What camera should I buy to replace the three I have?

strutwatson

I am tired of carrying 3 cameras everywhere I go! I have the following: (1) a small point and shoot digital camera, 2 years old, (needed for its convenient size, instant picture review, and ease of e-mailing pictures), (2) a Minolta Maxuum 35 mm, 17 years old, with various lenses (needed for taking wide angles, telephotos, and doing creative photography that the digital one can't handle), and (3) a digital tape (mini DV) camcorder, 3 years old. I have been carrying all three of them around all week while hiking in the Grand Canyon, and have decided I need to find one camera that will do everything I need! Don't want to spend a fortune, but want something that is fully digital, gives the quality and lens changing options of the Minolta, and takes videos. Oh yes, and preferably is not too heavy! Does such a camera exist? What is it called? How much does it cost? THANK YOU!

darkdragon

Canon G11 maybe? Small and compact, takes jpg+raw photos, video, has adapters available for wide shots, great macro.

Brett1000

strutwatson wrote:

decided I need to find one camera that will do everything I need! Don't want to spend a fortune, but want something that is fully digital, gives the quality and lens changing options of the Minolta, and takes videos. Oh yes, and preferably is not too heavy! Does such a camera exist? What is it called? How much does it cost? THANK YOU!

I don't know about using old minolta lens on current Sony DSLR's but you coud look at the Canon 500D (T1i), Nikon D5000, Pentax K-X, etc. for low cost/low weight DSLR's.

holzphoto

sounds like you should get a canon rebel ti1 or the nikon equivalent, i think it's the d5000.

Internaut

Easy...
Either a Panasonic GF1 or Olympus E-P1 or 2 (E-P2 if you consider an eye level VF a must). Both are smaller than a DSLR, both do video and both should enable you to use your old lenses via an adapter (Panasonic's manual focus assist is particularly effective IMHO). If you want to be a bit more serious about video, the more expensive Panasonic GH1 with its video optimized kit lens is well worth looking at.

davemj98

Sony
All Sony DSLR's take all of the newer minolta lens that you might have.
Check here
http://www.dyxum.com/
Dave

ziggy53

strutwatson wrote:

I am tired of carrying 3 cameras everywhere I go! I have the following: (1) a small point and shoot digital camera, 2 years old, (needed for its convenient size, instant picture review, and ease of e-mailing pictures), (2) a Minolta Maxuum 35 mm, 17 years old, with various lenses (needed for taking wide angles, telephotos, and doing creative photography that the digital one can't handle), and (3) a digital tape (mini DV) camcorder, 3 years old. I have been carrying all three of them around all week while hiking in the Grand Canyon, and have decided I need to find one camera that will do everything I need! Don't want to spend a fortune, but want something that is fully digital, gives the quality and lens changing options of the Minolta, and takes videos. Oh yes, and preferably is not too heavy! Does such a camera exist? What is it called? How much does it cost? THANK YOU!

Strutwatson, welcome to the Digital Grin.

With the change to digital photography, I decided to keep my DV camcorders and I have added new P&S cameras to replace my first digital camera, a Kodak 3MPix P&S.

I don't think that any digital camera is as good for general purpose video acquisition than a good 3-chip camcorder. AF issues and sound issues and long format are good reasons to keep a camcorder for many projects.

I also use a simple P&S for those simple "grabs" and times when a larger camera is not appropriate.

I do think that a dSLR and digital workflow is reason alone to move from a film SLR. The creative options in digital are just amazing in the digital world, and just the ability to change ISO without changing film or changing cameras is pretty amazing. Add in the ability to color balance in difficult light and I was sold pretty quickly after getting my first dSLR.

colourbox

It does sound like you might like one of the new Micro 4/3 cameras that internaut mentioned. I haven't touched one yet, but they are small, but have interchangeable lenses, and can shoot video. It's probably the only way you'll meet all three criteria other than maybe the G11, unless the small entry-level SLR bodies are not too big for you to carry. I collapsed most of my cameras into a little Panasonic LX3, but still got a Canon 7D because I wasn't willing to give up what a fast SLR can do.

You say you are using a miniDV camcorder. The shocker with the cameras today is that many can meet or exceed that image quality, if you are saying you carry a consumer model and not a three-chip pro model. You can get compact still cameras that do widescreen 720HD video and higher, much better than old miniDV. The biggest problem with still camera video is length, because you with most cameras you can't just let it run for 60 to 90 minutes continuously, you will run out of card space long before you would have run out of miniDV tape and tapes are much cheaper. If you usually shoot short takes, you won't have this problem and most still cameras' video modes will be fine.