Digital camera advice

[SGCW124]

Time to bite the bullet and buy a digital camera:

At least I can download piccies to the PC - I may even keep my forum promise & post some picture of the "worlds most expensive petrol can"

Spotty yoof at PC world was talking in a foreign language as far as I could tell..... so can anyone post a repy as to what specs / guidelines to look for in a digital camera please?

Not looking for the finest Leica can offer, just a cheapish type model that I wont cry too much over when I or the kids break/lose it

thanks

Steve



I

 

[pipehose]

kodak cx4230 easy to use not too expensive

 

[pammy]

Kodak's generally go through batteries like they're going out of fashion.

Let us know what your budget is - but you should be able to get sommat really good for under £200 - Nikon Coolpix or Fuji Finepix are very good - good spec and vfm

Worth investing in a copy of Digital Camera magazine to get some good info on the best buys around.

You need to make sure your PC's up to the job too

 

[andy_k]

all you ever needed to know about digital cameras

http://dpreview.com/

Other good advice is to buy second hand - there are people about who can only exist if the have the very latest gadget. A 12 month old camera is almost obsolete in their opinion whilst the rest of us will think it's perfect.

We have a Nikon 995 we bought new, have used for 4 years without any problems and would recommend them to anyone. So I'd echo the comments on the Coolpix range that Pammy suggested. As someone who likes to have the ability to overide all the auto functions and use a "manual" camera I found the Fuji range less than inspiring - they are great for "point and shoot" but they allow very little user input

Andy

 

[pammy]

use a "manual" camera I found the Fuji range less than inspiring - they are great for "point and shoot" but they allow very little user input

Andy

Try the one I've got - Fuji 4900z - as much user input as you want

 

[andy_k]

tee hee Pammy - nice looking camera

Can we have macro focus down to 2cm please?
matrix metering with spot, centre and AF weighted readings?
8 second minimum shutter speed?
1/2300 maximum shutter speed?

OK. now I'm nit picking and yes, I'll agree with you the top end Fujis are very good


now what was that I said about "gadget boys"?

Andy

 

[PJH]

You need to make sure your PC's up to the job too

And your printer !

 

[SGCW124]

THanks Lads & Pammy

about 250 quid is the very max I want to spend, As its primarily for holiday /family photo,s, and I dont include photography as one of my hobbies.

How many Pixels would be the minimum to accept?

Steve

 

[pammy]

3! :d

 

[pluggers]

I'd go for 3mp minimum but try too get higher if poss! I got a 4mp camera for about £100 quality can be dodgy at times being so cheap but it suits me as is.(could also be my crap camera skills showing me up tho )

 

[Andy W]

Dont buy a cheap one like I did, and beware they eat batteries, buy one with rechargeable batteries and a docking station to charge up and download to your PC, it is a lot easier, Kodak do some simple to operate ones, my next one will be a Kodak complete with docking station, my Konica has cost as much as the camera in batteries.

 

[guydewdney]

1) make sure it has a rechargeable Lion (lithithium thingy battery AA batteries last 30 seconds 9literally)
2) make sure the lens is big (good light capture in poor conditions - small lens = poor light capture
3) make sure it has screw on lenses for futue use - like wide angle / filters for skiing holidays
my 2mp is fine - unless zooming in loads on long distance.
4) make sure it has a 3x at least optical zoom
5) a viewfinder helps with battery power a lot....
6) cheap SD or whatever cards - sony cameras (like mine) are very good, but the cards are V V V v expensive. (100 quid = 128mb)
7) ignore the software it comes with and ask a nice person for a copy of painshop pro 8 or equivilant...

my tuppence

 

[NormanB]

You have received good advice on a camera. My two penneth would be - do not bother buying a colour printer. There are so many good deals for online or drop off processing that it is hardly worthwhile buying a home outfit (printer + cartridges + photo quality paper).

If I buy 2 cartridge sets for mine I pay more than the printer cost

Photo paper is expppppensive.

Mistakes are costly if you make them on your own kit. Having a professional outfit do them for you - well you pay the ticket price.

If you do go Sony ( as Guy mentioned) it is possible to get cheaper memory sticks - I got a 256MB for £45 on ebay.

 

[pammy]

Zoom - ignore digital zoom figures - waste of time, you can zoom digitally using your PC and software - optical however changes the image you capture meaning you have the right quality of image to start with. Digital imaging can only work with what it has to start with- so optical zoom and 3 megapixels are essential - -imho. Optical zoom often shoves the price up but it's worth every penny.

My mum has a Nikon coolpix and it's a fabby little camera, came in at around £200 and has all the features a person new to digital cameras would want - and a few more Amazon is a good place to buy digicams from. Have a look at this one:

here

Printer - it's your choice - photographic paper can be expensive - but it's often available on special offers, print cartridges can also be costly, but then you don't print everything out - just those that you want - and then only the finished mucked around with picture. So whereas from Boots - you'd get the lovely pic - with the pole coming out of someones head - you'd only have the persons face - no pole - no wastage at the sides etc etc.

Digital photography can be as simple or complex as you want it to be - it's only limited by how much time and effort you have or want to put in. It's a massive learning curve, but then becomes a totally addicitve hobby

hth

 

[pluggers]

You have received good advice on a camera. My two penneth would be - do not bother buying a colour printer. There are so many good deals for online or drop off processing that it is hardly worthwhile buying a home outfit (printer + cartridges + photo quality paper).

Ive seen similar deals like that as well!Theres a camera shop nearby to us that offers 50prints at 6x4 for £5. I think boots do a similar deal as well.

 

[NormanB]

snipped
snipped again
Printer - it's your choice - photographic paper can be expensive - but it's often available on special offers, print cartridges can also be costly, but then you don't print everything out - just those that you want - and then only the finished mucked around with picture. So whereas from Boots - you'd get the lovely pic - with the pole coming out of someones head - you'd only have the persons face - no pole - no wastage at the sides etc etc.

one more snip

hth

Pammy - just to clarify I was not suggesting to stick with traditional film but rather to weigh up the cost of prinitng digital pictures at home versus having them printed by either on-line or drop in service printing services. The role of home editing using Photoshop (or similar) of course remains an important stage in digital photography prior to home or professional printing. Of course you would only get those pictures printed that you really wanted in either case too.

Regards
NormanB

 

[Alex Argent]

I bought a new Digi Cam a couple of months back after spending a small fortune on Digi Cam magazines for reviews, prices, etc. Eventually decided to go for the Minolta Dimage Z1 at about £220 (internet price, delivered next day!). As this was SO long ago, Minolta have now introduced the Z2 with a few more features but about £30 Q's more. If you can put up with its 'quirky' looks, it's an absolutely excellent camera (I'm an avid photographic enthusiast!), looks a cross between a 35mm SLR and the space shuttle.

All of the other information above is spot on. Forget about digital zoom - waste of time. The Z1/Z2 has a 10x optical zoom and the CCD is 3.2 MP which should suffice for nearly all needs. You can also switch between LCD and standard viewfinder modes (latter uses significantly less battery power). It is very 'user-friendly' (point-and-shoot) however has a multitude of manual settings if you want to use them. Uses an SD card (my 256 MB one was about £60 - I think they're even less expensive now). Also agreed, take the card into Boots or similar for processing prints if you want them - it's about a quarter of the cost of doing it yourself, that's assuming you get them all right first time (doubtful!).

Another bit of advice.....most web sites (including this one) set a limit to the size of the uploaded file(s), so if this is what you intend to do on a regular basis, you will need to set the camera to minimum resolution (the Z1 has 6 changeable resolution settings). Anything more than about 100 KB file will be thrown back at you (although you can get them hosted by a third-party if they are willing to upload for you).

Hope this helps,

Best regards,

Alex

 

[RichardM]

Another bit of advice.....most web sites (including this one) set a limit to the size of the uploaded file(s), so if this is what you intend to do on a regular basis, you will need to set the camera to minimum resolution. Anything more than about 100 KB file will be thrown back at you (although you can them hosted by a third-party if they are willing to upload for you).

Its very easy to resize pictures, so most people take photo's at high resolution, and then just resize the photo's they want to upload onto forums.

100KB is a good limit as anymore and the pages will take forever to load!

 

[Tan]

Jessops is always a good high street shop to have a good look and play with the cameras. Plus they are fairly ggod on price plus know what they are talking about.

Regards printing, I have a digital printer and its never been out of the box, just isnt worth it. Boots do 50 for a £5. So its easier and better to take it to them IMHO.

Tan

 

[scotth_uk]

Kodak's generally go through batteries like they're going out of fashion.

Not so anymore! I recently purchase a DX6490 and the battery is astonishing. One charge nets about a month between recharges and 500-700 pics easily. I bought a spare battery and have never used it!