[Jeff Rutledge]

Originally Posted by Honda_Civic_Si

... but I dont bother with the digital - it is useless!
-Justin.

I agree. I'm getting into the habit of shooting wider pics and then cropping them later. I don't lose any quality and I'm able to frame them just right. I know that serious photographers shudder at that, but it works for me. 8)

[Jeff Rutledge]

Originally Posted by Honda_Civic_Si

... but I dont bother with the digital - it is useless!
-Justin.

I agree. I'm getting into the habit of shooting wider pics and then cropping them later. I don't lose any quality and I'm able to frame them just right. I know that serious photographers shudder at that, but it works for me. 8)

[sublime]

So then the real question is what camera I should choose:

Powershot a300 - 3.2 megapixel, no optical zoom
Powershot a60 - 2.0 megapixel, 3x optical zoom

I won't be doing much printing at all, so I think the latter would be the better option.

[shah]

absolutely. With a zoom camera you can zoom into an area or subject, rather than having to take a panoramic view and then crop on your pc then resave and loose more quality on further recompression.

Simple choice: If you were to take two photo's with the same compression algorithm and the subject at say 5 meters or over.. as an example someones face, then with a 3Mega fixed camera you will get the face, head and shoulders and chest and may be the legs..! etc. You will then need to crop the image just for the face. If you used the optical zoom, you just zoom to the face and snap it..!

NOW THE FUN PART...! If you look at the cropped face and the optical face at the same size, the optical will be better. For its size it will contain 2 million pixels, while the cropped one may have about a million...! So where has the other two million gone.. (Well thats the area you cropped off and lost..)

So read the above and make a simple choice...!

Shah

[Kati Compton]

Originally Posted by JR

I agree. I'm getting into the habit of shooting wider pics and then cropping them later. I don't lose any quality and I'm able to frame them just right. I know that serious photographers shudder at that, but it works for me. 8)

Serious photographers would sudder more at the thought of digital zoom.

I never use digital zoom. If I want it more zoomed than the optical will take me, I crop.

[Kati Compton]

Originally Posted by sublime

So then the real question is what camera I should choose:

Powershot a300 - 3.2 megapixel, no optical zoom
Powershot a60 - 2.0 megapixel, 3x optical zoom

I won't be doing much printing at all, so I think the latter would be the better option.

Between those two? I'd go with the a60 for sure. More megapixels are good, but not at quite that expense. But like I said, it's not a direct equivalent.

For hobbyist, 2 megapixels are plenty.

Other important questions:

* What kind of batteries? Can you use rechargable AAs or is it a special battery pack?
* How big is it? Is it small enough that you'll take it with you often enough? The better camera is the one you'll *use*, and something big and clunky is difficult to carry around.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by sublime

I'm a bloody idiot when it comes to cameras. I tried asking another site but got no response. Is it better to have 3 megapixels and no optical zoom or 2 megapixels and 3x optical zoom?
Don't laugh at me

Did you ask over at Digital Media Thoughts? I can't seem to find your question anywhere...

Anyway, as the others have explained, digital zoom is useless, because all you'd end up with at the end of your 3x digital zoom would be a 2 megapixel image digitally croped down to a 1 megapixel image (give or take). Digital zoom is bad - very bad. It's always better to crop after the fact.

[tanalasta]

I'm going to agree that digital zoom is bad. very bad. The loss of image quality is definitely noticeable. It is comparable to opening the photo/jpg in Photoshop and clicking "zoom". So pick the A60 which is a decent camera. Or better yet, if you have the extra cash fork out for the A70 or A80 (or the new IXUS!) I use the A70

Now what do you intend to use your camera for? I assume just point and shoot right?

A good digital camera site is www.dpreview.com

[sublime]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Did you ask over at Digital Media Thoughts? I can't seem to find your question anywhere...

It's at the very top forum

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by sublime

It's at the very top forum

Ah. I looked for posts with no responses, and didn't find it because two people have responded. ;-)

[Janak Parekh]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Ah. I looked for posts with no responses, and didn't find it because two people have responded. ;-)

I think no one had responded when he replicated it here. I'm sure DMT is going to build up a loyal community before long that will be as quick as we are. 8)

--janak