Which camera to buy?

[Eljohno]

Ok i am looking to buy a new digital camera and am wanting to spend no more than £130.

I went to Currys and this is what the sales guy said i should buy;

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0121783312.1212096512@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccdadeefdhedkgcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=169731&category_oid=-33706

If anyone knows much about Digital cameras maybe you can let me know if this is the best phone for that price...

There was another camera which was Samsung which i asked about but the guy said he would not buy it as Samsung makes poor cameras.

[aposhark]

Ok i am looking to buy a new digital camera and am wanting to spend no more than £130.

I went to Currys and this is what the sales guy said i should buy;

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0121783312.1212096512@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccdadeefdhedkgcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=169731&category_oid=-33706

If anyone knows much about Digital cameras maybe you can let me know if this is the best phone for that price...

There was another camera which was Samsung which i asked about but the guy said he would not buy it as Samsung makes poor cameras.

Sorry just a bit more expensive but I recommend: http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0121783312.1212096512@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccdadeefdhedkgcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=10&sm=0&tm=0&sku=124558&category_oid=#productInformationSection

I bought it because of the high ISO settings enabling you to take pics in low light without flash, and hence no red-eye. It takes nice movies too, but if you will snap away all day be sure to buy an extra battery. I got caught out at Sinulog in Cebu City because of this :rolleyes:

[Piamed]

I have this one http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0121783312.1212096512@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccdadeefdhedkgcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=10&sm=0&tm=0&sku=284559&category_oid= but have had other Canon Ixus Cameras of various prices and highly recommend them Video recording quality is fantastic, Pics are amazing with great optical zoom and red eye settings.

I would highly recommend one.

[LEAHnew]

Hi there.. we're in photography business here in Phil, it's been a long time we're using CANON brand as well as Nikon which make our photos very nice even without the help of Adobe Photoshop (Photo editor) the image still ok...but that will depend from the camera's features.:xxgrinning--00xx3:
I find this link for you hope it helps:xxgrinning--00xx3:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/stats.asp

and upon searching the link you got from curry's I found good price of CANON POWERSHOT offer:xxgrinning--00xx3:

[Sangoma]

It is difficult to suggest a camera without knowing your needs.

Is size and weight important?
What batteries do you want to use? (AA can be found anywhere)
Do you need a good optical zoom?
How much low light photography will you do?
Do you want to use it for video clips?
Do you want an optical viewfinder (LCD screen can be hard to see in bright sun)
Is it mainly for holiday use (don't want to "flash the cash") or home use
Can you use editing software, or can you learn? (It is often better to get a solid image on the camera, then correct on the PC, than get a reasonable but uncorrectable image on the camera)

For general snaps, I would suggest

It must take AA batteries
It should use SD memeroy cards (buy lots of 1GB cards, change them every couple of days, and don't keep the used ones with you or your camera)
It should have at least a 4X optical zoom, preferably 6X
It should be a compact type, ie fairly small
It is very useful to have optical image stablisation
Read online reviews, not from the shopping sites, but camera mags etc
It should have a good battery life


From a previous comment, red eye takes seconds to remove, but increasing the ASA rating introduces noise (speccles/grainyness) which is hard to remove.

If you are in a hurry, go for a Canon, the PS SP850 has just about all you could want in that price range, or the PS A560 or A460/470

For ease of use, picture quality and battery life, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ5 or DMC-LZ3 is hard to beat (the LZ3 has no sound on video)

If you want something cheap and cheerful, that does a surprisingly good job, then the Vivitar Vivicam 8400 has a lot of useful features, like an optical viewfinder with dioptre corection, 3X optical zoom, and can be found for £50. But it eats batteries, and isn't that good in low light without the flash.

I would keep clear of Vivitar normally, and HP, Kodak, Casio, Samsung, strange Chinese makes and I wouldn't use Sony, as they use their own memory card.

Look on places like Amazon and ebuyer, often you can get the Canons at a very good price if the model has been discontinued.

[chino]

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/887987/art/sony/cyber-shot-dsc-w130-silve.html

Good camera... i moved from minolta to Sony last year and have to say they are very good!

I have the w90 but the above camera is in your price range and it has a good spec plus remember cash back via quidco :D

[KeithD]

If you go to Currys enjoy getting screwed for an extra 30%. Best digital make is Canon, then Fuji, Sony.....the like of Kodak are down the list.

http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/

[Sangoma]

I just took the same shot with different cameras, once without flash and once with flash.

The light was fairly low, shutter speed of 1/5sec at f2.8 and 100ASA.

This shows a couple of things, firstly that a high megapixel count doesn't mean better pictures. Pisctures printed on A4 from the 2megapixel Canon A60 are better than the same pictures taken on a Pentax or Nikon 35mm camera.

The Olympus E-510 looks the best, and the Vivitar 8400 looks the worst.(to be expected)
But the old Canon A60 is just about as good as the Panasonics.

Out of the Panasonics, I prefer the results of the LZ3, although it is the lower spec of the three.

The flash photos will show the cameras ability best, the ones without flash show my inability to hold the camera still, it should be on a tripod at those speeds.

The Panasonics come out slightly better without the flash as they all have optical stabilisation.

The Olympus isn't zoomed in as much, so the plant is slightly smaller, I wouold have hed to change lenses to get the same zoom, and keep the same distance.

The camera that was suggested by the shop will do a good job, but as far as I remember, it takes its own special battery. That means buying a couple of spare batteries if you are going to be away from 220V for any time.

To see what picture was taken by what camera, you need to click "more details" on the right to see the file name.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lyndale/Camtest?authkey=ZQjJtpNs2hw


All this really shows, is that you need to take some time and do lots of research to get the right one for you:)

[Sangoma]

If you are in a hurry, you may not do better than this one.


http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141071

[Eljohno]

Thanks guys for all your help you have given me much food for thought!!

[allington]

The reviews on this site might help

http://www.ephotozine.com/

[PAT]

this site has user and expert reveiws
http://www.testfreaks.co.uk/digital-cameras/

[Eljohno]

Ok just back from the City and decided to stick to my budget and go for the Panasonic but i am sure this thread will be visited again as most now have or will have a digital camera...

[Sangoma]

Ok just back from the City and decided to stick to my budget and go for the Panasonic but i am sure this thread will be visited again as most now have or will have a digital camera...


I'm sure you will be happy with it.

Spare batteries are on ebay

[danielstallon]

this site has user and expert reveiws
http://alatest.com/reviews/digital-compact-camera-reviews/c3-147/