Camera Advice

[james_tigerwoods]

Hi,

I'm a bit of a camera newbie, so you'll have to bear with me - I recently bought a Samsung L74 Wide which has turned out to be the worst camera I've ever owned, it's laggy (taking up to 3 seconds between pressing the shutter button and actually taking a photo), doesn't always connect using USB and the picture quality is, frankly, s**t.

So, I'm after some advice. I would like a compact camera that takes decent photos (for a compact) and has a decent response time between pressing the shutter button and taking photos. I don't mind spending up to £200, but I can go higher, but I'd like to keep costs down as much as possible.

I'm willing to consider an SLR bodied camera, but ideally, I'd rather a compact at this point.

Help?

[GetCarter]

These guys are good (and independent) http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/default.asp?view=r...

[Bigdrift]

GetCarter said:

These guys are good (and independent) http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/default.asp?view=r...

i doubt if you could consider them independent these days as they are owned by amazon !

[GetCarter]

Bigdrift said:

GetCarter said:

These guys are good (and independent) http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/default.asp?view=r...

i doubt if you could consider them independent these days as they are owned by amazon !

Have you seen the size of the organisation that owns 'The Independent'?

To the OP... feel free to ignore any DP reviews, as someone somewhere owns the website and they might just be telling fibs to keep their jobs.

Or they may just be giving an honest independent opinion so that they can keep their jobs. Take your choice.

They do however, know what they are talking about.

[Bigdrift]

GetCarter said:

Bigdrift said:

GetCarter said:

These guys are good (and independent) http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/default.asp?view=r...

i doubt if you could consider them independent these days as they are owned by amazon !

Have you seen the size of the organisation that owns 'The Independent'?

To the OP... feel free to ignore any DP reviews, as someone somewhere owns the website and they might just be telling fibs to keep their jobs.

Or they may just be giving an honest independent opinion so that they can keep their jobs. Take your choice.




They do however, know what they are talking about.

at no point did i say they do not know what they are talking about , i was only pointing out that they can no longer be seen as truly independent as they are now owned by a website that sells photographic equipment , i think this smacks a little of a conflict of interests dont you ?

and as you said its up to the op to look at the reviews and make his own mind up

[Simpo Two]

GetCarter said:

They do however, know what they are talking about.

Pretty thorough although it gets a bit exasperating when everything is 'Highly Recommended'!

Bigdrift said:

at no point did i say they do not know what they are talking about , i was only pointing out that they can no longer be seen as truly independent as they are now owned by a website that sells photographic equipment , i think this smacks a little of a conflict of interests dont you ?

Well, I think Amazon sells every brand of domestic camera so they stand to gain whatever happens. It's not as if they're Nikon dealers etc. More 'marketing' than conflict of interest I think.

[james_tigerwoods]

Thanks for pointing me at that website, and Amazon - it was these that recommended the L74....

I think a trip to Jessops might be in order...

[Simpo Two]

My biggest concern with any compact would be noise. Unfortunately that's the one parameter which never seems to be quantified or listed.

[james_tigerwoods]

At this point I'm looking for a compact camera, my criteria of which is mainly a good response time, coupled with decent quality photos and not too bulky. Having read reviews of the L74, it looked to fit the bill - and at that time, Amazon had it on special offer.

The news review on the dpreview site gives an intial positive review of the L74, but no general review. Ah well.