Camera advice please

[ytrebil]

Hi guys,

I have a budget of around £200 (giving or taking £50) to buy myself a new camera. I want it to be compact but also record good video quality as well as take good quality photos.

Any recommendations please?

TIA.

[//dean]

ytrebil said:

Hi guys,

Any recommendations please?

TIA.

Have a bash in the Photography forum. Same question gets asked fairly frequently so they should have some good recomendations.

[Mrs Grumpy]

After looking around at various reviews, we decided on a Canon Powershot S5 IS.

RRP about £400 ish, but bought as new on Ebay for around £180 ish

[dave_s13]

I asked the exact same question the other week.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Bought one of these

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX500

£198inc delivery

Edited by dave_s13 on Wednesday 14th January 21:20

[S7Paul]

The Panasonic DMC-TZ5 seems to be a very popular choice at the moment. Wide angle facility, 10x optical zoom, good quality video for a compact, and shopping around should get you one for less than £200. I don't think you could do any better for that price.

[dave_s13]

S7Paul said:

The Panasonic DMC-TZ5 seems to be a very popular choice at the moment. Wide angle facility, 10x optical zoom, good quality video for a compact, and shopping around should get you one for less than £200. I don't think you could do any better for that price.

The one I posted above has the same lens/spec etc but a bigger, touch screen which works really well for viewing your photos and other stuff. Really rather cool.

[ytrebil]

Thanks for the responses, will have a look at those recommended.

[chr15b]

dave_s13 said:

S7Paul said:

The Panasonic DMC-TZ5 seems to be a very popular choice at the moment. Wide angle facility, 10x optical zoom, good quality video for a compact, and shopping around should get you one for less than £200. I don't think you could do any better for that price.

The one I posted above has the same lens/spec etc but a bigger, touch screen which works really well for viewing your photos and other stuff. Really rather cool.

I thought the 500 had a 5x optical zoom? tbh the extra zoom is more useful (to me) than touch screen - the tz5 buttons are really easy to use.

I upgraded to a tz5 after a tz1, the tz1 i thought was a fantastic camera but the tz5 is a very good upgrade.

I use mine along side a Canon 30d and the picture quality and functionality are very very good.

[dave_s13]

Actually yeah you're right. But the one I bought still has a "25mm ultra-wide angle Leica DC lens".

I don't know too much about cameras but guess you would need a tripod or very steady hand to get a good shot at 10x zoom?

To be fair though, unless you're a keen photographer, you won't really see a difference between the pictures taken by any of the cameras at this price, just get the one you like the look of/fits in your pocket the best.

[branflakes]

S7Paul said:

The Panasonic DMC-TZ5 seems to be a very popular choice at the moment. Wide angle facility, 10x optical zoom, good quality video for a compact, and shopping around should get you one for less than £200. I don't think you could do any better for that price.

I have it's older brother, the DMC-TZ3, which is excellent - the TZ5 is supposedly even better.

[ytrebil]

As I mentioned though they need to be able to record decent video.

[branflakes]

ytrebil said:

As I mentioned though they need to be able to record decent video.

Give me a few minutes and I'll upload a video I took using my older TZ3, that should give you an idea of the quality.

[Nolar Dog]

Jessops have some very good deals at the minute.

[chr15b]

dave_s13 said:

Actually yeah you're right. But the one I bought still has a "25mm ultra-wide angle Leica DC lens".

I don't know too much about cameras but guess you would need a tripod or very steady hand to get a good shot at 10x zoom?

To be fair though, unless you're a keen photographer, you won't really see a difference between the pictures taken by any of the cameras at this price, just get the one you like the look of/fits in your pocket the best.

i think you'd be surprised just how good the image stabilizer is in the camera, though if the zoom feature will never be used then there are other cameras on the market - i make a lot of use of it.

There is a masive difference in the quality of cameras in the compact range - imho the Panasonics with the Leica lens' are all very good quality, as are the Sony Carl Zeis.

DCReview i think it's called is a very good website, has some really good sample pictures on the review pages that you do not need to be an expert to see what they are trying to show you regards the good / bad features of the camera.

i'd personally ignore the 'budget' box shifters, samsung, sanyo etc - the slightly lower cost is just not worth the compromise (imo)

[craste]

When I decide to replace my camera one of the biggest deciding facters which will help me is the time it takes to take the picture after you have pressed the button.

How f*cking irritating is it when you press the button and f*uck all happens?

And then if you want to take another pic you have to wait again - sooo crap!!!

You miss 'the moment'- i want to press the button and bam it takes the picture there and then, not half a second after!!!

Does this annoy you also?

Its called 'shutter lag' I believe

Edited by craste on Wednesday 14th January 21:57

[branflakes]

branflakes said:

ytrebil said:

As I mentioned though they need to be able to record decent video.

Give me a few minutes and I'll upload a video I took using my older TZ3, that should give you an idea of the quality.

http://www.brainkick.com/birdy.mov

[ytrebil]

craste said:

When I decide to replace my camera one of the biggest deciding facters which will help me is the time it takes to take the picture after you have pressed the button.

How f*cking irritating is it when you press the button and f*uck all happens?

And then if you want to take another pic you have to wait again - sooo crap!!!

You miss 'the moment'- i want to press the button and bam it takes the picture there and then, not half a second after!!!

Does this annoy you also?

Yeah it annoys me!!! Also some are really slow scrolling through on-screen images. Others also make a really loud noise when zooming. Not good if you're taking pictures of wildlife for example.

[ytrebil]

branflakes said:

ytrebil said:

As I mentioned though they need to be able to record decent video.

Give me a few minutes and I'll upload a video I took using my older TZ3, that should give you an idea of the quality.

Thanks pal. Got any images of it too?

[ytrebil]

branflakes said:

branflakes said:

ytrebil said:

As I mentioned though they need to be able to record decent video.

Give me a few minutes and I'll upload a video I took using my older TZ3, that should give you an idea of the quality.

http://www.brainkick.com/birdy.mov

Hey that's really impressive! What's the FPS on that? Does the TZ3 and TZ5 record with the same quality?

[chr15b]

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.c...







These should be typical of most of the panasonic range.


eta - i saw the tz5 in pcworld for about the £175 mark, which is a fairly reasonable price for the high st

Edited by chr15b on Wednesday 14th January 22:03