For years, Mrs Credit Card and myself used a small digital camera that was kind of “pocket size”. It was digital, but frankly speaking, I preferred the old analog cameras. For one, it took better pictures and there was any shutter delays. Most of the “less expensive” (up to $400) digital cameras had such slow shutter speeds that we could never use them for our kids soccer games. Mrs Credit Card gets so pissed when we are taking family photos because the kids will simply not keep still for even a few seconds.

So, finally, I decided to get a proper Digital SLR Camera. What really ticks me off is that an old style analog SLR probably cost about only $150! Yet, for a decent digital camera (which means SLR) that has quick shutter speeds, we probably had to spend at least $600.

Membership Rewards Digital SLR Choice

The first place where I turned to was the Membership Rewards catalog and website since I have both the Platinum Card. They had 68 digital camera offerings and lots of digital SLR cameras. The only issue I have with them is that they do not list all their exact models. To give them credit, they do list all the relevant features. Below are the list of digital SLR cameras available from Membership Rewards.

Sony Cybershot Still Camera 8.1MP, Karl Zeiss 15X Optical Zoom Lens and 2GB Memory Stick – 73,000 Pts	Canon 8.0 MP Digital Camera with 12X Zoon Optical Lens with 2GB SD Memory Card – 74,000 Pts	Canon 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 6X Zoon Optical Lens with 2GB SD Memory Card – 77,900 Pts
Nikon Digital SLR Camera with zoom Nikkor 18-55mm lens and 1GB Memory Stick – 95,000 Pts	Sony Cybershot 8.1MP with Karl Zeiss 15X Optical Zoom Lens and 2GB Memory Stick – 85,500 Pts	Nikon 10.2 Digital SLR Camera with zoom Nikkor 18-55mm lens and 1GB Memory Stick – 120,000 Pts
Sony Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera Kit – 139,000 Pts	Pentex K10D Digital SLR with Lens Kit – 145,000 Pts	Sony Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera with 2GB memory stick pro duo media – 189,000 Pts
Canon 8.2MP Digital SLR with EF-S 18-55mm Lens and 2GB Professional series compactflash card – 225,000 Pts	Sony Digital 12.2MP Single Lens Reflex Camera with Sal 1870 zoom lens – 247,000 Pts	Canon 10.1MP Digital SLR camera with 4GB CF memory card – 248,800 Pts
Sony Digital 12.2MP Single Lens Reflex Camera with 16-105mm kit – 315,000 Pts	Canon Digital 12.8MP SLR Camera with 2GB high speed CF memory card – 247,000 Pts

Citi ThankYou Network

Though I did not have enough Citi ThankYou points, I still decided to check out their offerings. In total, the ThankYou Network has 18 digital camera offerings. Unlike the Membership Rewards program, ThankYou actually gives you the exact camera model. The three digital SLRs that they had were :

Canon EOS Rebel XT 8.0MP Digital SLR Kit – 113,100 Pts	Canon EOS Rebel XTi 10.2MP Digital SLR Kit – 117,500 Pts	Nikon D80 10.2MP Digital SLR Kit – 167,300 Pts

Bank of America

I next searched the Bank of America Worldpoints website. Under the merchandise section, Worldpoints had a total of 22 cameras, of which I could find 3 digital SLR cameras (listed below).

Canon Powershot S5 IS Digital Camera – 79,600 Pts	Olympus Evolt E-410 Digital Camera – 117,000 Pts	Canon EOS Rebel XT Camera – 129,000 Points

What did I buy and where did I buy it?

After much research, I decided to head to Best Buy and actually touch and feel the cameras. I ended buying from Best Buy because I really wanted the camera in a hurry! I got the Canon EOS Rebel XT with 6.0 MP (which is not available from any of the catalogs!).

Which catalog has the best digital SLR camera offerings?

In my opinion, the American Express membership rewards program has the most selection of merchandises and in the camera section, it simply blew away other reward programs in terms of sheer number of offerings. It also had more high end offerings than both the worldpoints and thankyou network programs. If you are looking for a reward card, then I would definitely suggest getting an American Express reward card.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 06:01 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.