advice on new camera

[HelpDeskHustler]

NOT HP. That's my only opinion. Canon, Nikon, Kodak, maybe even Olympus would be pretty good. All I know is HP cameras suck compared to some low end canon's

[bigred76]

Heh.... Best advice I've ever heard for any camera: buy a tripod. The steadiness from it results in excellent pictures; all you need after that is a bit of creativity. My brother picked me up a tripod for $30 from the local camera shop, and it's done me good since Christmas.

I re-read my post and realized how derogatory I was towards my camera. Really, it isn't that bad for what it is. Compared to a Digital SLR (got to "play" with one today... OMFG!), it isn't that great as far as manual settings go, but for the price, it can't really be beat. In total, my camera set up would probably cost someone $175 to duplicate: two 2gig cards, a portable charger (works with the USB cable when I don't have my laptop and plugs into the wall), the tripod, and my camera itself. It only needs a charge after every 400 pictures or so, too. That includes time just sitting there and taking videos. I turned out this pic with it (edited due to ****ty lighting -- my fault, not the camera's -- and messing with transparencies):



Not so bad, eh?