Best $100 Camera For Lasers

Hello

I think I've made a couple similar threads. Though before I was looking into making an investment that really never took place. Just wasn't worth the $300+ investment cost.

I am looking for something simple.

A good camera for around $100, that I can alter the shutter speed on for beamshots, AND have fairly good color representation to tell various oranges, blues, and green apart.

I just want to take nice crisp pictures of my various gas and ions, and really do them justice. They deserve it!

I also would like to be able to take nice macros. However, I use a Logitech C920 webcam. This is generally accepted as the BEST 1080P webcam. However, since my computer monitor is also on my workstation, I can use this fairly well for up close macros pictures of cavities and such. No worries, but I'd like a camera that can do the same thing. I won't feel bad though if at least the top two criteria are met.

Can anyone help me out? I know there is that $250 camera a couple threads down from this one, however, I do not feel willing to spend $250 on something that I will only use to take pictures of my lasers. As well as the occasional pictures during vacations.

Do you have one of the latest smart phones? They are more then $100 but I feel like they would be your best bet if you already own one. Many of them have camera apps that can get the shots you are looking for. For macro shots, there are a lot of lenses for your phone that give pretty impressive results.

Hi Bloompyle,
I have been researching affordable cameras as well and for beam shots, it seems that the best cameras will be over $200. I have not found any cameras with full manual exposure times for cheap but I have found 2 cameras with reasonable maximum exposure times close to your price range. The first camera I would recommend is the Kodak AZ251 Digital Camera for $140. This 16.15 Mp camera has an adjustable shutter speed up to 30 seconds. It also comes with 24x optical zoom making it great for long range shooting. Now I'm no Professional laser beam photographer but with a 24mm lens, 30 seconds of night time exposure should be enough to make some bright beam shots. This camera only has 8mb built in memory so you will need to buy a memory card to go with it. Next, I found the HP d3500 Digital Camera for $153 (Ignore the 1 bad review on this page, they guy was complaining about no instruction manual). Now first off, I had no idea HP made cameras but they do tend to be cheaper to afford. The Hp d3500 14 Mp camera has a minimum shutter speed of 30 seconds as well but it can zoom 36x, doubling as a small telescope. For 13 more dollars, it gets a few extra advantages along with 64mb of built in memory but I would still buy a card anyway to expand memory space. Though it seems to be better in almost every way, it might also be a bit of a gamble. First, it is made by a company that is known for its computers and not cameras. Second, there are not very many user reviews on the camera anywhere so it's hard to know how well it was made (Not a super popular camera). You can find a lot more reviews and details on the Kodak AZ251 cause, well... Kodak makes more cameras! Both cameras have their advantages and I am pretty sure there are more picture taking devices out there under $160 with long exposure times. And yea, you could take ATprotector's advice and just go with a smart phone with all the apps to customize your camera. But it may take significantly longer exposure times with lens less than 6mm in size and with lower quality beam shots. I hope this helps and happy shooting!

You'd probably get better results spending $100-$150 on a really old DSLR than on a new point and shoot. Even despite the advances in technology you still can't really beat the bigger sensor, and you can always tell DSLR and compact small sensor images apart by two aspects: sharpness and colour rendering. Also, even cheap DSLR kit lenses flare a ton less than phone or compact cameras.

trencheel303 said:

You'd probably get better results spending $100-$150 on a really old DSLR than on a new point and shoot. Even despite the advances in technology you still can't really beat the bigger sensor, and you can always tell DSLR and compact small sensor images apart by two aspects: sharpness and colour rendering. Also, even cheap DSLR kit lenses flare a ton less than phone or compact cameras.

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Yea, You could buy old DSLR cameras and they would do Wayyyy better than compact point and shoot cameras you can fit in your pocket. Btw, the cameras I mentioned aren't compact cameras. They are bottom of the line SLR type cameras if you were wondering.
The HP d3500 and Kodak AZ251 are kinda big too so don't buy SLR cameras new or old if you want compact. Otherwise, they are the best options when it comes to taking great beam shots.