Compact digital cameras?

I want to buy my Mrs a digital camera for her birthday...
So what's the best value compact abround, for £200ish?

It would be nice to have plenty pixels, good low-light performance and an ability to take pictures very quickly, i.e. minimal lag while it thinks on't...

The Sony P200 looked good value, with Zeiss lens but any other recommendations would be grand..

 

The Fuji Finepix F10 is a pretty good digital camera. Only thing that may put you(r wife) off, it that it doesn't have a viewfinder, but does have a lovely big 2.5" screen. Do a google for spec. It is available for less than £200 now. A spare rechargeable battery from ebay cost me £8 from a reliable company. It has a good macro facility, handy for ebay, etc. I like it.

I forgot to mention that it's low light capabilities are second to none for the price. I have no idea how shutter lag compares to other digi cameras, as this is the first one I have owned.

Two good reviews;

Digital Photography Review
Digital Camera Info

Good luck hunting!

 

Ive just bought me a new canon s80 - £300 squid from www.mydv.co.uk.

 

As always I'd say stick with Canon or Nikon. The Canon SD400 or more expensive SD500 are probably worth a look. They're both very fast for a compact digicam, especially the SD500.

I wouldn't get hung up on "plenty of pixels". 4mp is more than enough for excellent results up to A4 size prints and nearly all cameras have at least 4mp these days so it's not really a consideration. Also, the more MP you have the bigger memory card you need and the more space the pictures will use up on your PCs hard drive.

Michael.

 

Oh aye, and get a decent memory card. I got a 1gb Fuji xd card from ebay (delivered from the uk) for just over £50. That's well over 500 full resolution piccys! You would be hard pushed to run out of space.

 

I bought my parents a Nikon Coolpix 5200 last xmas. Been used quite a bit and haven't any problems with it. The range seems to have been updated so you should be able to pick one up for a good price. Or assuming the reviews are accurate, the newer ones seem good too.

Good simple point and shoot, or easy to use menus to learn the features and tweak its performance. Video MOdes, small, but not too small, and (if you disable the welcome screen) it'll start up in 2-3 seconds.

I'd pop into a store and have a play. See what feels best to you.

Also, as always, shop about. I saved quite a bit buying from amazon. A quick look comparing their prices to jessops for the newer nikons show big price differences with each beating each other on different products, sometimes buy quite a bit too.

 

Apparently (at least locally) Jessops will at least approach, if not match some of the internet prices. This would be handy for you if they do, as you could try before you buy and have your conscience clear (if that kind of thing bothers you).

 

Canon Ixus.

 

i'm having a lot of joy with my olympus mu mini. it's weather proof, 5mp, small and stylish - a bit over your budget but not by much.
pics are decent quality too.

 

As Michealab says, Canon or Nikon.

 

I've narrowed it down to either a Fuji F810 (cos it's supposed to have very good low light performance), or the Canon Powershot A620 (cos it's reduced by £100!) - though I may think about the Canon Ixus 55 wot with it being tiny..
But the problem is, should I buy a cheap SD 512MB card at £30ish, or the "proper" one at £200? Do the cheapies work OK? £200 seems rather a lot for an SD card!
And is it worth shelling out for a spare battery - how long do they last?
The only experience I've got with camera batteries is the little fellas in my Olympus OM10 which last about 3 years!

 

I have always been happy with my Fuji cameras but Canons may have better battery life as I think they use CMOS CCDs.

 

Hi Leonard

Battery - These are digital cameras, if you are taking lots of shots, especially with flash, the battery may run out when you least expect it. At least they are rechargeable. As I mentioned earlier, I got a good compatible battery for my Fuji F10 from a good ebay seller for less than £10 incl postage. So I always have a fully-charged spare in my camera bag.

I also bought a legit Fuji 1gb xd card from a UK ebay seller for around £60 incl postage. Don't give anybody £200 for a 512mb card.

The F10 is a great low light camera. Although, as you might imagine, pictures taken at 1600ASA will not compare with 100ASA, it's a handy facility. The 800ASA has given some good results.

 

A spare battery is worth it I'd say. I've not got round to getting one for my folks yet, but have been caught at least twice I can remember when I wish I'd had enough for a few MOre shots. You'll find yourself taking a lot MOre pics with digital knowing you can just delete them. Incidently, this can also be a bad thing as people tend to put less thought into each shot.

The Nikon I mentioned before has a small built in meMOry (12MB).

I think I payed £50 for a jessops own 512MB card. I've not had any problems with it. £200 sounds crazy

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FANTASTIC-OLY...560369126QQcategoryZ30019QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Not a current model anymore, must be old stock, but had v good reviews....

This seller has a few of these, have been going for £170-£200. Worth a look maybe....

 

The main reason I bought a spare battery was when I was round at our friends' house on the occasion on their son's 1st birthday. Guess who got one shot off before the battery packed in...

 

Memory. How do you cope when you're away for any length of time? If you take shots in RAW or TIFF even a 1gb card becomes full quickly. Is there some sort of portable photoalbum or am I stuck with buying loads of (expensive) memory?

 

Unless you're in the middle of nowhere, you should be able to find a photo developing shop that will transfer your images to cd. If they are important, you could burn a couple of cds and mail one home. My 1gb card takes 500-odd full resolution images (6mp).

 

Quite often I am in the middle of nowhere and I reckon on 72 shots to a 1gb card, each picture being roughly 14mb.

 

Ha-ha! The answer is clear. GET MORE DATA CARDS. Unless you have a laptop with you...