What camera do you recommend?

Question

I have been shopping for a new digital camera. After reading these discussion boards I've come to realize that my Nikon 3100 has caused me some problems with storage on my iMac.
I haven't been happy with my camera in a few ways... slowness, X3 optical zoom and not very good in dark conditions. My family does a lot of sports and formal dancing (often in dark conditions.)
Since I'm not shooting to make road signs or billboards I think a 5mp would suffice. But please tell me if this isn't true, and what has worked for you or others.
I've considered a Canon S2, but am very open to suggestion.
Thanks!!
iMac   Mac OS X (10.4.3)   800 MHz PowerPC G4, memory 512 MB SDRAM

Answer 1

Judy:
The average point and shoot camera has a slow response, but some are better than others. I would recommend reading what Consumer Reports has to say about digital cameras. You want at least 3x optical, but more is better.
Now the slow response is not present in digital SLR cameras such as Canon's Rebel XT or D20, nor on any of the other SLR's such as Nikon D70. However, by the time you have paid for one of these cameras, you would have spent from $1,000 to $1,400 (depending on which one you buy). Any of these cameras come with a kit lens (around 28-55mm), but you can buy the body alone and add a lens of your liking. The kit lens is the cheapest for the camera, and costs around $150.00.
You can do a lot with the kit lens since you can zoom from approximately 28mm to 55mm, but you will eventually may have to buy a couple of telephoto lenses, perhaps a 70-300mm lens or a 100-400mm or so. These lenses come in two forms: Image stabilization, and none. The ones with image stabilization cost from $1,300 to perhaps $4,000, while the ones without image stabilization cost from $170.00 to $400.00.