£150 - what can i get?

[badders]

Right, your listening to a someone who knows absolutly nothing about camera's so bear with me..... Im after a digital camera for about £150, but so far ive been totally baffled by the options, so i thought id come to the PH collective to seek advice!

It will be mainly used for general use, but mostly for my upcoming engine rebuild, so something that is foolproof as far as focusing would be good, im not too concerned by the quality of the picture on the lcd display really, so would sacrafice this for quality once on the computer screen.
something which is nice and sturdy would also be nice
Make is also not a big factor, but as above i would like something well made

So all in all, i want something that is easy to use and wont break after 5 minutes, any suggestions?:thumbup:

thanks James(badders)

[FunkyNige]

Factor in a decent sized (256MB+) memory card along with the camera.

[Kinky]

I'll be selling my Canon Ixus V quite soon.

Dunno what price - not considered a price yet - but does have a memoty card - either 256 or 512 mb - can't recall.

I can go dig it out if need be.

K

[simpo two]

4Mp is plenty, 3Mp will probably do; go for a reptuable make, 3x optical zoom (ignore digital zoom), agree with the memory card, plus if you go on long trips get a spare battery too. Also a case is a good idea to stop it getting knocked about and scratched.

[jon1800]

I got my camera from [url]www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/index.html[/url]
Very good price which is hard to beat, fast delivery and excellent service. Tell them you saw there advert in What Digital Camera and get even more discount !

HTH

[chris.mapey]

I'd recommend a Pentax Optio. I have an old 330. had it since 2001. It's great, 3MP takes cracking images & is built like the proverbial brick sh1t'ouse...

Takes CF cards and is idiot proof to use. (You have a limited override for manual effects if that appeals)

Once again fleabay is your friend

here

£85-00 Buy it Now...

Chris

Edited to add...That's not mine for sale BTW - I'm not parting with mine...

>> Edited by chris.mapey on Tuesday 4th October 11:57

[GregE240]

I managed to get hold of a Fuji 6900Z D-SLR off Fleabay for £120 a couple of months back.

It can do 6MP, great camera. OK, its not an EOS350D but hey, its perfect for what I want. Smartmedia is cheap as chips now, and armed with a couple of them, I'm sorted.

Greg

[r988]

chris.mapey said:

I'd recommend a Pentax Optio. I have an old 330. had it since 2001. It's great, 3MP takes cracking images & is built like the proverbial brick sh1t'ouse... Takes CF cards and is idiot proof to use. (You have a limited override for manual effects if that appeals) Once again fleabay is your friend here £85-00 Buy it Now... Chris Edited to add...That's not mine for sale BTW - I'm not parting with mine... >> Edited by chris.mapey on Tuesday 4th October 11:57

I'll second that I have the same or similar camera Optio 33L I think. CF cards are one of the cheaper and more available of the cards, (I use a 64mb, and 128mb cards and still struggle to fill up the all the space unless I use really large, high quality images. Its small enough to fit in your (largish) pocket, and sturdy enough that you don't get too much camera shake. Its also extremely tough, mine gets carted about all over the place and knocked around a LOT, I even mananged to spill a full cup of coffee all over it and it still works! Its also been rained on many a time with no problems at all. Its probably the longest serving piece of electronic equipment I have, it's also fine to leave unused for a month or so then get it out and use it heaps. Plenty of fancy settings to fiddle with if you want to play otherwise just point and shoot and let the camera sort itself out, which is what I mainly use TBH.

[FunkyNige]

Re: the Pentax optio - how quick is the time between pressing the button and the camera taking a pic? Is it really slow in low light?

That seems a good camera for what I need - I have a decent film SLR so 'need' a digital for pics when I'm out and about that will get abused and dropped. My £50 Jenoptik just isn't cutting the mustard unfortunatly as lots of vibrations seems to shake the memory card out which causes it to save to on-board memory at low-res.

[chris.mapey]

FunkyNige said:

Re: the Pentax optio - how quick is the time between pressing the button and the camera taking a pic? Is it really slow in low light?

From memory it's not too bad.

(I'm sounding vague, as it's currently on holiday in France with my sister in law!)

I seem to remember its less than a second (assuming you have already half pressed the shutter release to hold the fosus & exposure)

Hope that helps

Chris