Suggestions on what to look for in new camera

[mdkd]

All

I'm interested in requirements I should be looking for in a new camera.

Several years ago my iPad / cell phone took over my camera life because it made things so darn easy.

Now that I'm having trouble uploading pictures here I'm considering a camera along with its other advantages.

I'm not real interested in a offsight storage service because I don't want to risk loosing my pictures.

Along with cars I'm also involved with genealogy and several other hobby's.

Any thoughts?

Milton

[Loren At 65GS]

Milton,

  I can't recommend a camera, but when I use my phone for pictures I email them to myself. Then download to my computer. Then I can place or resize as needed.
 
  Loren

[elagache]

Dear Milton, Loren, and owners of photogenic mid-60s Buicks,   

I'm interested in requirements I should be looking for in a new camera.

Several years ago my iPad / cell phone took over my camera life because it made things so darn easy.

Now that I'm having trouble uploading pictures here I'm considering a camera along with its other advantages.

I'm not real interested in a offsight storage service because I don't want to risk loosing my pictures.

Along with cars I'm also involved with genealogy and several other hobby's.

You mention that you used to use cameras and then switched to using iOS devices.  What sort of a camera were you using in the past?  Something that is similar to that might be easier to transition to.

I believe your problems with uploading photos to the forum are mostly due to the fact that there is a size limit and you need to reduce the resolution before uploading.  How do you assess the forum?  Do you do all this from your iPhone or so you use a computer to access the forum.  As Loren mentions you can use the email program on the phone to reduce the size of the photos, but that might not be the most convenient.

Since I am a Mac guy, I use a photo organizer on my Mac - Apple Photos.  That provides me with some organization and keeps all my photos on my own hard drives.  If you don't mind using a computer for storage that's an option.  My Canon camera uses SDHC cards and I have a card reader on my computer.  Apple Photos will retrieve photos from either my Canon or my iPhone so I bring all my photos to one place.  Photos also can do basic things like scale photos, so that's a way out of that hassle.  I don't know of anything like Photos for the PC but there has to be such a thing.

I also use an online photo service, but not as storage for all my photos.  Instead I use it to simply sharing photos online and avoid the hassles of having to scale photos for uploading.  I use Smugmug which is a paid service:

https://www.smugmug.com/

However, since I have a *lot* of photos that I have been sharing over the years, for me I think it is a reasonable investment.  Smugmug recently bought Flickr which is free:

https://www.flickr.com/

Flickr at least used to have a set of online buttons so that you get codes to directly insert your photos into forums like 65GS.com.    I just did a quick search and the user community claims there is a way to still do this:

https://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/72157637892284923/

I was hoping to look into this to help everybody on this forum, but I've never had the time to look carefully.  If it did work that would be a free way to upload photos onto 65GS.com without the struggles to resizing the images.

By all means ask any additional questions this suggests to you.

Sorry, the online world is anything but simple! 

Edouard

[yachtsmanbill]

I have to suggest a Cannon "Elph" After many years of 35mm SLRs, this is more akin to a Koadak instamatic, slimmer than a pack of smokes, BUT, it is 16 megapixels, has a 8X zoom @ 5.0 - 40mm, F3.2-6.9 aperture, does movies and the sims card holds 1000 pics. The battery also lasts forever, tho I do have 3 charged at all times. Just OCD on that part. Also has a robust flash and a few hundred other features I dont even use.
   I have a PC here, and either insert the sims card or plug in the camera. Every forum use a different pic format but Ive adapted... Right click on the pic and open with "PAINT" ... thats a MS program and run with it. Its a lot like Photoshop but not as dramatic! Click on!!!   ws

[elagache]

Dear Bill and mid-60s Buick owners with cameras,

I have to suggest a Cannon "Elph" After many years of 35mm SLRs, this is more akin to a Koadak instamatic, slimmer than a pack of smokes, BUT, it is 16 megapixels, has a 8X zoom @ 5.0 - 40mm, F3.2-6.9 aperture, does movies and the sims card holds 1000 pics. The battery also lasts forever, tho I do have 3 charged at all times. Just OCD on that part. Also has a robust flash and a few hundred other features I dont even use.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I have a Canon DSLR and prefer that in part because I'm used to composing directly by eye.  If you have gotten used to a SLR, it might be better to get a camera with the same functionality to avoid frustration.

I second the suggestion of a zoom lens.  It makes composing much easier and avoids having to walk around as much to take photos.  It is especially handy when photographing your car.  You can immediately crop out the distracting background.

I have a PC here, and either insert the sims card or plug in the camera. Every forum use a different pic format but Ive adapted... Right click on the pic and open with "PAINT" ... thats a MS program and run with it. Its a lot like Photoshop but not as dramatic! Click on!!!   ws

Thanks for the PC software suggestion.  I strongly recommend trying to keep your photos organized on a device that is comfortable to work on.  I know of people with hundreds (thousands?) of photos on their phones that they can never find anymore.  With a small screen like that, keeping photos organized will go a long way to avoid frustration when you actually want to show somebody a photo on your phone.

Cheers, Edouard