Which compact digital to buy?
Discussion
Following on from my Ixus thread, any suggestions for which compact digital for about £200-250? I've a fair idea about things now having done some homework, (optical zoom good, digital zoom bad), but there are so many of the damm things around these days?
Whats good for the money? Ideally I'd like one small enough to pop into a pocket, reasonable quality, one I can manually set if I feel I need to and so on..
Whats good for the money? Ideally I'd like one small enough to pop into a pocket, reasonable quality, one I can manually set if I feel I need to and so on..
Psychobert said:
Whats good for the money? Ideally I'd like one small enough to pop into a pocket, reasonable quality, one I can manually set if I feel I need to and so on..
I had just this problem but it was resolved when I saw a friend's Olympus Mju300. You can also get a 400 and 410, each with 4Mp.
www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/stylus300.html
Or you can go with the herd annd get an Ixus of course :-)
I went around looking for exactly the same as you and came up with the Canon A70 (ooo, I'm a broken record 
).
It's a wonderful camera, slightly on the large/heavy side but I've put some 2300mA batteries in and after 200 shots (little screen, some flash work) they were still working, a 256mb card gets around 130 full quality shots.
Image replication is superb, colours are brilliant and you have enough settings to fiddle with. It's not an SLR and some of the settings are annoying to adjust (i.e. manual focus for instance) but with shutter speeds from 1/2000 to 15 seconds, aperture 2.8/8 (you need bigger to be entirely honest from my findings), good movies and automatic settings...
I picked mine up for £210 from Jessops (price match to Amazon), but someone else recently got one from Argos for <£200.
I honestly can't recommend the camera enough for both the quality of the unit and the images it takes
If you want some full size (1600*something superfine images about 1.3mb) email me and I'll send some through, for low res versions have a look at www.stefancarlton.net. Most noticably check the rally shots taken at Keilder.
). It's a wonderful camera, slightly on the large/heavy side but I've put some 2300mA batteries in and after 200 shots (little screen, some flash work) they were still working, a 256mb card gets around 130 full quality shots.
Image replication is superb, colours are brilliant and you have enough settings to fiddle with. It's not an SLR and some of the settings are annoying to adjust (i.e. manual focus for instance) but with shutter speeds from 1/2000 to 15 seconds, aperture 2.8/8 (you need bigger to be entirely honest from my findings), good movies and automatic settings...
I picked mine up for £210 from Jessops (price match to Amazon), but someone else recently got one from Argos for <£200.
I honestly can't recommend the camera enough for both the quality of the unit and the images it takes
If you want some full size (1600*something superfine images about 1.3mb) email me and I'll send some through, for low res versions have a look at www.stefancarlton.net. Most noticably check the rally shots taken at Keilder.
Agree on the A70, great cameras - but with 250 to spend you can get the A80 instead. 4MP plus a G-series style flip-out screen which is very handy for shooting over the heads of a crowd or low-angle shots - also protects the screen when it's not being used. You get all the manual controls that the A70 offered too. You also get the practicality of AA batteries, compactflash and ability to take extra lenses, filters, etc.
Not as pocketable as an Ixus, but small enough. Also worth taking a look at the S-series Canons which sit somewhere inbetween - smaller than the A-series but still with manual controls.
Not as pocketable as an Ixus, but small enough. Also worth taking a look at the S-series Canons which sit somewhere inbetween - smaller than the A-series but still with manual controls.
I can vouch for the Olympus point and shoots. My parents have got the c-450 which has now been replaced by the MJU I think although they look very similar. After using it on a few occasions I can say I was very impressed with image quality and the shots it took. They got theres for about £200 I think and for a 4megapixel camera at that price you cant go wrong. Looks quite nice and stylish as well and is compact for carrying as well.
I have never tried any others apart from having a look around them when mates have got them, but to be fair I think most are very good and everyone is going to praise their own camera. If I were you I would find the best deal at the time and if you like the camera go for it. Digital is the way to go in my opinion and you end up taking more photos and thus getting more better ones for the albums, with the added bonus of being able to delete those dreaded shots when you yawn by mistake.
Richard
>> Edited by ricardo g on Friday 28th May 17:56
I have never tried any others apart from having a look around them when mates have got them, but to be fair I think most are very good and everyone is going to praise their own camera. If I were you I would find the best deal at the time and if you like the camera go for it. Digital is the way to go in my opinion and you end up taking more photos and thus getting more better ones for the albums, with the added bonus of being able to delete those dreaded shots when you yawn by mistake.
Richard
>> Edited by ricardo g on Friday 28th May 17:56
Hmmm - I think everyone's simply going to recommend their own cameras!
IMHO all digital compacts from decent makers will be competent. 3Mp+ seems to be the starting point - but going back to your original Q, don't expect much in the way of manual control - these things are basically 'point and shoot'. There will be some 'modes' tucked away but by the time you've found them and farted about with them the subject will have gone home!
So, assuming that all cameras in this range will give decent results, and there's no specific feature you need that will separate one from another, you may as well choose on looks and feel. I'd go along to Comet or somewhere where they have all the models and get your paws on some.
IMHO all digital compacts from decent makers will be competent. 3Mp+ seems to be the starting point - but going back to your original Q, don't expect much in the way of manual control - these things are basically 'point and shoot'. There will be some 'modes' tucked away but by the time you've found them and farted about with them the subject will have gone home!
So, assuming that all cameras in this range will give decent results, and there's no specific feature you need that will separate one from another, you may as well choose on looks and feel. I'd go along to Comet or somewhere where they have all the models and get your paws on some.
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