Advice On What Camera To Buy

[Rea]

I need help on choosing a camera from you fair people please

Something for around £100?

At a gig ealrier this year I couldnt take photos because the flash was usless, the action mode was rubbish and the night time mode needed a tripod. But the lad next to us took photos that made it look like he was in his living room with eveyone posing for him! I was so jealous but by the time I thought of asking him about his camera, he'd gone. It was just a small, hand held thing like a cannon or kodak.

So, any ideas? :1b

[Cait]

Have a look on the fuji website. We have three of their reconditioned ones which we set to sports mode and the pictures are fab. The three cameras were under £100. I'd go for one with lithium batteries though, the ones we had previously were AA batteries and they alwayse seemed to be flat!

[narnia]

Definately go for Lithium batteries, my husband and daughter, who are very keen photographers, swear by them.

[apple]

unless you have a high res camera that can shoot in low light conditions using a small compact digital flash indoors is next to useless as the distance from the flash to the subject is often to far to have any affect. For a £100 I don't think you would find something with the right spec to do the job you are after. If you are wanting a camera to do shooting indoors (particularly for gigs you should pop into a local camera shop such as Jessops and ask their advice,)

[Rea]

It doesnt necessarily have to be for gigs, nor £100, but ours is pretty old and I just know there must be something better available. We're going away on Saturday and I thought it would be nice to have a new toy, although to be honest the old one isnt quite that bad for holiday snaps.

I wont be able to get to anywhere specialist just Comet or Curry's.

Thanks everyone, I'll go and see whats out there :1b :1b

[SueFinanceManager]

We have cannon sureshots in our house and have always found them pretty good with a range of settings

[Rea]

Thanks Sue, the guy sitting near us had a Canon, I'll take a look :1b

[Susan]

I love my panasonic.

Enjoy your holiday.

[Rea]

I shall enjoy the holiday come what may Susan, thank you :1b

No time to look for a camera now though, life has got in the way! :huh:

[Cait]

there's always duty free if your holiday involves air travel!

[Guest]

I was in Tesco the other day and saw a nice compact camera with a 15x optical zoom for £99. Looking on their website I cannot see it on there but they do have a nice Olympus for £112 with 10x optical zoom.

 

http://www.tesco.com...-1955=

 

My advice for anyone looking to buy a camera would be to get the most optical zoom and the biggest sensor possible for your money. When you see other people getting great shots it's normally because their camera can zoom in on the subject. Typically, compacts will have about 3-5x optical zoom, although they are starting to get more. I have seen a 20x compact, but it was quite expensive.

 

Also, get a class 10 memory card. These are cheap on play.com (32gb is £14.79). Class 10 a fast memory card and will allow your camera to record the picture quickly so that it is ready to take another picture sooner. This is great for camera's that feature burst modes. It also loads them quicker when you are reviewing them and will transfer them quicker to your computer.

 

If you can stretch your budget to a super zoom then any of the Panasonic FZ cameras are good, and they use lenses manufactured by Leica, who make some of the best cameras that cost well into the thousands of £, so the panasonics represent good value and quality. The current models (FZ48 and FZ150) are still quite expensive but older models are quite reasonable online and on ebay. The models to Look for are the FZ18, FZ28, FZ38, FZ45 and FZ100. Attached is an example of what the older FZ18 can do at only 8 megapixels.

 

camerworld.co.uk also sell a lot of manufacturer refurbished cameras with full warranties and have some quite good deals. They also sell used equipment. They had some good deals on SLR's recently.