What Camera? For Around The 100 Mark, 120 Max!

[Luke_bradley]

Right, just brought a pentax optio 60 tonight for 120 quid from pc world. Set it up. It's a 6 mp camera with 3 times optical zoom and 5 digital. Basically it didn't come with a memory card but has internal 12 mb storage. I was obviously planning on getting an sd card. I was messing around with it as you do, took about 3 photo's, put them on my computer, did this once more, and well the batteries had gone. They are decent batteries, Duracel i think. I have now looked this camera up on the net and many people who have reviewed this say the battery life is appauling too

I'm going to take it back to pc world on Sunday and would like another camera soon. I am looking for a good make and what everyone wants really; the best you can get for your money. I've seen the quality of my 6mp camera and the 3 optical zoom and it seems good, i wouldn't really want anything less than the quality of mine. I heard from someone that the fuji finepix's can be better than camera's with higher number of mp's, is this true? My ideal camera is good quality pictures, doesn't have to be nothing too great and video's. This is why i think a Mini DV might be best for me, would have to save up then though

Can any of you people with experience with cameras recommend anything or give your opinion? Also if you recommend a camera you have could you post a pic you've taken with the camera? That'd be great

I think i may just buy what i've always wanted now; a mini DV, can they take still, whats the quality of stills and video like? If any of you know a decent one of those for around the 200 mark (or less) that'd also be great.

If any of you have a Mini DV you want to sell, tell me and if it's decent i might be up for it

Opinions on this whole thing??

Much appreciated ,

Luke

[Tomm]

Firstly, a lot of digital cameras don't like alkaline batteries. You NEED to use rechargeables. Get some decent Ni-MH (not MiCd) and a charger, that'll be about £10. So see how you get on with that. If the people at PC World know anything, they will tell you that, before they will take it back.

Megapixels mean nothing, really. I would probably rather have a decent well-known brand (Canon, Olympus, Nikon, Fuji etc) camera with half as many pixels. A 3 megapixel camera is fine for normal sized photos (A4 at a bit of a push), so unless you are getting lot of enlargements or doing a lot of cropping, you don't need any bigger. Really. Obviously the more the merrier, but there are lots of other factors that are more important. Optical zoom is good, digital zoom is pointless.

You could get a cheap miniDV camera if you want, but the quality of stills will be appalling. Probably no better than a phone. On the other hand, they can take videos. Really, it's best to think of them as separate things - digital cameras for photos, video cameras for videos. You can't do both with either. The only camera I have used in your price range was an Olympus C-360z, but that's pretty old and I'm sure they have improved a fair bit since I got it, so I don't really have any suggestions. But yeah, stick with decent brands and you'll be fine

[Rob_P]

^^^^^

Get a second hand Fuji S5500, not the 5000! Awsome little camera that looks the doggs too. I've used one for ages and it helped my photography improve to no end, ideal for just simple shots of stuff but has the capability to get a little fanice with technical things too like experimenting with focus, exposure etc etc.

Get one off ebay for about your price range, or a canon isux 50/55

Just looks like a digital compact but certinatly in this case dont judge a book by it's cover.

The fuji is 4mp, iso range 64-400, 10x optical zoom blah blah blah but they've just replaced it with the S5600, higher iso range, looks a little different, 6mp but gonna be slightly over your budget.

Take a look at www.warehouseexpress.com

Rob

Sorry just looked at your price budget again, thought it was 200 for some reason S5600 is outta the question, maybe a S5500 at a push

Edited December 31, 2005 by Rob P

[street trials rider]

just get the money back and get yoruself on ebay and find a good quality 3-4mega pixel branded camera 2nd hand (providing its been looked after)

just found out my mate has got a new 8 megapixel camera for his birthday which is good for me because i now get to buy his old Fuji 6900 for £100 (imac condition, still sell for £350-400 new, and they are a 4 year old camera now )