Need to buy a Digital Camera, advice please.

[Con]

OK I know nothing about digital cameras in all honesty.

From time to time I borrow my dads, he has a Sony CyberShot 3.2MP. I am happy with the quality of the pictures it takes but I don't really have anything to compare them to.

I have a max budget of £150, I'd prefer to spend around 100 tho.

I'd like the camera to be fairly robust, and smaller would be better.

Any suggestions welcomed

Con

[Con]

http://www.internetcamerasdirect.co....01,993,994,995

[Áedán]

What do you want the camera for? Are there any features (such as zoom/flash) that you require? Does it matter what kind of memory it uses?

[mookydooky]

I personally find the Minolta Dimage series very good. They're pretty cheap and they take decent photos. They're also VERY compact, about the size of a box of cigarettes, which makes it inobtrusive to carry around.

[Con]

Ordered a Canon A310...

for £100.

now i need NiMH batteries and a charger...

[Allan]

I love my Canon Powershot, although an older model (bought it from BigRed).
I'm sure you'll be happy with yours, m8! Canon uses some great lenses.

[Gizmo]

I've got a Cannon Powershot AS-70 now, and I've gotta say, I REALLY like it. I'm not a big photography nut or anything, but it does what I need in a way that I understand.

[karbon86]

yeah the powershots are nice but the Kodak easy share camera's are real nice my mom and sister have the 3 and 4 mega pixel DX series http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...170-005&depa=0
rechargeable batery pack of lithium bateries is about $40 US
also i gotta suport the local company go kodak

[Daishi]

Generally the smaller the camera the worse picture its going to get because the lenses get smaller and the image processor just doesnt have the capacity when its that small so you get pictures with alot of noise and not enough detail in areas that you want. I would suggest a canon sd400 or sd500 they are small cameras but still take some nice pictures if your looking for a small camera. I wouldnt recommend a sony. I sell cameras and 80 percent of our returns are sony that tells you something.

[Rondog]

Kodak DX7590 is a nice camera. 5mp, 10x optical zoom. Not very little though.

Its been superseeded though, but im not sure of which model.

[surlyjoe]

Originally Posted by Daishi

I would suggest a canon sd400 or sd500 they are small cameras but still take some nice pictures if your looking for a small camera. .

ditto,

[Con]

err blast from the past...

[Daishi]

Originally Posted by Rondog

Kodak DX7590 is a nice camera. 5mp, 10x optical zoom. Not very little though.

Its been superseeded though, but im not sure of which model.

The only good thing about the camera is the 10x optical zoom they basically took a small camera and changed the lense on it. That camera still has a regular small camera image processor which will only do JPG. A good digi cam will do uncompressed TIFF images. ID suggest a panasonic DMC-FZ5K its got 12x optical zoom can do uncompressed images like an SLR and it has an upgraded Leica lense. You can get the camera for 475 at circuit city which is a retail store so you can probably find it for less on newegg or something. Here is the circuit city link. It also has a 9-point AF which is a must have.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Panas...oductDetail.do

[Rondog]

Yeah, altough im not a big camera enthusiast, so I know problem with JPG.

[Daishi]

Im just an extremely picky person if its not the absolute best quality it can be i hate it :\ even the slightest low quality part irritates me lol.

[dod]

Originally Posted by Daishi

The only good thing about the camera is the 10x optical zoom they basically took a small camera and changed the lense on it.

Sorry Daishi, but I don't think that's qute right, The 7590 replaced the 6490, I'm fairly sure they have the same lens. The 7590 has a 5MP sensor rather than 4MP plus a number of other improvements. I'm not sure if the sensor size was changed, probably not. That can actually be a bad thing occasionally as cramming more pixels onto the same size sensor can lead to higher noise so the reduction algorithm needs to be different to take it into account.

The Panasonic is 2005 technology so I would expect it to be better than the 2004 Kodak. However it doesn't only shoot TIFF, it also shoots JPEG which most people will use to get more shots on the card. Having said that if you want quality shoot RAW. No image information is lost whatsoever.

What it does have, which apparently has been implemented very well, is built in Image stabilisation. It actually makes the inclusion of such a long focal length useful rather than a useless sales gimmick.

[Daishi]

The 7590 LCD isnt very good either. SOOO much ghosting. Dod i sell cameras where i work and in my experience the 7590 is just a small camera that they put a larger lense on it. Its got a smaller cameras image processor that will get just about the same noise on a picture that you get on a small camera. They did put a schneider lense on it which is a big plus but if you dont have the other features to back it up it does you no good. The 7590 was one of the lower quality 12x optical zoom cameras we had it just produced mediocre pictures that werent anything special.

[dod]

Strange, the original got really good reviews for image quality. I'd suspect it's the compression in camera which is the issue. Both have the same size sensor, which is the same size as the Panasonic one, so it's how the information is getting from it which would seem to be the problem.

I'm not trying to defend the camera, nor your experience, I haven't used either so can't say what real world usage is like.

[kotch]

If you want excellent picture quality and are comfortable with manual settings, Canon (and to a lesser extent Nikon) are the way to go. If you just want to point and shoot and get nice pictures (but not always the best) go with Kodak. Kodak is like the digital camera for dummies...not to say it's bad, but it's marketed as such. I personally have a Canon S410 and am very happy with it. It has a auto setting, which 90% of the time does a good job. If you are really into photography, Canon has lots more options than other companies, including exposures up to 15 secs, custom white balancing, ISO speeds, etc.

My friends have a Olympus and a Kodak. My Canon generally has better looking photos (nice blue skies outdoors, and color balanced inside), however, the user interface on theirs is much easier. It's a personal preference.