digital camera reccs please

[natalielongstaff]

hi

i am buying a digital camera bw our trip in november and i confess to being clueless abouts types of camera and other necessary equipmeny can anyone reccomend a good 1st buy ( not to complicated either !! )

cheers

 

[Goofyish]

Things to look far are:

At least 2 Megapixel, preferably 3 Megapixel (2 Megapixel will get you a good A4 size print on a photo printer).
At least 3x OPTICAL ZOOM (ignore digital zoom - it's a waste of time)
Try and choose a phone with a Lithium Ion rechargeable batteries - digital cameras eat bateries and the lithium ion ones last the longest.

Have a look at this website:

http://www.dpreview.com/

For reviews, specifications and example pictures

 

[Goofyish]

Just noticed your in Leicestershire - a good place to get good advise and to look at digital cameras is Jessops along the old Hinckley Road in Leicester (between Fosse Road South and King Richards Road). They also match internet prices

 

[natalielongstaff]

lol i live in hinckley !! and i am going into leic tomorrow i will see if i can find jessops

 

[Goofyish]

Your no relation to Mr Longstaff the teacher are you?

 

[natalielongstaff]

no..........never heard of him till i got married but since then everyone asks me that lol
did you go to school locally to then

 

[Goofyish]

I'm born and bred in Barwell, so I went to Heathfield (where Mr Longstaff teaches!) and Earl Shilton College (now William Bradford)

 

[Vacationeer]

Hi:

We just bought a Canon S1 IS and it is wonderful. It's a bit pricey at $450.00, but has amazing features. This model just came out in April. Email me at jjvnone@yahoo.com if you'd like additional info.

 

[juliebro]

We bought an Olympus MJU 400 for £209 from www.pixmania.com just before our recent holiday in Orlando. We are really pleased with it and the pix are really good.

Julie

 

[SidB]

I bought a Canon A70 recently and it's excellent. Some nice features, but it's ideal for "point and shoot." 3 Mega-pixel, so the picture quality is good too. I would investigate the A80 as well, but I know very little about it.

I'm not sure Jessops still price match internet prices. There are some great deals out there. Use Jessops for research if nothing else, as they are very knowledgeable. There's also a great deal of review sites around.

I'd recommend buying rechargeable batteries and a much bigger memory card. If you're like me and take loads get a 512mb.

If you fill up the card completely when you're in the States you can get them downloaded to a CD in Walmart for peanuts.

Happy hunting.

 

[natalielongstaff]

thanks everyone,i will make a descision soon im sure lol

 

[Tron[ADS]]

Something else to watch out for.....look out for the way megapixel specifications are produced by the manufacturers. There is a tendancy to quoute a higher than what is actualy true figure, which is based on pixel interopolation or something, as well as the actual number of pixels, which is the more representative figure. Often you will see 2 figures qouted, such as an "effective pixels and tru pixels".
Often the difference can be as much as twice as much. A camera can claim "6 million effective, 3 million actual".
Its a little bit of a con, as its the lower figure thats the important one, but often the higher figure will be the one thats touted, with the smaller figure either in very small print, or not printed atall. The cheaper supermarket cameras with no optical zoom are often advertised in this way, and its something to watch for. It doesnt mean a camera is a bad one, but if you were comparing a true 3megapixel against a 6megapixel efective but 3 true, dont thing one is twice as good as the other.

I would go along with the rest of the advice you have been given, namely that optical zoom is VERY important, and digital zoom is not....and at least 2 megapixel really is required. I wouldnt agree on Lithium Ion batteries though, you can get NimH 2300Mah rechargables very cheaply these days that will last ages.....most digital cameras arent as power hungry as they used to be.

 

[dbm001]

I would also go for www.pixmania.com - I think you will find them cheaper than anywhere else, and service is excellent.

I recently bought a Casio Exilim Z4 to replace my Fuji MX-2700 for our Orlando trip this June. Really small nifty camera with loads of features, 4 Megapixel and 3X optical zoom.

Dave.

 

[peter r]

I agree that Pixmania have some excellent prices & definitely worth a look.

It is worth pointing out though that all Canon, Epson and Pentax products instruction manuals do not come in English, they are in French from Pixmania.
Furthermore the software for digital camera Canon Ixus V2 and Ixus 330 is in French.

Not a major problem as you can download the info from the manufacturers website but maybe worth knowing about.

Peter

 

[dbm001]

Instruction Manual??? What's one of those????!!!

 

[juliebro]

The Olympus MJU 400 I bought from Pixmania came with an english instruction manual and the software is in english too.

Julie

 

[Hilary]

I'd recommend buying rechargeable batteries and a much bigger memory card. If you're like me and take loads get a 512mb

I'd suggest getting a few smaller cards rather than one big one, if you think you'll want more memory.

I find that having a couple of 64MB cards is easier for me to manipulate images before getting them printed - more like having a few rolls of film with 40 shots, instead of one with 200.

Our digital camera is an Olympus C-220 zoom. It's a pretty basic 'point and shoot', but it fitted my requirements of having 2mega-pixels, a zoom (not sure whether it's 2x or 3x digital, but the total digital + optical = 7.5x), and being small enough to fit comfortably in my bum-bag for WDW! . I've had it nearly 18 months now, so I'm sure it's probably been superceded, but at the time it cost £220 including a few bits and bobs such as battery charger, case, extra memory. I'm really pleased with the camera and the results.

 

[peter r]

Yes, as I put in my post, its only Canon, Epson and Pentax that come with French manuals - the rest (Olympus etc) are English

Peter

 

[natalielongstaff]

thanks again for all the info......ive still not decided what to go for yet

 

[Lemur]

I've just bought a PENTAX Optio S4i. Aewsome piece of kit.

Highly recommended.