Help!, Looking for a Decent Camera

[riders]

I all,
I'm looking for a decent Digital Camera, :shrug: I go to alot of festival and concerts.. A good Zoom is an essential, and will be used inside and out..
I'll also be using it for hoildays and such like...
Also p.c friendly.

I have around £300 to spent.

Thanks. :thinking:

[Pheonix]

Bit of a difficult one this. Shooting decent photos in dark conditions at long range is a difficult enough task for pro range kit, let alone something prosumer/compact zoom!

Lowlight capabilities are handled admirably by the Fuji F30, but the zoom is only 3x, and it is a compact and not a "fully fledged" camera. You might just squeeze a starter digital SLR into that budget, but lenses would be on top.

[riders]

Ok thanks for the advice Pheonix..
How about shooting decent photos in daylight at long range, could you recomend me something then??.

Not to fussed about it being compact. Sooner have a decent camera than something i can put in my pocket..

[Pheonix]

Panasonic FZ50 maybe or something by Fuji, I think they still do superzooms.

Your going to get alot of noise in low light photos with these thou. But they are reasonable cams. I used the FZ30 for just under a year, got some excellent shots.

[kiran_mk2]

At the moment try the Ricoh R4 (28-200mm zoom) or Panny Tz1 (35-350mm zoom). If you can wait a month or so the R6 and TZ3 (28-280mm zoom) will be knocking around.

[Mujie]

I have an Olympus Camedia C-4000. It is a wonderful camera although its a few years old. I love it's ease and the digital zoom. But there are two drawbacks - it's a little bulky and super-zoom mode it very touchy. You can't even breathe when taking that shot.

[riders]

Ok, Thank you all for your advice,

Just out of intrest the camera's you have recomended, How would it go for, Lens, Memory Cards, Extra Batterys.. etc etc

I intend on Getting an extra battery in case i can't charge up the existing one, and also get a one maybe two gig memory card for those extra photos..

Thank you again.

Riders :thumbs:

[Mujie]

My Olympus takes 4 AA batteries. If yours does, I highly recommend getting 2 sets of rechargeable batteries. It will save you a ton of money. I also purchased a 128 MB card which will hold 150 good quality pics. I'm jealous about the 2 Gig memory card!

I don't have much time to fool with lenses, so I can't help you there.

Good luck!

[rwniel]

Might be worth waiting and having a look at the Olympus SP-550 (http://www.dpreview.com/news/0701/07012507olympusp550uz.asp) - it will probably struggle in low light though, but IS and long zoom should give you some flexibility. An advantage is that it uses AA's, so spare batteries are easily obtainable (- downside is the use of xd cards, abeit a minor one these days). I think Pheonix summed up the dilemma pretty well though. I have used my DSLR at concerts in the past and even that struggles at times (due to the odd/dim lighting you often seem to get).

Robert