I am very new to the digital camera world. I will be traveling to the Himalayas this summer and I was hoping that you could give me a little advice to help narrow my search for the digital camera that best meets my needs. I am looking for a camera to just record my trip - not take professional photos to win any awards. If you could recommend a couple models for me to investigate, I would greatly appreciate it.

My wish list: - Immense picture storage. I know the IBM Microdrive is the largest storage "card" available, but I understand that it is not recommended for use over 9000ft. As I will be at 15,000 - 19,000 ft for most of the time, what is the next best option? I will be in the mountains for four weeks and won't be able to download pictures.

- Good image quality - ideally 2+ Megapixel

- "Point and Click" ease of use

- Ability to take excellent outdoor pictures

- "Movie" mode.

- Low power consumption. I'll be bringing lots of batteries, but the less I need, the better.

- Rugged, robust build

- Compact, unobtrusive

- Ability to operate in cold (around freezing) temperatures.

- It would be nice to spend less than $600, but that's not my upper limit.

I am very interested in the Casio QV-3000EX but am concerned that it may be overkill for my skill level and for what I want to do. Is this a good camera for a novice? Are there any others (possibly less expenseive) that I should look at?

Thank you very much.

-- William Penhallegon (penhallegowj@hotmail.com), April 21, 2000

Answers

I would suggest S10 or S20, nikon 800 , but these don't meet your movie mode requirement. The casio does, but it's not as compact. The nikon 990 would be good, plenty of features to grow with you as your skills improve. I guess these last two are beyond your price range though. Hard to get compact + movie mode under $600.

-- benoit (foo@bar.com), April 21, 2000.

Consideration should be give to the Olympus C2020Z. There are many reviews and sample shots on line to check out. Many say it surpasses the new 3030 3mp camera, in features and performance. It's a real bargain at mobshop.com, especially if you use the Washington Post promo code to get an extra 20% off--I just bought mine for $476.76 and $10 2nd day UPS (ground shipping free). You can go to slickdeals.com, click on the mobshop coupon code "cworks" and follow through to the order check-out and type in cworks and recalculate the price. Many people over at the OlympusTalk forum http://www.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1008 have ordered here.

I think the camera has enough ease of use for a novice like me, but with manual controls to satisfy me as I grow into it. And it has threaded lens so you can add filters and lenses.

Mobshop, BTW, also has a great deal on Delkin SmartMedia cards, 32 and 64MB, with lifetime warranty (I ordered two 64's at $108 each, and if they get enough buyers by tonight, the final price for everyone goes even lower). And they have the Delkin USB card reader at a good price.

Do some research, whatever you decide.

-- Robert (broeux@home.com), April 21, 2000.