Any digital camera recommendations?

[Floopy21]

Would like to buy one for DH for his birthday, but NO idea where to start! Just looking for one which takes good quality pics, neither of us are 'photographers' IYKWIM, so doesn't have to be fancy pants.

Thanks!

Whats your budget?

I guess about £70. £100 max. Is that do-able?!

I reckon it's definitely do-able.

I helped made my Mum replace her camera and we bought one on the web - it was a Samsung (not the best-known of camera companies, admittedly, but cameras are arguably much more electronic equipment than optical equipment now.

I don't remember the model but it was 110 or so, a couple of years ago. At about 5 mega-pixels, which is loads.

Remember to budget in for a memory card (or try and negotiate one into the purchase) and, I would suggest, go for one with a rechargeable lithium ion battery - avoid the ones that take AA batteries as you will go through them like water.

Some other things to consider - is he going to want to make video with it? If so, make sure it has some sort of microphone, as videos without sound can be a little flat.

This one might be worth having a look at....

www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/2719573/art/kodak/easyshare-m320-compact-di.html

Canon make excellent cameras. I have an ixus 80 which I love. Have just googled and if you can stretch your budget you can get one for a bargain price here looks like there's only a few left tho.

Also might be worth looking at this one....although it does go against my earlier comment in that it uses AA batteries.

link to HP camera

Canon do make fine cameras but they are a bit pricier than less well-established players in this market, like HP or Samsung (among others).

I love my Fujifilm Finepix S5700 - I got it a couple of years ago and it was about £150 so should have come down in price by now.

It takes great photos, especially in the special modes like "Beach mode" which is good for outdoor summer photos, and "Snow mode" which I have found great with the weather we have been having. There are also some indoor modes which are good for taking pictures of people, and sport mode which is good for taking pictures of toddlers!!

It has image stabilisation, but not face recognition, I think that the next model or maybe the next one up from that does though and that may also have come down in price now.

Another thing I like is the zoom - it has a very good optical zoom (10x). It's not a huge megapixel rating (7 I think) but it is big enough to print photos of good quality, you don't need higher megapixels anyway unless you are a professional photographer, more important is the quality of the lens.

Some pictures I have taken with it here:
Mostly of DS

www.cliftoncameras.co.uk/Fuji_Finepix_Z30

How about this? Or this?

www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/3828127/art/pentax/optio-m85-black-nc-w2-neo.html

Thank you very much for your suggestions. Bertie, your pics look fantastic.

Could anyone see any downsides WRT this? (apart from the battery thing. Can you get 'rechargable' batteries to use instead?)

www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=433252&catcode=?sourceid=3888&cm_mmc =Lyris--BC--BC3888-_-161748

Seduced by the £!

Well, you can definitely use rechargeable ones, but they (Nickel-hydride) do tend to degrade a bit quicker than Lithium-ion ones.

The lens is fairly small and as that is the 'bit' that gets the light in, bigger does tend to be better.

However, all that said, you probably can't go far wrong for that price. I would look for online reviews before taking the plunge though - it is only that much, but you wouldn't want to waste that money.

The likelihood is that they've economised on the software on the camera, (our Nikon has 1400000 ways to take a picture it seems, but we hardly use any other modes than automatic) and if you can take pics and then tweak the pics on your pc, that's probably a reasonable place to economise.

Worst case scenario is you buy this and then 'outgrow' it in a year or so, and the SD card (which stores the pictures) could be transferable to your next camera, so you're covered.

Canon Powershot £89

dh has just bought one of these (as a second camera for work) and the image quality is radically better than others in the prce range he tried - in fact he took back the Nikon Coolpix that they recommended because although they look the same on paper the image quality is significantly poorer

I know you'll say it doesn't matter, we are not pro photographers etc but if you do any messing around with them on the computer (eg cropping out your face to use as a Facebook profile pic etc) it really shows.

and you might as well get the best you can for your money.

and ye syou can use rechrageable batteries in them - Maplin is the place.

Sorry to hi-jack, I started a thread and got directed here. I'm after a new cam as well as mine get destroyed very quickly through mistreatment

My specs:

• Hard wearing as it'll be in a bag all day everyday (will buy a case this time...)
• Small enough to stay in bag discreetly.
• Cheap or to be found cheap via ebay/aria (around £100)
• Good video functions/able to use Windows Movie Maker and other such programs without distortion of media
• SD Card compatible
• Lithium AA batteries rather than those lithium blocks/mains charged as I may be moving into a tent so won't have mains!
• Relatively high MP count
• LCD Screen

and if possible:

• Can buy waterproof casing that fits the cam
• Can buy a decent cam bag that protects it

I currently have a Kodak Easyshare C813 that's just died on me!

I love the look of the HP CA350, can you tell me more about it please?! How is it for handling and ease of use? & the Fujifilm Finepix S5700, how quickly does it use the batteries, not keen on using 4 at once?!

powershot for you too

The fujifilm - battery life was great on it when I first got it, the first set of batteries I put in lasted about a year with moderate-infrequent use, the second set lasted about 6 months but with frequent use as I had DS.

Unfortunately it got dropped onto a hard floor and the screen went funny so sent it off to be repaired, since then the battery life is not as good, they still last 1-2 months with frequent use so ok for a digital camera but not as good as it was I don't know if it's age or the repairs which have done this to it. I keep meaning to get rechargeable ones.

If you always use the auto mode, do have a play with the different "scene" modes which are on modern cameras, often they give a better result than "auto" and still no settings to fiddle with.