Window shopping location suggestions?

[sraun]

This is question mostly aimed at Twin Cities, MN locals.

I'm in search of the smallest number of places to actually hold the largest number of different manufacturer's digital cameras.

Places I can think of to look:

Best Buy
Computer City
CompUSA

National Camera and Video Exchange
Ritz Camera

Any opinions on overlap? I'd prefer to not go to all five if I can avoid it.

ETC: Added "Window" to the Subject line.

Comments

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

I'd stay 100 miles from Best Buy, their customer service is the worst ever.

We bought ours at National Camera and were very happy with the camera and service. They also offer classes on how to use yuor camera. I think it was free with our purchase.

[sraun]

I'm not looking at buying at any of them right now! If I were, I wouldn't have listed CompUSA!

I want to handle as many of the fit-in-an-Altoids-tin class of cameras as I can. I don't really want to go to all five of those locations to do so. So, the question becomes, which two or three give me the most bang for my time?

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

My experience is from the early fall of 2003. The big box places had the most cameras you could just pick up, well, tethered by a cable for security. At the time, MEI Microcenter also had a large display of digital camera.

National Camera had the cameras in a display case, which meant interacting with a sales rep to see them. My sales rep was *tons* better than any employee I encountered at any of the other places I browsed and shopped. I ended up buying a model that hadn't been on any of my lists of possibilities, and I've been exceptionally happy with it. (It's larger than what you're looking for, which is why I'm not going to the trouble to look up the specifics and provide a link.)

[faunhaert.livejournal.com]

actually a good place to look is Sears
last time i was there
i found the newest version of my Canon G4
for half of what i paid for it-in 2000
and on sale at one half again making it around $250
verses a thousannd$ ?!?
they do a a good variety of other makes too

more than the camera its the software
bundled with the camera that seems
to really make a difference....
mine came with adobe photo shop....

we got one of the $15 quickies @ walmart
the camera sux but the software is pretty useful

[sraun]

For me, bundled software is a minus - I have perfectly good tools for manipulating graphics files already. And, if I want more, I want tools that run on Linux. I am going to get X running on a Linux box and have a full-blown Linux replacment for my current Windows boxen! I only have two programs that are Windows-unique at this point, and I have reason to believe one of them plays nicely with Wine.

So, no software bundle, but more hardware, is a win for me.

actually my canon is a very nice camera

[faunhaert.livejournal.com]

i chose it because it will accept
normal canon wide angle and telephoto lenses
from a nondigital canon. periodicly
i fiercely want these lenses along with the filters
for sun and such ... pout! landscapes
and moonscapes , and the eagles flowing by
would be so much easier with the lenses.

it is very good for taking close ups
of tiny things like beadwork or flowers,
and i love using the night setting for
the effects of a delayed shutter for
time lasp effects.

one of the frustrations is how slow it
seems for the machine to do the focus
and start up- i'd like a more immediate start
for when i'm trying to catch a animal doing something
or when playing picture roulette in a car
it takes to long with auto focus? and it goes
after the thing moving or something closer
like dust on your car window
instead of outside the window.

i need to find the manual and reread how to
do manuel focus- something about getting it to focus
as one point-hold the button down have way to keep it
then aim at the object and push?

my cannon is bulky compared to the newer model
of the same version- a lighter one is less likely
to fall and get damaged-don't know if you can do the
change the lense thing though

the ability to turn off the flash
quickly as it starts up~is important
i hate burning away the details...
9 times out of 10 i don't want the flash
i wish turning it on was the option instead of off.
but some times just w white cloth over the flash
does help tone it down-i think a more intricate
machine might have levels of brightness.

another thing- looking thru the veiw finder
is not as good as looking at the screen
it is not a good representation of what you
are taking a picture of-i'd spend more time
experimenting on this when choosing a new camera
its more evident when using the zoom mode-
it can be hard to get used to seeing the screen
and the object desired-it would be simpler if you could just shoot?

the nice thing about my moveable screen
is i can hold the camera above my head
and have it pointed down to me and see
what i'm hoping to foto-
its good for snapping pix around corners too.
if you have the flash off and have the camera away
from where folks expect it to be when taking pix,
they are more relaxed and you are more likely to
get a portriat that is not forced or guarded.
poeple just have a hard time beleiving they can look good
and fight having thier picture taken,
but i've found everyone is beautiful when relaxed
and just being interested in what they're doing or
when interacting with others.
i do love the immediacy of being able to check how a
picture has turned out and do a do over right away
a large veiwing screen is important for that.

there was a memory reader suggested to plug into the memory
instead of the camera-it was a waste of $.
it would not work no matter how mny times i tried to
interface it- the canon people sugested i return it.
and i did-plugging the camera into the machine directly
solved tons of problems.
lucklily i only fought with it one morning

Mike/Doc has been trying to get a version of
linux up and running on one of the machines around here
Windows just is a handicap he'd happily call a memory.

Wolf camera is where i got mine
they were pretty good at showing me the capabilities
of all the cameras there- the varieties were greater
at sears though and i didn't know it till after i purchased mine.

i was looking for my link to "http://www.photopoint.com"
and they seem down for the moment,
but later if you look up faunhaert
you can see the results i've gotten with my G4
its a fair sampling.i'll be interested in what you choose
and why, happy camera hunting!

[fmsv.livejournal.com]

Computer City? Didn't they go out of business several years ago? If you're referring to Circuit City, they have some cameras, I think, but I'm not sure how their selection is either.

I'd second Geri's recommendation for MicroCenter; they have approximately 3 dozen cameras on display with tethers. (I'll also put in a plug for MicroCenter's cheap SD cards - 1 gig for $16. They're behind a counter somewhere with minimal packaging (i.e., a sheet of paper).) I'll also agree with National Camera; the talk-to-a-salesman model there can actually provide useful information about what's out there (even for people who aren't particularly into cameras), even if you end up buying somewhere else.

I don't think CompUSA has all that many cameras; they've got a few, but their selection isn't as good as some other stores.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Both KMart and Target have reasonably large selections of digital cameras; almost all cheap but maybe what you're looking for. Office Max has an okay selection (and is across the street from the KMart where I live) and much more knowledgeable sales people. If you're just looking around, you could do worse.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

There's probably 15 or 20 small digital cameras on display at Best Buy in Richfield.

K. [as of last week]

[gomeza.livejournal.com]

This isn't what you asked for, but if you ever want a one-stop web site for comparing detail specs, check out:
http://www.dpreview.com

[sraun]

I'm developing a love-hate relationship with that site.

It's really great if you want data on $Camera. What I need right now is a way to make it tell me 'what are all the cameras you have that are compacts or ultra-compacts?' - and I haven't figured out a way to coerce that information from it.