Camera advice please.

[Glenred]

Hi People

Can anyone please recommend me a decent cheapish digital camera, only thing it needs to have is a wide angle lens, so less than 18mm. need it for mostly interior pictures.

Looking to spend around £400 if possible.

Many thanks.

[DibblyDobbler]

Not sure you could get wide enough without an SLR (somebody please correct me here if I am wrong)

- so for that budget you'd be looking at a second hand Sigma 10-20 (£200ish on eBay) then a body to mount it on - maybe a Canon 450D/500D (again see what you can find on eBay but £200ish seems feasible). If you do this make sure it's a Canon mount lens you buy as they also come in other versions - eg Nikon

That should give good results

[the-photographer]

If you need 18mm, then a second-hand LX3 (£100) and one of these http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-DMW-LW46E-18mm-W... will be the smallest/lightest package with OIS & f2.0 for those dark interior shots.

Without the convertor (the LX3/5 and current model LX7) provide about 22mm wide in 16:9 mode.

Edited by the-photographer on Wednesday 17th July 13:09

[MysteryLemon]

^ that is a good suggestion. It's unlikely you will find a super wide angle compact as standard. It's just not something the consumer looks for. It's all about zoom for the consumer, even though they never use it...

I had an LX-3 a few years back but purchased a cheaper chinese wide angle lens adaptor. I don't recall the price but I know it was a lot less than the genuine one, and it produced some decent pictures! Had quite a bit of barrel distortion from the lens but I like that, so it didn't bother me. It's not the sort of thing you want for interior photographs though but it can easily be corrected in Photoshop and the like.

Here's a pic I took with it from about 1.5 meters from the side of the car. Quality isn't representative as it's been cropped and sent through facebook...

[the-photographer]

Thanks, Glenred if you want more samples visit the Panasonic forum on dpreview.