Need help picking a new digital camera

[TheMeatFrog]

Not sure if this is the correct section but oh well...Ok so here's what I'm looking at...

Canon PowerShot A400 Blue 3.2MP Digital Camera 2.2 x Optical Zoom $129.95

FUJIFILM A345 Silver 4.1 MP Digital Camera 3X Optical Zoom $155.95

Kodak C330 Silver 4.0 MP Digital Camera 3X Optical Zoom $154.95

Camera will be used mostly for taking pictures of computer parts and casual family photos. What x's optical zoom do you guys suggest for taking readable pictures of CPU steppings, would the above cameras be capable of that?

[Judaeus Apella]

Kodak is crap, trust me, my mother has one. Its cheap plastic, the zoom sucks, has horrible pixelation, and its mostly just a gimmic for consumers who are controlled by advertising. Fugi isn't that great. I've tried them and they have pixilation problems. I own a Canon PowerShot 400 and a Canon Rebel. The 400's lithium battery lasts for like 2 to 3 weeks, and takes really great pictures, has an advanced print menu built right into the camera so you can bypass the computer and print right off the camera by plugging it into any printer that has Pict-Brige (which is nearly all of them these days), and has little or no pixelation at all. It also has a great white balence feature, inwhich you can change the white balence to custom, take a pick of something white, like a shirt or a peice of paper, then choose to keep the setting. That works better than the Auto White balence.

I'm the lead texture artist and photographer for a retail game project, and I know cameras. Canon is the best. Period.

Also, the memory cards Canon cameras use, SD and CF, cost the least compared to xD and Sony's line of different cards. By the way, as a tip, check Best Buy several times a week, because the sales on memory cards constantly change about every other day. They also have great sales on holidays. CompUSA has a 50% shopping spree on Thanksgiving too, called Midnight Madness. :)

Don't buy a sony or beleive their hooplah, they train their salesmen by comparing all their new Sony models to old Canon models that arn't even sold anymore! LOL! The store salesmen are even worse, usually, not knowing anything about the stuff they sell and telling people to get something like Kodak, just because they pay the most for shelf space.

[TheMeatFrog]

Wow man thank you for the indepth look at those digital cameras! Looks like the Canon it is. So you think I shouldn't have a problem taking readable pictures of CPU steppings with it because that's one of my main concerns?

[5-Clicks]

i love Canon. i've never had a Nikon but i hear they're nice, but not quite as good as Canon.

[Judaeus Apella]

Just remember, its not the megapixels that are the most important. Its the size of the CCD! Thats the chip that translates the visual image into digital data. When you shrink them down in compact cameras, the quality of the picture is sacraficed, which causes pixelation. Thats why those super thin cameras by Sony suck so much. Neither one of them take a decent picture. None of those kind really do. Check out the Elf series, those are pretty decent. The ones with metal bodies are more durrable and can take a real nasty beating. I can toss my 400 elf in my tool box with my tools, for this tractor restoration project Im doing, and it doesn't take any damage.