help on choosing new camera

[den9]

im a newbie and i want to buy a new camera. mostly lookin at sonys. i want something with atleast 3 megapixels under 250 bucks. i want something small to fit in my pocket. im going to be taking some pics of moving objects so i dont want it to be blurry, but most pics will be still like skylines and people and cars. i was looking at the sony sony dsc-p93 and saw great reviews, 5.1 megapixel about 200 bucks and small. the only thing i dont like is alot of people said the shutter speed is slow, and i think that means blurry pics of high speed images. for 200 bucks i probaly wont find something better will I? also i want to take short movies, does anyone know how long movies i can take on this camera. what other cameras would you recommend, remember im new and i cant spend more than 250. sorry for the long post thanks in advance

[TNEmily]

I have a SONY DSC-P73. It's 4.1MP. I don't think they sell it any more. I know it will print excellent photos to at least an 8x10, and if you want to see how they appear on this site feel free to look at my gallery (I'm not the world's best by any means but it should give you a good idea what to expect). I don't remember how much my camera cost.

A slow shutter speed will mean slow pictures of high speed images. However, you can adjust your shutter speed in manual mode on my camera.

For short movies, I don't remember the time limit on movies but I would not use mine in any way as a replacement for a camcorder. For one, the picture is not wonderful for movies (pretty blurry, actually, and you are limited by how much movie you can take (I'd say 5 min. tops, and probably less than that. Really depends on your memory stick too).

As far as cost, you will also need to remember that you will need to buy an additional memory stick with more capacity. The one provided by SONY will not take a lot of photos at all. Our memory stick was about $50 if memory serves me correctly, so I'd budget that in too.

I am very pleased with my SONY, so I would thoroughly recommend one. However, I would recommend that if you have any serious questions about a camera that you visit an actual camera store (not a big discount store like a WALMART). We went to Wolf Camera where they specialize in cameras. They answered all our questions. Do you pay a little more there? Probably. But do I have any doubts that I got a camera that suits me needs? No way. So I consider that added cost as a payment for their expertise.

One tip - our salesman at Wolf said that while MegaPixels are important, that a lot of people don't pay any attention to the lens when purchasing a digital camera, and that the lens is very important too. He said that the SONY's have a good lens on them too, as do many other brands, like Canons.

[Alex]

I have had a P-93 for about a month now. Satisfied so far. Very versatile camera for the price. Only viewd 4X6 prints and computer displays so far. You can shoot up to 1/1000 sec. shutter which should freeze all but hummimgbirds and 200 mph cars. Video depends on memory stick. Comes with 32 MB. With 512 MB, you can shoot 640 video at 30 fps. Less memory is at 15 fps.

Cons: Small LCD with small icons / numerals.

Alex