Fast help on what camera to buy.

[bosco0633]

So I have a line on two cameras.  I need to decide in the next hour which camera to buy, as it is a deal through a friend that works for a company.

I have the choice of a canon SD400 or the SD 800 SI.  the 800 is almost double the price, but 7.1megapixels and a bigger screan display.  

I have to place the order by 7:30pm.  

Anyinput would be greatly appreciated.

[galen]

how much?

[cooltoy2000]

Do you really need 7.1? Are you going to be printing wall size pictures?

[galen]

Yea, big in this case is not always better. Do you need that much resolution? Thats a lot of detail. If its a great price then go for it. But usually you pay more for it.

[bosco0633]

It retails for 575 canadian and I can get it for 350 canadian.  Seems like a good deal

the Sd400 is 5 mega pixel but last years technology.  I can get it for 220 canadian

[anne]

Decided yet?

The cheapest that I saw the 800 was $399 American, so it would seem that your price of $350 is good.

Will you print anything bigger than 8x10?

2" vs 2.5" LCD. My camera's LCD is smaller than I originally wanted and I found that after a while I really didn't care about the smaller size.

Either way, probably a great camera. My brother used the SD 400 for the last year or two, and just upgraded for something he could take under water. I tried to get him to sell me his old one for cheap, but my dad beat my to it.

[Vinny]

The more pixels the sharper the image. This holds true of anything that takes or displays an image.

The only other thing to consider is what features does one have that another doesn't.

[bosco0633]

Ok, just got off the phone.  Of course me, being a man and all..... I opted for the better of the two.  My thought process was that I would rather pay a little more for a current model.  So the order is in and hopefully I should have it before christmas.

[Vinny]

Personally Bosco, I think you made a wise move . 8-).. that's coming from my femine side  ... I grew up with 2 sisters and no brothers.

I'm not totally into digital photography yet, I only have a 4 mega pixel point and shoot but in a previous life, years ago I was an Amature Photographer. I own a Nikon SLR and a few lenses. I am into nature photography and can't stand taking pictures of people with my SLR (I was invited to a few weddings back then and 'oh by the way bring your camera along') but have taken some nice shots IMO of nature, I have even had some of my shots enlarged for people at their request.

Anyway, whenever you talk about images it is important to get as much information to the printing medium (memory or film) to make the image as sharp as possible. A 5 mega pixel is a sharp image at 3 1/2 x 5 but a 7 megapixel will be even sharper just like ISO 100 film will be sharper than ISO 400. The only problem is if a printing device can't or doesn't handle the resolution then the maximum resolution is the output of the printing device.

Years ago in Grand Central Station in NYC, the Kodak company had a display from a 35mm slide. They blew up the slide to probably a 10 feet x 14 feet backlit display, the slide was ASA (the standard back then) 25. The display was extremely sharp because the initial photo (slide) was taken on an extremely fine grain medium. The same holds true with digital photography.

This is probably more than you wanted or needed to know but it's the my long winded way of saying you made the right choice!

[anne]

I'd agree- and since it is a new purchase now, it'd be even more outdated in a year or two if you had gone with the 5 megapixel. Congrats!