Digital cameras

I think I'm going to finally make the step of buying myself a digital camera over Easter, so was wondering if anyone knew of any good offers right now, or had any general advice? I'm not looking for anything really flash; something up to about £150 I reckon. That should get me something reasonably competant shouldn't it?

Cheers for any help,

Martin

 

I'm not aware of all that many offers about at the moment, but £150 will get you a Canon PowerShot A85, which is an absolutely cracking camera for the cash - if you're looking into it or a similar one in the range, I'll happily contribute with any information I can.



Having got my grandparents set up with a computer, they decided they now needed a digital camera, despite the fact that they want to print every little happy snap they take... I obliged none the less and tried to point them in right direction. Unfortunately they trusted spotty Jessops salesmen more than me, so they ended up buying the first Olympus camera shoved under their nose. Not sure of the model number off hand, but it was about twice the price of the A85 and takes the most abysmal pictures imaginable - I'm just glad their eyesight is too poor to realise!

 

Cheers for your thoughts Mark. Trusting spotty Jessops salesmen is what I'm trying to avoid...

 

Darn... I have a lovely cam for sale...

Seriously, can do a lot worse than the A85. You might be able to get a deal because the replacement, the A520, has just been released.

 

Be sure to be patient in shopping around for the best price. I got my folks a Nikon Coolpix 5200 for christmas. The difference in price between ordering from amazon and argos for example was over £100 in favour of amazon!

 

Bit pricey for me at the moment I'm afraid . I want some cash for a better CD transport in the not too distant future for instance.

Thanks for the tip.

MO! - Some price hunting will certainly be done!

 

Nikon Coolpix 4100 did it for me. Great snaps, no redeye problems, NIMH 2000mAH batteries supplied, happy on el cheapo SD cards. Can't lose basically. £150 at Dixons or Comet

 

I like the Coolpix as well. In fact it's the only reason I haven't yet bought the D70. I figured the Coolpix is more useful because I can pocket it easily. You need a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge pocket for a D70.

 

A mate picked up a Coolpix 4100 recently. Can only echo what others say - great camera, easy to use as well. I've got an older Coolpix 2000 - I've had it for a couple of years, shot about 3000 pics with it and it's still going strong.

 

I had a coolpix 700 that was fantastic.

However, the current line of coolpixes (until you get to the more expensive models) are designed and built by sanyo as an OEM for nikon. These are generally the more "blobby" ones (the coolpix 775 was the first one, then things like the 3000, 4300, etc) which don't have nikon's normal rubber coatings. They're still decent cameras, but apparently there have been a few issues with them.

However, you should easily be able to get something decent from canon, nikon, olympus, etc for your cash. Give them a try in a shop (doesn't mean you have to buy at their inflated prices) and see which suits you best in use.

 

I have a fuji finepix, and imo its better than the canon I had b4.

 

ditto - but it's been my only camera a finepix a201, I've taken about 7000 pictures and its great...but I'm looking to upgrade soon, but for a beginner, they're spot on...

 

Don't get Isaac started on Fuji Super-CCDs

Michael.

 

The ultimate sensor would have the dynamic range of the Fuji super-CCD SR, the colour filter properties of the Foveon X3 with the low-noise, high-ISO performance and low power consumption of the Canon CMOS.

 

Cheers for all the comments guys; I didn't get near a computer yesterday to reply. I'd been wondering about the Coolpix ones as I'd seen positive comments about them before. One thing I had wondered about them was whether they were expensive in terms of battery useage, since some of them use camera size batteries rather than say the AA's the Canon uses? The trade off being size of camera presumably.

I guess the question I really ought to be asking is what's worth spending? Probably no sensible answers of course but I ought to try! I mean presumably there are prices where an extra few pounds buys a worthwhile improvement? I've assumed for instance that cameras costing <£100 really aren't much good for instance (and based on the few sample images I've seen)?

I will of course be getting myself along to a camera shop to do some investigating...

Cheers Isaac. Would the Coolpix 4100 be one of these too? (I'm assuming so). Picking up one of these for say £120 is tempting, leaving a bit of cash for a larger memory card I presumably need (~512MB?).

 

I've got a Canon A80. The foldback LCD is great for protecting the screen you can also turn it round and preview a self portrait (should you want to ) also the battery life is excellent although it's maybe not the most pocket sized camera.

 

Yes, the 4100 is. It's not a huge problem, they're still good cameras (Nikon wouldn't tarnish their rep with rubbish), and worth investigating.

Cards are cheap and always getting cheaper. If I get the 20D then I'll be getting a 2GB card with it, which is about a minimum for that cam. 256 or 512 should be fine for a P&S in jpeg mode.

 

just to let you know that I've just bought a canon g5 from fleabay -
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7517294759

it's new and from Canon, some good reviews here -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...19830/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_3_2/202-8609543-5728645

and -
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_g5.asp


bit of an impulse buy really...but...!

 

Excellent choice sir! The G5 is a real step up on the A series and 4100 and so on. Larger sensor (lower noise), more control (next stop, DSLR), good lens, external flash hotshoe, etc... Plenty of "growing room" with it so you shouldn't feel that the camera is letting you down.

 

And now you can have it.

<drum roll>

The Fuji Finepix F10



Read all about it here

Dpreview is a great site for camera reviews. They are very thorough.

The F10 is a point and shoot, but a good one, and costs about £220.

I have a 5 year old Fuji which I'm thinking of replacing. I'm hoping that the F10 is gonna be followed by an updated model similar to the current F810 (i.e. with more accessible manual features and more modes).