Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[tickmike]

What Digital camera do you recommend ?, Up to about £75  not DSLR
Why.
Price.
Size.
Etc.

[UncleUB]

Hi Mike,the main thing is what kind of photo's will you be taking with it,and how much you want to spend.There are some cracking bargains out there at present.
I have a Panasonic Lumix 6mp which I have been very pleased with.Other good brands are Canon,Casio,Sony,Nikon.
If you want a DSLR camera then you are getting into serious photography with prices to match.
This Canon Powershot (which I have given you a link to) would be a good entry level camera,8mp and image stabilisation(which in layman terms means that if your hand shakes while taking a photo the camera corrects this so your shot is not blurred).It also has a viewfinder as well as an LCD screen,which is handy because if you are shooting in bright sunlight so have difficulty seeing the screen so you can look through the viewfinder instead.
This camera takes SD cards which are the cheapest kind on the market,cheap as chips at the moment.
I think for £99.99 this represents excellent value for a first camera.

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.aspx?sku=1024472

[tuftedduck]

Morning tickmike and unkyUb.

Tickmike, as unkyUb has said, there is such a huge variety of cameras on the market from cheapo point-and-shoots to expensive and complex dslrs and "bridge" ones that it is difficult to make any sort of recommendation without a wee bitty further information from yourself.

How experienced a photographer are you, do you want a camera that will do everything for you, or do you want to control all aspects of the process, or something in between.

What is your budget

What do you want to do with the resulting pics, this has a strong bearing on the amount of megapixels you should buy.
If you are going to put the pics on websites for all the family to see, you dont need a huge dollop of Mgps, three would be adequate............if you are going to print the pics either at home or at the likes of Boots, what size of prints. If you only want say 6x4, then three Mgps is enough............if you want A4, then go for 6Mgps or more. 

An important consideration is the size of your hands, very small or very large cameras can be uncomfortable or cumbersome.............go to the shop and try a few for size, checking that you can get easily to all the buttons and controls.

UnkyUb has made mention of some camera makers and brands, and none of these will disappoint...........the Canon that he has linked to is a very nice little machine and is indeed a great "starter" model, not too expensive and fairly comfy in the hand.................and his point about having a viewfinder as well as the LCD screen is very important, a viewfinder is better in all respects than trying to compose/snap using only the screen.

Let us have a litlle more idea of your needs, and we will roll some more direct options around.

[scottiesmum]

I've found this site extremely good for reviews and advice  ....  it may help  ..hope so ! 

http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html

[tickmike]

Thanks for replies and advice .

We bought a £25 Vivitar 3MP Camera last Xmas for our daughter and it's cr@p, so we are going to replace that with something better (Camera this xmas laptop for next xmas ).
She will be using to make prints off (Maybe upto A4 ), PowerPoint presentations for school / uni. and reports etc.
So if we can get a 8MP for up to £75 ?.
There are that many to choose from  .
I would like to see one working (or a good recommendation  )and the finished results, it might be a idea to go to a photographic shop and try some, get the details of the ones we like and then shop around.

[UncleUB]

Mike,this Samsung one has 8mp and plenty of other nice features.Its £49.99 inc del from Play.com.You can always go into your local photographic shop,try one out to your liking then price it up via the web.

http://tinyurl.com/56bkru


Edit,Argos have some decent deals on at the moment in your price range.
They have a Canon powershot 7.1mp for £59.99 and it has a viewfinder which the Samsung one hasn't.


http://tinyurl.com/5pv4x2

[tickmike]

Thanks Phil.

The Canon powershot 7.1mp for £59.99 looks interesting, I think it will be more useful with that viewfinder.

Has anyone got / used one of these ?.

[UncleUB]

Hi Mike,I have not personally used one,I have a Panasonic without a viewfinder and find the LCD screen really hard to see in bright sunlight.
The one thing to remember is the batteries,they won't last long,so it would be worth investing in  rechargable ones.
I find this site very good for memory cards and batteries etc.


www.picstop.co.uk

Edit,here is an in depth review of the Canon Powershot A550(exactly the same as the A560 excet the LCD is 2",where as the A560 is 2.5" )

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_a550-review/

Also here.

http://www.cameras.co.uk/camera-reviews/canon-powershot-a560.cfm

[sevenlayermuddle]

We recently invested in our second digital camera after the first one broke.  That forced us to think thorugh our likes and dislikes...

1) Completely ignore the 'digital zoom' figures.  It's completely irrelevant as it's little fifferent from 'zooming in' when you come to print or view the photos.

2) We liked SD card.

3) I was tempted by some cameras (including relatively budget camers) that offered WiFi access as that could simplify the process of transfer to hard disc.  In the end I didn't buy such a camera, and I'm not how fast it would have been given typical WiFi transfer rates, but I was tempted....

4) Some have the option of using standard AA batteries if you're rechargable runs run dry unexpectedly.  Conversely, those that use AA batteries are often bulkier.

5) Few compacts have an optical viewfinder, these days.  In truth you'll hardly miss it, and the LCD screen is much more accurate.  However, the LCDs can be hard to see in bright mediterranean sunshine, so an optical viewfinder is a wothwhile bonus if the camera you fancy happens to have one.

6) Size is everything.  If the camera is small enough, you'll be much more likely to slip it in a pocket at all times when on holiday.  So when the mermaid unexpectedly crawls out of the sea and onto the rocks right in front of your sunbed you'll be ready.

7) Our frist one broke after 3 years, and we do treat things gently.  You probably have to accept that. no matter what 'warranties' may be offered, the manufacturers probably don't expect people to expect anything better these days.

[scottiesmum]

Unc  have you thought about an anti-glare protection for your Panasonic .... 

you may find your model here and it MIGHT be useful  ..

http://www.boxwave.com/products/cleartouch/cleartouch-panasonic-digital-camera-screen-protector.htm

 8)

[roseway]

5) Few compacts have an optical viewfinder, these days.  In truth you'll hardly miss it, and the LCD screen is much more accurate.  However, the LCDs can be hard to see in bright mediterranean sunshine, so an optical viewfinder is a wothwhile bonus if the camera you fancy happens to have one.

Just one small comment on this: my camera (FujiFilm S5700) has a pseudo optical viewfinder - it looks like an optical viewfinder, but what you're actually seeing is a special LCD display. To my mind this is the best of both worlds - the accuracy of LCD with the easier handling of an optical viewfinder.

[tuftedduck]

The only thing that I would add about viewfinders as opposed to screen is that a viewfinder lets you hold the camera to your eye, braced against your face and with your elbows tucked into your sides, thus giving a decent chance of sharp pics.
Using the screen means holding the thing away from your eyes and, effectively, waving it around in the air.............wobbly pics to be had.

Also, of course, the likelyhood that in time the screen will get scuffed and scratched, covered in greasy fingermarks and general detritus all to the detriment of good composition.

It is well worth spending a bit more and getting a decent viewfinder, either optical or like roseway's electronic one

[sevenlayermuddle]

I'm interested to hear that others value the viewfinder more than I do.   One issue for me is that I'm short sighted so I need my glasses on to see the camera properly, but I find they tend to get in the way when I try and use them with the viewfinder.

It's possible, if I didn't wear glasses, I'd use the viewfinder a lot more.  It's also possible that wearing glasses will prove less of an annoyance for other people, depending ion shape of glasses, camera and nose, which is worth thinking about.

My last camera (before my first digital one) was a 'Zorki' Rangefinder of 1971 vintage, which was a kind of very cheap Leica replica imported from the USSR , as it was properly known at the time, and which I'd eagerly requested for my something-teenth birthday.  The Zorki had an adjuster on the viewfinder that allowed it to compensate for near or far sightedness so you could take your glasses off, but you don't see that feature on many (if any) cheap digitals, or do you?

[tuftedduck]

Dioptre correction, yes very handy but as you say I haven't seen it available on any of the bottom end compacts, and not so many of the higher end.

Quite honestly, I would avoid compacts unless you just want a point and shooter for the odd bit of fun. For anything more, I would go for a "bridge" with the ease of use of the compact ( if you want that ) and more of the options of the dslr especially now that the price defferences are beginning to blur.
I use dslrs, but they really not for pointing and shooting although can be used as such, of course.

A yes, the Zorki...........there were some great cameras from Russia, clones of top German marques but a fraction of the price and great fun to have an use as long as you were not too fussed about the results 
One of the 50mm lenses produced in the USSR for the Zenit slr was, apparently, produced specially for the KGB for the purposes of photographing documents a la James Bond style. That wee lens was pronounced at the time and after exhaustive testing held to be one of the "purest" and most optically exact ever made, before or since.

Here is TD's first camera...........which still produces lovely monochrome shots on 120 roll film.

[roseway]

Here's my first camera - a bit less sophisticated than yours TD