camera recommendation?

Sounds like it is time you got a new phone then. It has been difficult to avoid getting a 2Mpixel camera included for the last 5 years!

If you don't mind the price then a Canon Ixus will more or less fit the bill - although the shutter lag on autofocus can be annoying at times. I use an Ixus100 as my always carry camera.

Define low. It is hard get get below 2Mpixels even at secondhand, junkyard and garage sales.

Bluetooth connectivity is an option now. But media is removable so it shouldn't be a constraint on your choice for occasional use.

You bet it is. Otherwise when in that emergency you try to use it you will get "battery depleted" and a beep as the criminal gets away.

Why? If the purpose is to get something half decent under stressful circumstances you want it to be as automatic as possible.

ITYM viewfinder (increasingly rare these days). You have to decide how big you find acceptable and what zoom extent. 3x is about the limit in the physically smallest cameras. TTL and SLR designs are way too bulky .

None of them. You have specified inconsistent requirements.

I think you already know the answer.

Regards, Martin Brown

Yes, I got a LG VS740 for less than $100. 2080=D71544 camera. 800x600 color touch screen. 600MHz CPU. 512M ROM. 256M RAM. 8G uSD. Android 2.1. Well worth the money.

One of those should suit you just fine. ;-)

Best advice I've read.

However, if using it for surveillance, a CHDK-capable camera with its motion-detection and infinitely configurable time-lapse video & still-frame options can't be beat. Read their "Thanks!' section on the wiki for evidence of caught scofflaws when no other imaging system would suffice.

I have a $9.95 TracFone(r) that's ...

wait for it...

A Telephone!

Cheers! Rich

There are literally hundreds of different cheap digital cameras made by Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Kodac, Fuji and many others in the 5 to 14 megapixel range selling for under $100 that will fit in your shirt pocket. Go to an electronics store, or a Walmart or any drug store and you will see over a dozen of them. They all work fine, and will do what you want them to do.

Agreed, that's the perfect answer . Especially as many countries/states still insist on film evidence in courts and won't accept Digital. AND defence lawyers will try to suggest in court, anyway, that just because it is digital it may have been interfered with by the prosecution , and a judge , knowing little about digital . could accept such defence!

Tell us which States you are talking about.

Ever since "2001...A Space Odessy" in 1965, photographic evidence in court has only been as good as the testimony of the photographer who took it.

He's not the one who's asking for a camera recommendation.

True, my recommendation is a new phone. The poor OP will soon tire of carrying a camera, just in case someone is "prowling near his car". Geez, like you'd have the time and presence of mind to drag out a camera, NOT.

Who'se, "He". Obviously, I was speaking to the original poster, who was asking for a camera recommendation. It is impossible, with Outlook Express, to know to whome I speak all the time I do speak. I wish that were not the case, but unfortunately, it is.

I have a friend who has a fine DSLR, and a good set of lenses, but he carries a small point & shoot digital in his shirt pocket, and uses it all the time. His web pages are covered with photos of all his friends and the bands they play in, and almost all of the photos were taken with his little P & S. So, there is a lot to be said for carrying something in ones shirt pocket all the time. For one thing, whenever I leave my car, I have to put my camers in the trunk to keep it from being stolen. This alone, makes it a PIA to carry with me all the time.

I carry a Nikon P7000 in my backpack all the time and only take my D300 when I'm intending to take photos. I don't take photos of people unless they ask me.

You're quite wrong with regard to OE. It's always possible if you have it configured correctly and even in its default configuration it's possible to know who the OP is. I'm not the OP.

Generally, I agree, but my friend is in a few bands, and he takes pictures of his fellow band members while they are playing gigs, and then posts them on the band sites together with their names and what instruments they play. In general, musicians are exhibitionists, and they never object....:^)

-- Rich

Get a cell phone with a camera. In the above case, if you snap a photo, it has a chance of making it to the police. Or at least the in-box of a friend. So they'll know what happened when the prowlers turned violent and killed you to get your camera.

If you are going to be snapping photos of prowlers at night, I'd suggest something with a flash. Personally, I prefer the muzzle flash of a nice .357 magnum.