AboutSteve Meltzer Expertise I am a professional photographer and I've been shooting for newspapers, magazines, commercial clients and artists for over 30 years.
I have shot stock photography for dozens of years and in 1977 created West Stock (Seattle, WA) which was one of the first to produce stock photo CDs and later one of the first to establish an online stock photo slaes site.
I have a new book on digital photography "PHOTOGRAPHING ARTS, CRAFTS AND COLLECTIBLES (Lark Books, 2007)which is available at Amazon.com, eBay.com and in bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Borders. I have another book, CAPTURE THE LIGHT which will be puiblished in November, 2008.
I write 20-30 feature articles and columns for regional and national publications a year.
My education includes studying with photographers like Cornell Capa, Duane Michels and Oliver Gagliani (from the Ansel Adams Center.)
Expert: Steve Meltzer Date: 4/18/2008 Subject: digicam !
Question Hi . I want to buy a digicam for myself up to $500 and I saw many digicams and their specs . Now I'm going to buy a " FujiFilm finepix S8100fd " . But I want to know , what's the best tech for my request ? Nikon ? It's very expensive ! Canon ? Fuji ? Sony ? Which one of them is more useful for home uses ( up to advanced amateur ) ?
Also I want to buy a compact photo printer ( up to 4"x6" or 4"x8" papers support ) . I don't know what's the quality of them prints ?! Can I have the photos as like as lab. photos with them ? Is this really possible ? And again which mark is better ? According the papers quality , the print technology , etc. ?
Answer Eric
In a couple of weeks the new Nikon P80 goes on sale for about $400. It has a 28-430mm zoom Vibration Reduction lens and an 10 MP sensor. That's probably your best choice.
As for the 4x6 printer. Because the prints are so small most printers will work fine. BUT all printers are made differently. Some are cheap and built cheap. Definitely go to a big box store like Best Buy and look at the 4x6 printers and see which one feels best built and looks like it will last. Also check out the price of replacement ink cartridges. Printers are cheap because replacement cartridges can cost more then the printer and need to be changed every few weeks if you print a lot.
