B. Mann Consulting

As a kind of follow-up to Graham's post, and also because Jamie wants to go digital camera shopping this Thursday, here is a summary of some prices and models of cameras that I would consider.

The first observation is that you can now buy a 3MP camera for the price that I paid for a 2MP only 6 months ago. Secondly, the quality and features of the cameras has gone up as well.

I'm only going to be looking at cameras that are available locally here in Vancouver. A & B Sound exists only out here, but does not have any products listed on their website. Future Shop is where I'm starting looking at prices and specs. It doesn't look like London Drugs has product info either, but we'll definitely check them out, too.

Looking at the FutureShop website, the Canon's stand out. The one "failing" they both share is not using rechargeable batteries, but you can buy those separately (and you'll need to -- digital cameras suck through batteries in no time).

Canon A60
MP: 2
Batteries: 4 AA
Optical Zoom: 3x
Memory: Compact Flash (16MB)
Price: $399

Canon A70
MP: 3.2
Batteries: 4 AA
Optical Zoom: 3x
Memory: Compact Flash (16MB)
Price: $499

For interest sake, here is a link to DPReview's conclusions about the Nikon Coolpix 2500 that Kate and I use. I hadn't reallized it, but it's classified as an "ultra-compact", meaning it's quite small but sacrifices some features (like the lack of video-out that was mentioned).