Heartland

I'm thinking of asking for a digital camera for my birthday but there's so many out there and I've never had one before so I'm a bit stumped as to which one to ask for.

It will be used mainly for pictures of friends, family and sightseeing (holiday/etc) so it doesn't need to be too advanced by I'd like a fairly decent one.

Anyone got any recommendations?

What sort of price range?

Probably £80-£120.

I have 8 cameras at the moment. I have a Nikon and a Canon, my favourite out of them all though is always whichever Olympus I have (I keep upgrading). Excellent cameras but you don't have to pay extra for the name.

If you simply want snapshots etc then these two are ok
8MP is very good quality - IE: you can blow the picture right up without it blurring/pixelating.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Olympus-FE-280- ... 639&sr=1-4

and

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Olympus-FE-280- ... 639&sr=1-3



If you might want to take gig photos or stuff a long way away then this is an absolute bargain ..... and now I've seen it I might get one. It has an EIGHTEEN times zoom and importantly for gig pics etc it has a flip top flash which is way better/ more powerful than the little built in flash the other two have.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Olympus-SP-550- ... 639&sr=1-1

I took this with a fairly cheap (£100+) olympus.



this with a canon sureshot (£200+)

You should try to get a good optical zoom. 3x minimum.
A quick reaction time of the cam helps to get nice snapshots. My stone old digicam needs about a second till it's ready with the pic, which is a pain sometines. If you want to keep the pictures on computers only, I think a 5 MPix cam pffers all you need, screens can't display really highly resoluted pics in 100%, so you may not need a vast resolution. a screen of 1024x768 has 786432 Pixels, so that's roughly 0,8 Megapixels.
You never make a mistake with a Canon. I don't know the contemporary prices, but it should be in the range you think of. A friend of mine has a 5 MPix Powershot, not the latest cam, but with a strongs scratch resistant housing, tiny (so it fits into every pocket) and it makes excelent pictures. And has quite an enduring battery.
Wow, I just said that the most famous brand is okay! ! Sage, Jum.
But that Powershot-thingy really is nice. There are much cheaper ones which offer decent performance as well, but that really needs a geek to tell you wich.
Most important is an optical zoom, I think.

I am wedded to my Canon. Current weapon of choice is the PowerShot A640 - 10 megapixies, 4x optical zoom, nice big flip-out screen (handy when you want to look like you're taking pictures of something else), decent 'auto' setting but simple to use custom functions. It's a little out of your price bracket (GBP 310 from Amazon UK, $429 from Amazon.com), but it is a fabulously wonderful piece of kit. I used to use the 4mp version, loved it, still have it as a back-up.

It's worth investing a bit of wonga in a digital camera, otherwise you run the risk getting something "cheap" and finding it won't do what you would like it to. Couple of things I would bear in mind if you're shopping:

What sort of batteries does it take? I would look for one that takes standard AA batteries, available anywhere, rather than one that needs a specific type or (worse) means you need to take a charging cradle with you everywhere. The cradle will break and baby will fall, and you'll be stuck in Ulan Batur without a functioning camera.

What sort of zoom? Lots of companies will talk about 20-30x zooms, but this is bollocks unless you're spending Ghana's national debt on the kit. There are optical zooms and digital zooms. Optical zooms work like a traditional camera zoom, but digital zooms just take one part of the picture and make it larger. This increases the pixel size (or grain) and if you try to blow up a picture that you've taken at 20x digital zoom you'll find it looks like sh!t.

What sort of memory? There are a plethora of memory storage systems out there - the most common is an SD card. These (like AA batteries) are readily available in any computer or camera shop from New York to Novosibirsk, which means that if you lose one or need a new one you can lay your paws on one pretty easily. There's nothing sadder than watching someone with a really flash piece of kit have to fall back on his Kodak Instamatic because he can't get a proprietary brand of memory in Lower Bumblefukc.
And SD cards are cheap - 2 gig (don't bother with anything smaller - as cameras get more pixies you get fewer pixs per gig) will set you back about GBP15 if you shop around, and considerably less if you buy them in foreign climes.

ask for the more expansive one....
there is a reason why it costs a bit more

I've one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... undbe00-21

Just within your price range, and pretty decent shots too.

I love my Sony Cybershot, which is now admittedly a bit clunky but it's survived being kicked round a mosh pit several times and still works fine there must be new versions of it out now so I would recommend one if you just want a point and click type affair but it does have advanced features too if you feel like fiddling around a bit (which I don't)

robertzombie wrote:I'm thinking of asking for a digital camera for my birthday but there's so many out there and I've never had one before so I'm a bit stumped as to which one to ask for.

It will be used mainly for pictures of friends, family and sightseeing (holiday/etc) so it doesn't need to be too advanced by I'd like a fairly decent one.

Anyone got any recommendations?

Make sure it has an image stabiliser for sure (for hand-held shots), and I rate Panasonic for compacts, but that pic of Iggy on an Olympus looked great ...

Hopefully it will just be a start for you, then you can move on to an SLR - (Canon preferably) and so on, right up to Mr Hasselblad! ...

See if you can blag as much software as you can too ... They all come with free stuff, but I find Zoombrowser that I got with my Panasonic very useful. A full version of Adobe Photoshop is a must, but takes some grasping (even older versions are pretty mind-boggling!) - The tweaks and effects you can add and create with will give you hours of fun, I guarantee! ...

Don't forget spare batteries, memory cards and a case too, and a tripod (second-hand will do) if you can afford one ...

Carry it with you at all times, and snap away - Your hard disk will be filling up before you know it! - We look forward to seeing the fruits of your purchase

reactiv8 wrote:

robertzombie wrote:I'm thinking of asking for a digital camera for my birthday but there's so many out there and I've never had one before so I'm a bit stumped as to which one to ask for.

It will be used mainly for pictures of friends, family and sightseeing (holiday/etc) so it doesn't need to be too advanced by I'd like a fairly decent one.

Anyone got any recommendations?

Make sure it has an image stabiliser for sure (for hand-held shots), and I rate Panasonic for compacts, but that pic of Iggy on an Olympus looked great ...

Hopefully it will just be a start for you, then you can move on to an SLR - (Canon preferably) and so on, right up to Mr Hasselblad! ...

See if you can blag as much software as you can too ... They all come with free stuff, but I find Zoombrowser that I got with my Panasonic very useful. A full version of Adobe Photoshop is a must, but takes some grasping (even older versions are pretty mind-boggling!) - The tweaks and effects you can add and create with will give you hours of fun, I guarantee! ...

Don't forget spare batteries, memory cards and a case too, and a tripod (second-hand will do) if you can afford one ...

Carry it with you at all times, and snap away - Your hard disk will be filling up before you know it! - We look forward to seeing the fruits of your purchase

What panasonic have you got?

I got one of the new panasonic Lumix cameras. It's gone straight to the back of the cupboard. The picture quality is s**t & the flash doesn't travel more than six foot away. Serves me right, bought it on a whim.

I've been thinking of buying a new one too, and I've just noticed this thread so may I join.
My question is about this "image stabiliser" thing. I felt attached to Olympus but I've been told that Olympus have digital image stabiliser, while Panasonics have optical image stabiliser which is much much better. Still, the person who told me this was a shop assistant at a Panasonic shop if you know what I mean.
So, how much truth there is in it, I'm asking the clever ones amongst you.
I need one of the small but decent ones by the way.

_emma_ wrote:I've been thinking of buying a new one too, and I've just noticed this thread so may I join.
My question is about this "image stabiliser" thing. I felt attached to Olympus but I've been told that Olympus have digital image stabiliser, while Panasonics have optical image stabiliser which is much much better. Still, the person who told me this was a shop assistant at a Panasonic shop if you know what I mean.
So, how much truth there is in it, I'm asking the clever ones amongst you.
I need one of the small but decent ones by the way.

My panasonic lumix takes pictures like I'm epileptic. More shakey than Shaking stevens using shake n vac in an earthquake.

Thank you.

biggy wrote:
My panasonic lumix takes pictures like I'm epileptic. More shakey than Shaking stevens using shake n vac in an earthquake.

Is that the one we've got? Gaz seems to do alright with it, Me? I reckon I've got the onset of Parkinsons as they are always blurry

Debaser wrote:

biggy wrote:
My panasonic lumix takes pictures like I'm epileptic. More shakey than Shaking stevens using shake n vac in an earthquake.

Is that the one we've got? Gaz seems to do alright with it, Me? I reckon I've got the onset of Parkinsons as they are always blurry

yep, the blue coloured one. Remember we tried to get that sign on the tent with yours at the Stooges thing in Leeds. You couldn't even tell it was a sign..... until I took my canon out (whey hey) & took a proper photo of it.
All that effort and it said "first aid tent this way" or something

biggy wrote:

reactiv8 wrote:

robertzombie wrote:I'm thinking of asking for a digital camera for my birthday but there's so many out there and I've never had one before so I'm a bit stumped as to which one to ask for.

It will be used mainly for pictures of friends, family and sightseeing (holiday/etc) so it doesn't need to be too advanced by I'd like a fairly decent one.

Anyone got any recommendations?

Make sure it has an image stabiliser for sure (for hand-held shots), and I rate Panasonic for compacts, but that pic of Iggy on an Olympus looked great ...

Hopefully it will just be a start for you, then you can move on to an SLR - (Canon preferably) and so on, right up to Mr Hasselblad! ...

See if you can blag as much software as you can too ... They all come with free stuff, but I find Zoombrowser that I got with my Panasonic very useful. A full version of Adobe Photoshop is a must, but takes some grasping (even older versions are pretty mind-boggling!) - The tweaks and effects you can add and create with will give you hours of fun, I guarantee! ...

Don't forget spare batteries, memory cards and a case too, and a tripod (second-hand will do) if you can afford one ...

Carry it with you at all times, and snap away - Your hard disk will be filling up before you know it! - We look forward to seeing the fruits of your purchase

What panasonic have you got?

I got one of the new panasonic Lumix cameras. It's gone straight to the back of the cupboard. The picture quality is s**t & the flash doesn't travel more than six foot away. Serves me right, bought it on a whim.

After a cheaper 5MP version which was my 'intro', I shelled out ££££ for a DMC-LX2, because I wanted 28mm equiv. wide angle and 16:9 aspect ratio - largely for landscapes etc., oh and the RAW facility (very useful) ...
Nice lens, nice facilities and ease of use, metal body, rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery .... but quite a bit of 'noise' at low light, other than that I have to say that I can't fault it ... Flash is not too bad for small rooms, but I use a tripod lots, so this ain't a problem too much for me ... It was expensive, but is sturdy, and has produced some stunning photos - I'm getting around to posting some of these on Heartland ... I need to subscribe to Flickr apparently, according to Sinnie, so bear with me on this ok?! Also, I have a Canon EOS 400D which I like a lot, mainly because it is also good and I have several lenses from my old film cameras, which are interchangeable.

More later - I'm just 'catching up' on my inboxes etc.

_emma_ wrote:I've been thinking of buying a new one too, and I've just noticed this thread so may I join.
My question is about this "image stabiliser" thing. I felt attached to Olympus but I've been told that Olympus have digital image stabiliser, while Panasonics have optical image stabiliser which is much much better. Still, the person who told me this was a shop assistant at a Panasonic shop if you know what I mean.
So, how much truth there is in it, I'm asking the clever ones amongst you.
I need one of the small but decent ones by the way.

Yeah, make sure you get one with an 'image stabiliser' for sure ... It does help cut down on camera shake, but does NOT eliminate it. If you are worried, set the camera to auto, and it will choose an ISO setting allowing for the light levels ... When you get more proficient you can do this yourself. I use a tripod lots, but if you want to take hand held pics of people, especially without flash, then the stabiliser is essential. Most makes have it on the better models, but I reckon it IS worth having. I have it too on my SLR lenses, and it is a MUST with telephotos! Think about it really - if you are magnifying something, then it is bound to accentuate any wobbles, so shutter speed becomes critical, and indoors even more so. Usually without zooming in, 1/125th of a second is the lowest you can go without the wobbles - IS means you can extend this to 1/60th or even 1/30th at a push! - Try resting your elbow on something too, this helps.

Borrow a friend's and try one out - Digital cameras really are a breakthrough ... If you can you can use a computer proficiently too, then you will never look back I promise!

biggy wrote:. You couldn't even tell it was a sign..... until I took my canon out

*sigh* It was because of that incident,being belittled by camera-envy, I exacted my revenge by text........

OK. Having checked various models on the internet I'm now hesitating between Olymplus µ 830 and Canon G9. Is there anybody here who actually tried any of these and so has an opinion?

Not tried it myself, but my friend has a G9 and loves it. His photos are over here if you want to take a look:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenjude/

I once had the Olympus µ2 film camera that I loved to little pieces, so I recommended to my bother in law that he buy the digital version, but it turned out to be a bit sh!t.

Based on experience with Canons, I'd go with the G9.

or save up some more an get the Nikon D80. By far the best camera I own.

_emma_ wrote:OK. Having checked various models on the internet I'm now hesitating between Olymplus µ 830 and Canon G9. Is there anybody here who actually tried any of these and so has an opinion?

Emma,

In my humble opinion I would suggest the Canon! ...

In one of my previous posts I mentioned ZoomBrowser - In fact, it is 'bundled' with Canons so a bonus to be sure!

Nothing wrong with Olympus, so try them out with a helpful salesperson if you get the opportunity ...
Jessops can be helpful if there is one near you?...

Good luck and of course we look forward to seeing the fruits of your happy snapping ...

Chris

twp wrote:or save up some more an get the Nikon D80. By far the best camera I own.

Just checked it on a photographers' forum, seems very cool indeed , but:
1. Too complicated (I'm blond and proud of it ),
2. Too big (I just know that it would lay in the drawer and I would never use it, I need something that will fit in my bag between the lipsticks and keys and cigarettes and towels and cellphone and mine and the car's IDs and stuff. ). In fact, I'd choose the Canon if only it was smaller than it is, but the Nikon is faar too big.
Thanks though.