When choosing a digital camera, you want as much resolution as you can afford. With today's cameras, I would not purchase one with less than 5 megapixels. Prices have dropped enough that you can find an acceptable one in the $200-$300 range. These cameras will work fine for most yearbook situations. But they will not work well for sports, rapidly moving objects, or in low light situations. Unfortunately, for most schools that means a relatively inexpensive camera won't work well for basketball, football, track, soccer and most other sports. Drama and events in less well lit areas of the school may also be problems. The problem with most digital cameras is the delay between when you press the shutter and when the camera takes the photo. Most cameras don't focus and measure the lighting quickly enough to eliminate this delay. You also have the problem of getting close enough to subjects like football action.
For these situations you need a better digital camera. It will probably be one that uses interchangable lenses. Cannon makes some excellent cameras of this type, as do a few other companies. But unless you already have some lenses from 35mm cameras, I recommend, a new camera on the market,
Nikon D50.
For the past couple of years I have recommended the Nikon D70. I have one myself and love it. This new D50 does everything the earlier model does, and is lighter and less expensive. It uses Nikon lenses and a wide variety are available. It is great for sports and low light situations. At this point in time I think it's the best camera you can buy for yearbook photography.
There are three purchase options available:
Nikon D50 body only (no lens) (25216) about $750
Nikon D50 and 18-55 zoom lens (25231) about $850
Nikon D50 18-55 and 55-200 zoom lenses (9988) about $1099
Lens only pack 70-300 zoom lens, case & goodies (9983) about $250
If you can spend $1100 I would purchase (25231) camera with wide angle zoom 18-55 and (9983) the 70-300 telephoto zoom. This combination of 2 lenses would cover virtually any situation.
I suggest you do your own research and check prices both online and locally. For online price checks try
cnet and
streetprices. The best prices I found for the equipment were at
Adorama and
BuyDigiWhen buying mail order, always make sure you are getting USA warrenties and not a grey market version of the camera. Also, if you order by phone, the companies will usually try to sell you accessories and I recommend you avoid the temptation to buy extras. Often these accessories, like flash cards, are much higher priced than you could purchase elsewhere. The prices from the two listed above include ground shipment.
I don't think you'll go wrong with the Nikon D50. It a great value for a high-end digital camera.
(c)copyright 2005 Bill Stoess Knoxville, Tennessee
