New Compact Camera

[Shropshiremike]

Hello

I am thinking of buying a slightly better compact camera just for my occasional photo-taking.
I would like something with a better optical zoom for when I take pics of cars at tracks etc and some more mega-pixels as well

I've thought of a Kodak 2710 (7mp) at around £130
or one of the Fuji Finepix S6500fd ( 6mp ) at about £200. Also noticed the Olympus Sp-510UZ ( 7mp ) at around £200.

Or is it worth spending more and getting something like the Olympus SP550uz at about £300 ( 18x zoom as opposed to 10 on the others )

Currently have a Sony Cybershot DSC p-52 ( 2x zoom and 3mp ) which has been fine.

Any comments/pointers to look out for - anyone had one of the above ones mentioned? Don't really want to spend more than about £300 all in

Cheers

[Shropshiremike]

Alternatively, any recommended review sites?

[J111]

If I were in that market, I'd buy the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8, with the caveat that all the Panasonic cameras are noisy at higher ISOs.

dpreview.com is an excellent resource for reviews and comparisons.

[Shropshiremike]

J111 said:

If I were in that market, I'd buy the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8, with the caveat that all the Panasonic cameras are noisy at higher ISOs.

dpreview.com is an excellent resource for reviews and comparisons.

Cheers, I'll take a look at that camera and the site you suggested. I'm not sure if the noisy ISOs will bother me

[J111]

To expand on the noise issue - If you take pictures in low light, the Panasonics won't give a particularly good performance, lots of 'grain' in the image. This is an exaggerated example:



To be honest, though, that's true of all compact digitals, some are merely slightly less bad. If you wanted to take pics inside museums or at concerts, for example, a DSLR or, better still, film would give better results.

[Shropshiremike]

Cheers for that dpreview site - it's got all the sort of info I was looking for!

[HarryW]

I'm no 'photographer' but like to be able to take snaps and I've found the Casio's do everything I need . I'm on my second Exilim, started with the 4mpix a few years ago now have the 10mpix. I like the large screen and easy to use menus/ergonomics of them. From that point they are head and shoulders over others. I think even the 12mpix can be had for under £180 now

[ofcorsa]

I bought my other half the fujifilm S5800 8MP 10xzoom model for christmas and she was chuffed with that, Can be had for £150 or less online i believe.

[Bungleaio]

I got my dad a Nikon P5000 a few months ago, he's thrilled with it, jessops are selling them for less than £200 now too

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0705/07051701nikonp5000review.asp 

[h4muf]

HarryW said:

I'm no 'photographer' but like to be able to take snaps and I've found the Casio's do everything I need . I'm on my second Exilim, started with the 4mpix a few years ago now have the 10mpix. I like the large screen and easy to use menus/ergonomics of them. From that point they are head and shoulders over others. I think even the 12mpix can be had for under £180 now

Just had a ex1050 for christmas and have to say i`m really impressed with it.
Read a few reviews before purchase and it`s lived up to all expectations so far.
Paid £108 for mine from cameras 4u.

Recommended!

[Mrs NucSquash]

I was wondering the same thing the other week when I decided to get a compact camera which did a little more then the usual one - have all manual settings etc...

I have always liked Canon so decided on the Canon Powershot S5 IS. I havent had a great deal of time to use it a lot but I have taken the odd shot and so far from what i have seen I am impressed.

I am still getting use to the digital viewfinder as the 400D was totally different however it was recommended as a good 'bridge' camera between the lower end normal compact and the DSLR.

It was £279 and I got a set of rechargeable batteries and a 1GB memory card free. I think online you can pick one up for around £220'ish.

Here is a photo i took with it last week, not bad i didnt think:



Also, have a look at this review -

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons5is/

Hope this helps.
Nik

Edit to say: PH has resized the photo so it doesnt look as good.

Edited by Mrs NucSquash on Wednesday 2nd January 20:58

[Shropshiremike]

Thanks for all the advice - I'm still taking it all in and weighing it up

Cheers

[HarryW]

Also forgot to mention one thing really worth looking out for is batteries and what type it uses. Those stupid rechargeable AA types are complete waste of time imhe. This is another big plus for the Casio for the simple point and shot brigade (me!), it has a mobile phone type battery that lasts very well (hundred's of shots) .

[Shropshiremike]

Mrs NucSquash said:

Here is a photo i took with it last week, not bad i didnt think:

By the way, that'sa lovely photo Mrs NucSquash - what zoom was that on out of interest?

[snotrag]

Bought myself a Fuji S6500fd 3 weeks ago.

Impressed so far. First - it ain't no compact. Its the same size as My Dads 4/3rds Olympus SLR. A lot, lot lighter though.

Battery life is excellent, very impressed by that. Manual control all seems to make sense, button and menus work well. Manual Zoom is a godsend, camera feels very intuitive to hold and compose shots. It also aids the battery life.

I picked up a charger and 4 2500mah NiMh AA's for jsut £20 from Tescos aswell. Add in another spare/backup set and its all you'll ever need.

10X zoom is, to be fair, pretty huge. Theres no chance of taking good shots at full zoom without a tripod/monopod. more useful, in fact, is that its quite wide at the other end of the range, good for shooting indoors. I plan to buy the wide angle converter aswell.

I will be posting some shots/better review up soon once i've had the chance to go experiment a bit more and upload some nice shots.

[Shropshiremike]

snotrag said:

10X zoom is, to be fair, pretty huge. Theres no chance of taking good shots at full zoom without a tripod/monopod. more useful, in fact, is that its quite wide at the other end of the range, good for shooting indoors. I plan to buy the wide angle converter aswell.

I will be posting some shots/better review up soon once i've had the chance to go experiment a bit more and upload some nice shots.

I've only got a 2x zoom at the moment so I'd like a bit more but i was thinking that 10x would be ample for my usage without going to 18x ( and some sort of steady ).

Be interested to see some shots

Edited by Shropshiremike on Thursday 3rd January 11:50

[Shropshiremike]

Any more for any more?

[Shropshiremike]

Anyone got/tried the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3?

[Mrs NucSquash]

Shropshiremike said:

Mrs NucSquash said:

Here is a photo i took with it last week, not bad i didnt think:

By the way, that'sa lovely photo Mrs NucSquash - what zoom was that on out of interest?

Thank you

The canon SI5 IS is a 12x zoom, i think i took that shot nearing the end of the zoom but not into the digital zoom which is best to stay out of if you want a clean shot. The canon is 12x zoom then digital zoom so it does give you a little extra.

To make a comment on the battery thing, my rechargeables have been fine. No probs whatsoever. I keep a spare set in my camera bag just incase.

[Mrs NucSquash]

mmm I have just posted and its not showing...how odd.

Is that one your talking about the 18x zoom??? If so, i was told not to touch it yet as the quality of a photo taken at anything over 12x isnt great yet and it needs more developing before being worth using/having.