looking for cameras for student journalists

Hi,

I'm looking for cameras for student journalists, college level. Can be point-and-shoot or DSLR. I'm leaning toward point-and-shoot because the students change every semester and I can't assume that the incoming students will know how to work with a DSLR. Easy to use is good.


* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible.
I've been told "inexpensive."

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?
Doesn't really matter.

How many megapixels will suffice for you?
Enough to produce newspaper quality photos.

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x)
Standard or ultra.

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)
8? The images will be printed and used on the web.

Do you care for manual exposure modes (shutter priority, aperture priority, manual)?
Don't care, as most students will not know how to use manual.

* What will you generally use the camera for?
College students will use the cameras to shoot photos for the college newspaper and the online news site.

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
No

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
Yes, I think so

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
Quite likely

Are there particular brands you like or hate?
No

Are there particular models you already have in mind?
I've read that the Nikon P7000,P71000 have mic inputs, which I would like to have for shooting interviews

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)
Given the number of blurry shots I see, I think image stabilization would be good.

Other:
Needs to shoot decent video and record decent audio, as we want to use video -- or possibly sometimes just the audio -- on our news website.

Thanks in advance for the assistance!

 

The only point and shoot digital camera with a mic input that I could find is the Nikon P7100. It shoots well in low light and is fairly cheap (less than $300 online) though its video, while not bad, is in 720p, rather than 1080p like most digital cameras. If you're OK with its video resolution, the P7100 should meet your needs.

 

Thanks very much, Andy. I'll check the video resolution with our video guy, see what he thinks.