What is the best kind of digital camera to buy for a college digital photography class that is under $300.?

I like the Canon SD600 but IDK if its good for a college photo class

I like the Sony Cibershot ones. You can get a 5 or 6 mp ones for around that much.

Maybe you can wait until your class starts and ask your instructor who is bound to be somewhat of an expert. I am currently on the market for a new camera, so what I do is check out photo sites like Flickr, look at random shots and see what cameras took them (there's a "taken with....." listing on some of the photos). Then I look at somewhere like CNET.com for reviews of different cameras. http://reviews.cnet.com/Digital_cameras/2001-6501_7-0.html?tag=cnetfd.dir

The camera you want is the Sony DSC-H2. Don't buy it in a store as they will rip you off for the price. Instead, buy it online. It's a 6 megapixel camera ultrazoom and is very nice for the money. However, if it was me, I would invest more money in the camera as some bargains are available. The Sony DSC-H5 is the same camera but majorly upgraded. Online you can get it for about $450. But, you can get an absolute top of the line Sony DSC-R1 for roughly $650 if you thoroughly research who is selling it. That camera is the best camera you will be able to get for under $2000 and certainly the best non-SLR camera money can buy. If you plan to seriously take photos, that's the camera you want. None of the entry level SLR cameras can even come close unless you invest an extra grand on a top of the line lens (kit lenses suck balls while the R1 has a top quality lens, is the issue). If you are going to buy an SLR camera (we are talking $2 to $5 thousand dollars here in basic gear) then you want to stick to cannon products. It's odd, but low end cannon products aren't the best while they dominate the high end professional camera market. Sony dominates the prosumer market. This month, they are releasing their own SLR camera (about $1000 for it) but it's just not up to the standards of the R1. A major disappointment.

I found a Nikon Coolpix L1 for $205.00 in Costco this last weekend. Great little camera and it had a $25.00 rebate, making it that great price. Then I found a 2 gb memory card for $50.00 from Costco too--plugged that card in and now the camera takes 1299 pictures! The camera also has 6.3 megapixels. I think you need a camera with as many pixels as you can get and a great deal of memory, especially in a class, where you will be taking alot of pictures as you are learning. I am very pleased with the price of this camera set and the Nikon name is very well respected in photography.

For a digital photography class, you'd definitely need something with manual control of shutter, F-stop, and ISO. For less than 300, the best I suggest would be the Canon PowerShot A700. Its got a great 6 megapixel resolution (about as good as you're going to find in the sub $300 market), has excellent color, lots of great features, plenty of program settings, and uses the most common memory on the market: SD. A great choice for someone starting out.

You probably can find an excellent camera for a lot less than $300. Check out Kodak since they've gone 100% digital and they have been in the photography business for a long time, I would stick to a photography company (Nikon, Canon), forget Sony or panasonic, etc.

I understand that Consumer Reports just released their annual "Camera Buyers Guide" in the July issue. I'd head for the local library - they ALL get them - and see what they list as their "Best Buys". I believe I heard they picked a Canon, but I don't recall the model number. I understand their top choice was around $250. Once you have their information, go to a camera store to hold the camera or cameras you are considering. Some may be too large or too small for your hands. I would never buy a camera I haven't held. Finally, stay AWAY from high digital zoom rates. They are the work of the devil (marketing people). Digital zooms merely crop the sides of the photo after you have used up all of your optical zoom. The camera then "enlarges" what's left, and you end up with bloated looking pixels which cause fuzzy photos. Either get a camera with a high optical zoom or a high megapixel rating, both of which allow you to focus on a specific area in one manner or another.