I need to buy 8 cameras.... any suggestions?

[buzzer]

My wife wants to buy 8 cameras, one for each of the classes at her school… they will primarily be used by the staff (who from what I can see are worse than the kids!) so they need to be robust!

They need to be compact type, ones with extending lenses seem to have been a bit fragile in the past…
Any recommendations? Budget is around £50 to £80 each

Any suggestions welcome!

[Simpo Two]

Would the education authority/Council have a direct route to some silly low prices? Or this is an unoffical 'expenses'-type purchase?

I think anything in that price range is going to be a bit of a toy TBH, certainly not rugged.

[LongQ]

What do these cameras need to be capable of delivering?

[andy-xr]

There's a shockproof and waterproof Panasonic Lumix that would probably do as a good solid point and shoot

[buzzer]

sorry guys, I probably over played the robustness... they need some cameras that take reasonable shots, are easy to use (point and shoot, but I guess they all do that) but most of all are not too easy to break. they have had problems in the past with zoom lenses being fragile so these are probably best avoided.

[MysteryLemon]

My mother is a deputy in a school and often comes to me when asking on advice for buying various equipment including cameras and stuff like that. Unfortunately it's often limited to a single "trade" catalogue with a choice of about 3 of whatever your after and they're all usually pretty basic. Worth checking she actually has a choice of what she gets to buy rather than just assuming you can buy from anywhere. Schools will often want a purchase order making up for purchases that aren't from trusted retailers too.

Regardless. You'll struggle to find a cheap compact camera that doesn't have a zoom. Consumers want zooms so the cheap ones have them. Some higher end compacts have prime (fixed) lenses but they are well out of budget. Your best bet is finding one that has an internal zoom (one that doesnt pop out the front of the camera). The optics probably wont be great but you wont end up with a broken lens every time someone knocks it. Tend to be limited to "sports" cameras these days but that works in your favour as it will have weather proofing and a shock proof case, and generally be built to be knocked around a lot...

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Browse/ID72/39637243...

Some in budget, some not. Those Nikon S32's look a good bet? Maybe a bit garish to look at but it will be simple to use and has all the features you'll need. The kids will love the stupid colours.

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/nikon_coolp...

Seems like a nice little camera if you can find a white one .. John Lewis cheaper than Argos as well.

Otherwise, if you're not too fussed about it being that rugged then any compact in your budget will do. That end of the market will all be pretty much the same regardless what you pay. They all have small sensors with slow lenses and are cheaply built. They'll all take pictures with similar quality and bar different menu systems between manufacturers, you really wont notice much difference between them.

Edited by MysteryLemon on Tuesday 10th February 09:48

Edited by MysteryLemon on Tuesday 10th February 09:54

[tog]

I recently got my 3-year old a Nikon S32 and it's great. Simple to use, waterproof, shockproof, teacher-proof. Quality is no EOS 5D3, but it does the job well.

[noell35]

I was going to suggest the Ricoh PX as we have them at school and they have proved very robust and also are pretty unnatractive to look at so haven't walked off.

It looks like they are discontinued though. Sorry