another annoying 'which camera' thread

[moomin]

Morning everyone.

I've been lurking here intermittently for a few weeks, as I've been agonising over buying a digital camera. yes, I'm at that newbie stage of "worrying about buying the best camera"! :confused:
I was lusting after a DSLR, but I'm going through the motions (read: expense) of buying a house at the moment, so that's on hold. so I've been thinking about getting a digital compact, the justification being that I want something to take pics of m'house with as I am working on it.
my budget is fairly arbitrarily set at £200 for the camera, and I accept there will probably be another £50 for batteries, case, memory card, whatever.

I was all set to get a Canon Powershot A95, but then I read on t'internet about the E18 error problem of lenses jamming, which kinda put me off. I had a quick play with it in the shop and it seemed nice, has good reviews, and seems to be feature rich.
I think my criteria are thus: prefer AA batteries, prefer some manual control (i.e. aperture/shutter priority), 4 or 5 MP, prefer SD or CF (for no particular reason), fairly compact, errr...
I have also leaned towards saving a bit of budget and just getting something like a Coolpix 4600, as I have used a friends and it takes ok snaps, and is certainly very pocketable. :confused: :wobble:

I'm indecisive at the best of times, but in this instance my brain started to hurt from reading all the reviews, so I gave up on the idea altogether for a while! :banghead: :(
Any guidance/experience, very gratefully received. I'll be able to join in the monthly competition once I get sorted - love looking at all your pics, and the competition is a great idea. :clap:

moomin

[350wedge]

How about taking a look at the Konica Minolta Z3 (just been replaced with the Z5). The Z3 can be had now for under £200. Its a 4mp cam in Z3 form (5mp for Z5). It has a superb 12x optical zoom with image stabilisation...

Have used one and seen loads of images. Image quality is very good. The design is a love or hate thing. I love it and find it handles really well. You could do a lot worse than having a look at one...

>> Edited by 350wedge on Tuesday 9th August 10:34

[moomin]

350wedge said:

The design is a love or hate thing

< checks dcresource > oh it certainly is!
I am looking for the next size down though really - as tempting as the "ultra-zoom" cameras are, I do still hope to get to a DSLR at some point, so getting something more compact now would still be a good partner to a DSLR. and if it's easily carried, I'm more likely to carry it more (IYSWIM).

moom.

[te51cle]

Have a look at the Fuji E550, it sounds the sort of thing you're looking for. I got one a couple of weeks ago and am very pleased with it. It uses AA batteries, has a 4 x zoom from 32-130mm, (35mm equivalent), its a six Megapixel machine, it has proper manual control over shutter and aperture (but not focus) as well as assorted programme modes. Amazon and Pixmania are doing very good deals on it at the moment, I got mine with a 512Meg xD card for £191 including delivery.

Have a look at www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002XNT76/qid=1123604591/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/202-7119814-4442244 and www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/59498/art/fuji/finepix-e550.html

[moomin]

thanks te51cle - I see you've started taking some good pics already.
unfortunately my indecision headache came back

moom.

>> Edited by moomin on Thursday 11th August 13:42