

Toshiba pdr-m81

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2001_reviews/pdrm81.html

Bought mine for 75$ off ebay. Dad paid $1000 + 5 years ago for the same camera. Not the best for moving pix, but it works great for us. Good camera, but could always pay more for more features.