Expert: Marvinator - 1/1/2008

Question
What's a good little digital camera for taking indoor pictures for eBay listings?  
Nothing fancy, expensive or difficut to use - I only sell one or 2 items a year
but need to take some pictures.

Answer
I can't really recommend any one camera over another because so many are so similar these days.  What I can do is to give you the information you need to find the right camera for your needs.

First off, take a look at the price.  Don't spend a lot of money on a camera that you are not going to use more than once or twice a year.

If you are also going to use this camera for taking snapshots of your family get togethers, and such, then you may want a camera that is smaller and portable.

Most cameras these days come with a built in flash, but when taking pics for ebay, you will want to use a couple of stationary lights rather than the flash.  (A flash would make your pics to brightly lit.) So, being able to shut off the flash on your camera would be a good feature for your needs.

Resolution is the most important when dealing with ebay, and you want a camera which will give you at least 1024 x 768 resolution.  Most cameras today offer several settings for resolution which will meet this need.  Not that you will be uploading these larger pics, but having a larger picture to start, gives you more ability to crop and adjust before using.  

Most programs come with an editing program. So plan on getting to know this program well (or using one you are familiar with) to adjust the pictures for ebay.  If nothing else, learning to crop, adjust brightness and contrast will make your items look so much better - and thus make them sell better.

Lastly, get a camera which does NOT have a special program to download the pictures to your computer.  Get a camera which can be plugged in and used like an external storage source.   My camera plugs into the computer using a USB/MiniUSB cable and windows recognizes the card as a "hard drive with removable storage."  After a moment or two I can use Windows Explorer to browse to the new drive and simply copy the files from the camera to the computer's hard drive.  This is one of the most important issues with camera usage.  Many of the so-called 'access programs' stop working or work sporadically and need to be constantly tweaked or reinstalled.  By having a camera which works easily with Windows, you are far ahead of the game.

I hope this helps you with your camera purchase. Please let me know if I can be of further help.