It has 5.1 mp, 3x zoom, and a nice display. It is a wonderful camera, and has all the features you’d ever need.

-5mpxl
-3x zoom
-1.8″ screen with live histogram
-available for $250 nowadays
-Sexiest camera in the market (for your barstools).

Oh, and it really does fit inside of an altoids can. Lid closed.

1) As much optical zoom as your money can buy. Digital is meaningless, as you can zoom in digitally afterwards using your computer anyway. In my opinion you’ll want at least 3x optical zoom.

2) One that doesn’t require any special super-duper spacial drivers. What you want is a camera that tells the pc it’s a mass media storage device (like the iPod does). This way you can hook it up to any pc and any iPod Photo (or non-american iRiver H320) as it supports USB-to-go.

3) How expensive are the media cards that the camera uses? Are enough other products using them so they’ll be mass produced for a long period of time? When you buy your camera try to get a good deal on a 128mb+ memory card (get 256mb if it’s affordable).

4) Find out what batteries does it uses. Normal AA or lithium ones?
If it uses AA, get double the number of rechargable batteries you need so they can charge while you shoot away with the other lot. My Minolta uses AA and this setup works great.
Lithium might unhandy since it takes a long time to recharge and they’ll probably need to be in the camera to recharge.

5) Megapixels are great and all, but above 4 the quality is good enough for ‘normal’ photographers. Sure, more is better, but don’t get carried away by salesmen. (Get them to focus on the optical zoom)

6) Size. Smaller may be nicer but usually means crappier photo’s. Of course, who cares for Really Good Photo’s(tm) if it’s a beast of a machine you don’t want to lug around? This is an individual thing, but generally it’s safe to buy a medium sized one.

I settled on the Canon Powershot A70 (now the A75) because I didn’t feel I needed anymore than 3.2MP and for the price, I got a free 128mb CF card.

Not to mention, it’s a sweet 5 megapixels.

But a picture is worth a 1000 words, so if you want to see some picture I took with it Scrivs go to my blog, the link is in my url.

The biggest downfall of the camera is the price, I payed 500€ for it… ouch. But I still find it to be worth every peny.

I had four requirements when buying a digital camera:

1) It had to be small enough to fit into my pocket and durable enough to take a beating at the bar.

2) It had to have at least 3x optical zoom (digital zoom can be done with photoshop).

3) It had to use a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery. Digital cameras that use AA batteries eat through them alive.

4) 4 Megapixels. Now I have the ability to print out photos at least 8×10 without losing quality.

This camera has it all, plus some added bonuses. It has video capabilities which I’ve used more than I expected. I have a nice little collection of friends acting stupid which I can use against them when they become public figures. (*chuckle*) You are also able to manually adjust settings such as Sensitivity (ISO), White Balance, Shutter Speed, Exposure control, etc, for the truly photo-geek.

My overall favorite feature is the size. I keep it in my jeans pocket without problems. My cell phone bulges out more. This thing is great and I’m really proud of my purchase.

Added bonus: If you have a friend that works at Best Buy, have them use their discount to pick one up for ya. It’s listed at $399 but they can get it for $330. I used the extra money I saved to buy a 1GB SD Card for it.

Later!