Decent Digital Camera

Matt_Colie wrote:
While I did have a short and lackluster stint as a stringer photog, I have always done a lot of photography for myself. In recent years, I have stuck with Nikon and Canon and never been disappointed.

No matter what you read, THE GLASS IS IMPORTANT.
This is where phone cameras miss the mark.

Be sure to look at the lens range and not the digital zoom. The digital zoom is an instant quality killer. You can usually do better in post-processing that the device does for this.

What your price target will get you is a high end "Point and Shoot" and that will serve you well.

Something I have gotten to love is the flip around view screen that my current Canon has. I don't know if Nikon does that yet. I have used that for the "hold the camera over your head" shots more than a few times. It has lots of uses actually.

Now for my standard warnings:
Always carry a spare battery when you are out. They are cheaper (and maybe not as good) on Ebay, so get at least two.
Always carry spare memory. If you ever run it in movie mode, you will burn a bunch in a hurry. Keep track in the view finder.
Always shoot at the biggest file type short of RAW. (Raw is just too huge if you don't need it. ~20meg files)
Get a hard case to carry it in. You never know what will happen and I had one taken out by a single bang.

Matt

Excellent advice. I have an iPhone 13 which has a 12Mp camera but the digital zoom is not very good.

My main camera is a Nikon D5000 SLR that I have had for about 9 years. This is 12.3 Mp and with the 55-200 zoom-tele lens is excellent for most near and all long distance shots. I also have a 18-55 fixed lens which is great for near shots.

I also have had a Nikon Coolpix S3700 for about 6 years. This is a 20Mp camera with digital zoom. Quite frankly my old iPhone 8 took better pictures. I don't use it anymore!

Going on vacation I mainly use the Nikon, but use the iPhone if I want a quick 'snap'!