Advice on digital cameras please

[electra]

I want a new digital camera but I have no idea what to look for. What specifications make a better camera? At the moment I have a really basic one that came free with our lap top. I don't really want to spend a crazy amount of money, say up to £250.

Any ideas?

Someone on here is selling one that is the next next version up of mine. Mine is a Kodak z650 and it is the best camera I've had!! It is 6.1mp and 10x zoom. Definately recommend it.

Thanks! So it's all to do with the megapixels? I have a starting point now.

I've got a digital SLR which I love, but I have also got this Lumix for carrying around in my bag , and I'd highly recommend it, even though I am used to the SLR. It's got a fabulous big screen and very good features. If you get a big memory card you can do movies of up to about 8 minutes, quite good quality.

Pixels are definately important and the higher the better. I went for mine because it has 10x zoom, most only have 3x which I found pretty pointless - esp for getting nice pics of the kids.

It also depends on the type of pics you want to take - if you want something you can stick in your bag or if you want to do something a bit more pro...

Jessops do price match if you search the internet and print it out they will match what you price you found

i have a sony cybershot and love it

ignore digital zoom and make sure you have a decent optical zoom

Try it out and see if the time between pressing the shutter button and the time the camera actually takes the picture is quick.

Seriously, some of these compact cameras have such long shutter lags that your subject has left home and got a job!

Sorry to disagree slightly, but the number of megapixels is not really the most important factor these days IME. It tells you the maximum resolution of the picture, but a high resolution won't do you any good unless the quality of the lens is good enough to take advantage of it.

Most modern cameras are 6Megapixels or more, which is more than enough unless you're planning to print everything poster sized. The quality of the lens will be the determining factor for the results you get.

The bad news is that it's not so easy to tell what is a good quality lens. My advice would be to try to go to a reputable shop where you might get good advice, and go for one of the 'bigger names' in cameras - e.g. Nikon or Canon. Sony also use Carl Zeiss lenses in some of their cameras which are good.

HTH.

Also agree with Spagblog - optical zoom is important and watch out for 'lag' on the shutter which can be very annoying on some digital cameras because you always 'miss the moment'.

My Mum has a cheapish Kodak camera which is 5 megapixels and we have a fairly expensive (although older) Sony which is also 5 megapixels and there is absolutely no comparison in the quality of the photos they take (the Sony being vastly better because it has a high quality lens).

Thanks everyone - very helpful advice

Completely agree with Jilly- my Lumix has a Zeiss lens, that's what makes it so good. Loads of megapixels won't make up for a duff lens.

Try them out - definitely - jilly is right - shutter lag is the most annoying thing - and why I got a digital SLR (Canon EOS one) in the end - because my father had one and always got lovely pictures of my DC while I always, as jilly put it, "missed the moment" - so spend some time playing in a good camera shop with help from your DC and see how quick they are. Also the ability to take "multi-shot" (sometimes called sport mode) is v. useful with DC as somewhere in the 9 - 12 shots you hopefully get the expression you were trying to catch.

Look for something with a short lag time....

Digital cameras have a big problem where you press the button, sit and twiddle your thumbs for 10 mins until the camerra actually clicks - by which time your subject is 10 miles away....when I was looking a few years ago I found a geeky website buy googling which had all the delays and shutter speed type info on.

IMVHO you don't need lots of megapixels if you just want to shoot and print 6*4's. The more megapixels you have the bigger the file size so the less photos you will get on your memory card. I have a 3mp camera I brought about 4-5yrs ago and routinely use it at the 2mp (or less) setting. Honestly its fine. If I was buying one today I would probably aim for a 4-5mp and no more. Spend the money on upgrading the brand, lag speed and stuff rather than boosting your megapixels.

What do you want the camera for. If you just want to sling it in you pocket the Cannon Ixus and Olympus mju type cameras are supposed to be good. If you don't want to be lugging a SLR type thing around son't bother with it.

Also remember that within your buget you will probably want/need to buy a case, extra rechargeables and more memory.

Someone once told me that its no good spending loads of money on a digital camera if you don't have a good lens to start with. For this reason I brought olympus (cos I associate them with cameras). I think sony are using Carl Zeiss lenses these days too.

In summary. Don't waste money on loads of megapixels, buy a higher spec camera for your money with lower resolution.

There were only a handful of posts when I started typing that

check out teh shutter lag here

Littlelapin how could I ever delete pictures of my DC, however duff? DH just needs another disk in his computer, that's all

You need Hub2Dee.

His advice is 1000 times more valuable then all of us put together

\ link{http://www.cameras.co.uk/camera-reviews/sony-dsc-s600.cfm\this review looks fab, I want one and at £250 apparently}

this looks good