£100 digital cameras

[magnum]

I'm thinking of getting my parents a digital camera for Christmas. As an EOS-1Ds Mk II is out of my price range could anybody suggest a good budget camera. Don't really fancy stretching much beyond £100.

[te51cle]

Seems to be a popular question here lately. Unfortunately the only answer from experience seems to be - spend a bit more than that. If you can still find them I'd recommend a Fuji E550, that and a decent sized xD memory card will set you back about £200 though.

[simpo two]

Saunter down to Comet (who have most models in stock and you can actually touch them). My criteria would be 3-4Mp and 3x optical zoom.

[Prof Higgins]

Agree with Simpo on the optical zoom bit, try to avoid anything with just a digital zoom as it is bit of a waste of time and you might as well just crop the picture later on.

Jessops had this, which seemed like a good spec for the money:

link

Only comes with 16MB memory card so have to budget for some of this as well, however their bundle with a 256mb card does not look too good as 256MB off ebay is cheap as chips (£15 buy it now) and will be enough to keep them going.

S.

>> Edited by Prof Higgins on Tuesday 22 November 11:53

[marctwo]

I got my parents a Canon A510 for their birthday. 3.2 Megapixel (you don't need any more) and 4x optical zoom. Really nice camera and got it for £130 including VAT and postage from dabs. Only trouble is that it's discontinued, so a little hard to track down. Well worth it though. Otherwise try it's bigger brother the A520.

Try HERE

>> Edited by marctwo on Tuesday 22 November 13:50

[FourWheelDrift]

Good £90 digital camera 4x optical 4MP

Review on here - www.digicamreview.com/kodak_easyshare_dx7440_review.htm

[NMD]

This Sony S40 any good for you?

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007NLH7K/ref=br_lf_li_1_2/202-1067777-8006200

>> Edited by NMD on Tuesday 22 November 14:15

[magnum]

Thanks for the suggestions. I was thinking that 3x OZ and 4mp would be a suitable benchmark. The camera would only be used for weddings, parties etc. so special features aren't necessary. I notice on a recent similar topic that somebody suggested that lens quality and hardware quality would be more important than the odd megapixel. I'm sure this is very true. Would that suggest leaning towards Canon would be a better idea, or is image quality on a cheap Canon no better than on the other cameras suggested?

[simpo two]

If in doubt, head for a recognised brand: Olympus, Nikon, Pentax, Canon and Minolta are the original 'big 5'.

You can also peruse www.dpreview.com for more info and reviews.

[borris-bear]

I'm looking for a similar thing anyone got any opinions on these 2?

Casio Exilim EX-Z10

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ1