Little help here please folks: digital camera around £150?

I need to find a digital camera in the region of £150 as a gift. I know there are some camera enthusiasts around here - could anyone be kind enough to recommend something at least useable at that sort of money?

I'm aware that the megapixel rating can, to all intents and purposes, safely be ignored (budget optics giving rise to noise, etc.) but otherwise I'm pretty much at sea. Basically within the constraints of the budget it's got to be as good at taking pictures as possible - other features aren't really so important.

 

For £150 make sure you're getting a proper CCD rather than a CMOS one, CMOS ones tend to be found in cheaper none traditional camera makes such as Genius. Any respectable japaneese camera should have a proper CCD.

Make sure it has optical zoom (ignore digital zoom as this is just a useless gimick in my opinion)

There is a good site on the internet called Steve's Digicams, type in google and have a look at that. The site features sample photos of each of the test cameras so it gives you a very good idea what you're buying.

 

Well, you're right about megapixel rating but you don't really want to go below 3mp if you want to be able to make quality A4 sized prints.

New, and even second hand, you're going to be looking at a compact point-and-shoot camera rather than a more advanced non-SLR or digital SLR camera. I would stick with companies known for cameras rather than ones known for electronics. IMO stick to Nikon, Canon, Olympus and Minolta.

A quick search on the Jessops site unearthed the following:

http://www.jessops.com/search/viewp...0&SHOWCASEID=&STARTROW=1&SUBS=&WORD_SEARCH=N&

http://www.jessops.com/search/viewp...0&SHOWCASEID=&STARTROW=1&SUBS=&WORD_SEARCH=N&

http://www.jessops.com/search/viewp...0&SHOWCASEID=&STARTROW=1&SUBS=&WORD_SEARCH=N&

http://www.jessops.com/search/viewp...0&SHOWCASEID=&STARTROW=1&SUBS=&WORD_SEARCH=N&

Which are all good cameras with 3mp or more and all less than £150 new (at Jessops).

Michael.

 

AT - some of the best digital SLRs there are (mainly from Canon) use CMOS sensors. It doesn't matter if a camera has digital zoom (most of the cheaper ones do) but you can ignore that feature. What's important is the amount of optical zoom.

Steve's Digicams is OK but the best digi camera site by far is DP Review. Ignore the forums though. Mainly flame wars between fanboys of different brands .

Michael.

 

Don't CMOS censors create a grainy image though? Or is that just at the lower end of the market? Thats what I mean't about digital zoom just to ingore it, rather than ignore a camera with that feature.

 

I've used and been rather impressed by canon's A300 3mp model. No faff, just good, honest fixed-lens and 3mp sensor. I used to own a similar 2MP nikon (Coolpix 700) that was also very good.

Otherwise, michael is pretty much there. My personal preference is for canon. Nikon are good, but a lot of the coolpix are now made by sanyo and aren't quite up to the traditional nikon standards for quality (they certainly wouldn't have stopped Don McCullin's AK47 round!). MinoltaKonica are worth looking at, with a strong loyal following. Olympus make good products but their current financial situation would make me wary of buying something unless I was sure I could get it serviced in future no matter what. Avoid Fuji and Kodak, they don't know what they're doing. Sony know what they're doing with sensors (Nikon use sony sensors in their DSLRs and most of the coolpix, all the 8mp p&s cameras on the market use the same sony sensor), and they have good optics made for them, but the cameras are limited by use of memory stick storage. Go for something with Compact Flash as it is the most widely available, cheapest and fastest form of digicam media.

 

You tell me:



100% crop with no sharpening.

 

you could do a lot worse than one of the Canon A series cameras - the A70 and A75 can be had for under £130 if you shop around. Theres also the Pentax Optio S40 - pretty highly regarded by Photography monthly magazine - available for well under £150 (at 7dayshop, amazon etc). Or maybe this http://www.camerasdirect.co.uk/desc.asp?id=3290.

Pricerunner is the place to look when you've decided on exactly what you want.

 

AT, one of the impressive things about Canon's CMOS sensors is their lack of noise (grain) compared to similarly speced CCD sensors.

Michael.

 

Don't ignore Kyocera (formerly Yashica, also make Contax). renowned for superb optics.

:boogie: :boogie:

 

Thanks everyone, that's definitely given me plenty to go on.

Isaac, I've seen that picture of yours before, but it's still absolutely stunning.

 

Try
www.morgancomputers.co.uk
for end of ranges and clearances. I got a Konica KD-400Z for just over £100, brand new about 6 months ago. I think its great.

Bob

 

I bought my Fuji 210 for £80 from there, it has 3 megapixels and 3x optical zoom. Its not the best camera in the world but for the money I can't fault it in anyway way.

 

Buying a digital camera has never been harder but these few simple rules may help to ease your task.

 

Avoid Fuji? I'm waiting until after christmas to get my camera but was looking towards Fuji as they seem to get good write ups and they seem to have a good Macro capabilities.
Have I been misled?

 

I own a Fujifilm Digicam (2600zoom) and have had it for 2 or 3 years now. I am neither a photographer, photography enthusiast or an expert in this field. Based on Isaac's comments though, I would like to stick up a little for my chosen camera brand. It is small, neat, easy to use, takes reasonable point 'n'shoot piccys. I think it a little unfair to say that they (Fuji) don't know what they are doing, they have been involved in the design and manufacture of Photography equipment for many, many years and their R&D (and Marketing department) have probably ditched more information about photography than Isaac will ever know in his lifetime.

I'm not suggesting they are they best out there by any means, just that in the point 'n' shoot department they could hold their own with any of the premium camera brands , without having to pay a premium for the badge. T
To this end I think that you should include Fuji cameras on your shrtlist, if only to discount them when you get to the shop.

edit:
(whoops ! nearly forgot the friendly and the )

 

Having used several fuji digital cameras, I disagree. The image quality their "SuperCCD" sensors give is poor and the camera interface is unintuitive. Fuji make great film, but their cameras have always left me decidedly unimpressed.

On that basis, I think it is fair to say that they don't know what they're doing when compared to someone like Nikon or Canon, who between them have the vast majority of the professional digital camera market sewn up. This spills down to consumer models.

 

i'd be inclined to disagree with the Fuji bashing going on.
I don't own a fuji (so have no brand loyalty or anything like that) but i know a fair few people - both amateur and professional - who do. At a consumer level, cameras like the Fujifilm FinePix E550, F810, S7000 and to a lesser extent the S500 are all good perfomers. At a pro level their S2 Pro is great - I know 2 people who use them professionaly, one a PR photographer the other a studio/portrait photographer and both are more than happy with them. Yes, canon (and to a lesser extent nikon) have the vast majority of the professional users on their side but that doesn't mean the less popular makes should be overlooked. Fuji, Olympus, Nikon and Canon are all on the list for my next dSLR.

All of the major manufacturers know what they are doing in this field - and all have something to offer. Its just a case of finding what's right for your needs.

 

Isaac, I think calling the image quality of Fuji SuperCCD "poor" is a bit harsh. I don't like the fact that the output resolution is double the sensor resolution (ie a 3mp sensor gives a 6mp image), especially the way that Fuji liked to claim that their 3mp SuperCCD cameras were 6mp cameras. Yes, there's interpolation to get that doubled image size but it's not as bad as one might think. All CCDs (except Foveon's X3 system) require interpolation of one kind or another to get a colour image.

The results I've seen from the S2 Pro are as good as anything I've seen from Canon or Nikon.

Michael.

 

I've not used the S2, but certainly the output of the 6mp fuji we have at work (601 I think) is far behind even the 2MP nikon I had. The same has been true of other fujis I've used or seen output from. If image quality is not the overriding priority then fine, but for me it is.