View Full Version : Hankering for a digital camera
After having upgraded my pc, got a car, car stereo, sub, dvd player, 5.1 surround (both dvd and pc), stereo, widescreen tv, seperates stereo, redecorated my room, digital tv, silver bin and a beanie-frog (all in no particular order) - I have now decided I want a digital camera, 'cause they look cool.
Really I'm thinking of going somewhere decent this year (like America) and want to take snaps of it. My problem is I have no idea of where is the best and cheapest to get one from?
As a minimum I'd like a zoom lense (not too fussed how far, but they always tend to be at least 2x) and at least 2.1 megapixels (have these been abrieviated to MP's yet?). My budget is around £200. Oh and USB would be just marvelous.
Ta
:) Ian
To a certain degree it's always possible to say this but ideally I'd increase your budget slightly - it depends on "how around £200" it is. :) Increasing the amount spent though, will give you a few more choices. Otherwise, you'll probably have to accept that it'll have either a fixed lens or a digital zoom (which is only slightly above useless, since it's better to any editing on the computer and with a digital zoom all you're doing is blowing up the size of dots).
If possible, I would budget some money on extras, especially memory cards, extra batteries and/or a charger. The former is important, because the memory cards that come with the cameras (effectively the digital version of film) don't tend to hold many pictures. It is worth noting as well, that Compactflash cards are cheaper MB for MB than Smartmedia cards.
Fuji Finepix A201 ~ £180
(2.11MP, 2.5 x digital zoom, 16MB Smartmedia card, USB)
Olympus C2 ~ £220
(2.11MP, 2.5 x digital zoom, 16MB Smartmedia card, USB)
Minolta Dimage E201 ~ £235
(2.1MP, 2 x digital zoom, 8MB Compactflash card, USB)
Fuji Finepix 2400/2600 ~ £235/£245
(1.92MP/2.1MP, 3 x optical zoom, 2.5 x digital zoom, 8MB/16MB Smartmedia card, USB).
If you can stretch to it, then the Canon Powershot A20 is a universally excellent, compact camera.
Canon Powershot A20 ~ £275
(2.1MP, 3 x optical, 2.5 x digital, 8MB Compactflash card, USB)
Finally, a few useful website addresses;-
Digital Camera reviews and news (http://www.dpreview.com/)
Nomatica (http://www.nomatica.com/index.asp?Devise=GBP&Langue=EN)
The Digital Camera Company (http://www.digital-cameras.com/)
I was going to mention the Kodak DC3500/3600, but on second thoughts I decided against it! :D
Thanks for the advice! I always go over budget (who doesn't?), so I have to set it low in the first place. I'll take a closer look at these. :)
Ian
ic - can I hijack your thread mate? I was going to post exactly the same question but have a slightly better budget. Any other recommendations between £250 and £1000??
By all means lorenzo, but surely at £1000 you could simply take a BBC documentary crew with you...? :D
Originally posted by ic
By all means lorenzo, but surely at £1000 you could simply take a BBC documentary crew with you...? :D
:D cheers ic
Lorenzo - You're going to have the opposite problem to ic - too many choices!
With any digital camera though, it really depends on what you're gonna be doing with it ( - ok, which one of you said "take pictures"!:) ) For example, do you need something compact? How are you going to print your images and to what size? Do you need a big zoom etc? If compact, then it's going to be a trade-off between expandability e.g. whether you want to be able to fit different lenses, or a dedicated flash unit etc. On that basis though, here's a few suggestions:-
Compact
Canon Powershot S30 ~ £450
(3.1mp, 3x optical/3.2x digital, 16MB compactflash card*, USB)
Personal opinion, but I think it's better value than the higher resolution S40.
* a bit useless on a camera like this - stores 8 pictures at highest resolution. A 128MB Compactflash card costs ~ £60
Fuji Finepix 6800 ~ £510
(3.3mp, 3 x optical/4.4x digital zoom, 16MB smartmedia card**, USB)
Very easy transfer of pictures using the USB cadle which comes as standard. Odd looking shape, but more useable than it looks. Picture quality better on the S30 though (in my opinion).
** standard card holds 6 pictures at highest resolution. A 128MB smartmedia card cost ~ £65
'SLR'-like
Canon Powershot G2 ~ £625
(4.1mp, 3 x optical/3.6x digital, 32MB compactflash card, USB)
- if you want a big (10 x optical/4 x digital) zoom camera, have a look at the Powershot Pro 90 IS ~ £720 (better image quality than its 2.6mp resolution perhaps implies). It's based on the 'G1' - to which the 'G2' is the successor.
Sony Cybershot DSCS75 ~ £530
(3.14mp, 3 x optical/2 x digital, 8MB memory stick***, USB)
*** standard card holds 1 picture (!!!!) at highest resolution. A 128MB memory stick card costs ~ £115. Downside on the Sony's is the proprietry memory.
The G2 is a good allrounder.
'Enthusiast' - higher resolution and very configurable. The digital zoom is a bit more useful on these cameras because of the increased resolution.
Sony Cybershot DSC-707 ~ £865
(4.9mp, 5 x optical/2 x digital, 16MB memory stick, USB)
Can take monocrome pictures in complete darkness, thanks to the infrared leds and flippable IR filter. Very good lens. Has technology (laser) to help low light/no light autofocusing as well.
Nikon Coolpix 5000 ~ £900
(4.92mp, 3 x optical/4 x digital, 32MB compactflash, USB)
Wide angle (28mm) but average lens. New model.
Minolta Dimage 7 ~ £870
(4.92mp, 7x optical/2 x digital, 16MB compactflash memory, USB)
Nice wide-angle (down to 28mm) lens on the Dimage 7, but eats batteries for breakfast - the others do too, but not to the same degree. Not as good image quality as the other two (in my opinion). Upside is the big zoom, if required.
I would say the Sony has the edge in this catagory overall.
Much is down to personal preference though, so it's good idea to go into a shop that has the majority of them on display e.g. Jessops and where you can handle/get a feel for them.
troopfriend
23-01-2002, 16:05
Pump your money into dixons (http://www.dixons.co.uk) and get an Olympus C2 for £169.99, fifty squid cheaper than was quoted above.
Digi zoom, but 2MP and a 16MB memory card.
With the money you have left buy a holiday somewhere posh and take some pictures!
The 'C2' is a great entry level digital camera and at £169-99 an absolute bargain - if being picky the downside is the battery life on 'duracel' type batteries - use decent rechargebles instead and that 36mm fixed lens.
But it's worth bearing in mind that the resolution will allow you to blow up the image a bit on a selected portion of your overall image if you only plan to print at say 6" x4" /7" x 5' - lessens the lack of an optical zoom slightly.
Originally posted by rwniel
Lorenzo - You're going to have the opposite problem to ic - too many choices!
I see what you mean :D
My main interest is 'close up work' such as portrait shots. Portability would be an advantage but I would rather sacrifice that at the expense of quality.
What sort of prices am I looking at for a digital camera which I can change lenses on (based on a standard 35mm obviously)? My mate has a S1?? and it's the dogs **. He's has even bought a second camera which takes 3-4 pictures each time you shoot!! Is it worth getting one where you can change the lenses?? I am only going to use it to take pics of my family for mementos - no professional stuff or hobbies you understand!
The Fuji S1 is essentially a true SLR camera with the film part replaced by the digital capture mechanism. It is based on the Nikon N60 camera body, so that means it can take a whole range of Nikon 'F' mounted lenses. Bear in mind though, that the sensor on the S1 is smaller than the frame on a 35m film so for example, a 20mm wide angle lens will be equivalent to 30mm and so on (i.e. wide angle to semi wide angle).
At a retail price of around £1,700, I would hope it would be excellent. :) Bear in mind as well, that the camera only comes with a 16MB compactflash card which holds a single picture at highest resolution.
You don't need to spend as much as that though, for a camera that can take different lenses. Just avoid compact cameras like the Powershot S30. The main advantage of being able to take additional lenses, is if you have a collection of lenses already.
The Canon Powershot G2, for instance can take a variety of lenses via a convertor (as does the Sony) - although for what you said it's probable that you won't need additional lenses. The Powershot G2 lens is equivalent to a 34 - 102mm (35mm camera) lens, without resorting to the digital zoom so it gives alot of flexibility already. I'd start by investigating that, plus the Sony S75/S85. The 'G2' uses a Canon lens, the Sony uses a Carl Zeiss lens.
Check out these reviews for more detailed information (plus sample images towards the end of the review);
Canon G2 (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong2/)
Sony DSC S75 (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydscs75/)
Sony DSC S85 (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydscs85/)
(Note: the reviews show the accessories as well, so you can see what lens convertors are available etc. Also have a look at the 'timings and file sizes' section of the reviews for how well the continuous modes work).
From what you said, it sounds as if something like the 'S1' would be overkill. Also, how do you intend to print your images and to what size? If you're printing them yourself, you can download the images from the review (plus other sites on the web) and print them in order to guage absolute image quality i.e. don't just go by the display of them on your monitor.
Arch Stanton
24-01-2002, 12:55
Originally posted by troopfriend
Pump your money into dixons (http://www.dixons.co.uk) and get an Olympus C2 for £169.99, fifty squid cheaper than was quoted above.
Digi zoom, but 2MP and a 16MB memory card.
With the money you have left buy a holiday somewhere posh and take some pictures!
Is this a misprice on the Dixon site because it's £299 in the Dixons shop i looked at.
Well, it's listed on the Dixons site in the "deal of the week section". But to be pedantic you do have to add on £3-25 for delivery making it £173-24 in total. Still a bargain whichever way you look at it.
Arch Stanton - don't know mate - check the bargain forum as i thinkit is in a thread there.
rwniel - great advice, just what i wanted to hear. I will check out those 3 you suggested and print off a few images. I will mainly keep them on my PC but if I get an absolute classic then may consider sending it off for printing. Thanks again - will let you know what i buy on Saturday.
One last question - where is the cheapest place to get the G2?
The cheapest I found online was here (http://www.askdirect.co.uk/uview?call=ask.productSearch&id=1212&topcatid=12) @ £599, including VAT and delivery - but they were out of stock.
An alternative is the Digital Camera Company (http://secure.venus.co.uk/dcc/Canon-G2.html) @ £510 + VAT + del (£611-00). It's a popular camera so may be in short supply generally.
If you want a few opinions on the camera from their owners, you could also search the forums (http://www.dpreview.com/forums/) here as well as here (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/).
The above reminds me of a conversation I once had with a 'customer' on the phone (off tangent moment).
Customer: "Can you give me the price for a widget"
Me: Scrabbles for price list - "yes, it's £100"
Customer: "blimey! The other place I contacted were selling it for £90"
Me: "well why didn't you buy it from them?"
Customer: "they didn't have any"
Me: "well, when we don't have any, you can have one at £90 as well". :D
rwniel - thanks to you mate I am now the proud owner of a G2 :D
Even better was the £599 price tag from Jessops :clap:
Many thanks
Now where's the best place to pick up a spare memory card?? Thye had a 350MB for £250 and a 1GB for £350 which seemed steep to me. Thought I'd check with my mates the forums first :D
lorenzo: You managed to battle your way through all the specs! :D Glad I could help m8. Let us know what you think of it, especially compared to the Fuji S1 your friend had. The G2 uses Compactflash cards, so this link (http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=43919) should be useful if you haven't seen it already.
Very large cards are always more expensive - the advantage is that you get all your storage on a single card, with the downside of losing alot of images if something goes wrong with it or you mislay it.
The 64MB are the best value at £17-99 + £1-95 p&p (on any size order), as you'd expect to pay around £60 for a 128MB card. So essentially you get 192MB for the price of a 128MB card. They do seem a little slow in comparison to my 'Sandisk' card, but not too bad. Alternatively, if you did want a bigger one then the 256MB ones are £78-95 + p&p - (doing the maths, that's 512MB for £159-95 or 1GB for £317-75). You'll get roughly 56 jpeg photos/128MB card (at highest resolution).
Incidentally, you might want to consider a USB card reader (http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1004) as well for £17-99 ( - you'll be able to get images straight of the cards, without plugging in the camera each time).
What would I do without you?? :)
It occured to me after my previous post, that the 'G2' can also take type II Compactflash cards as well as the IBM Microdrive (basically like a mini-hard disk, but in a card). If you can make do with a Compactflash card below 256MB then just ignore this. However, you could install something like the 340MB or 1GB IBM Microdrive and these retail at £153-91 and £273-76 respectively. This would be cheaper than the equivalent single capacity Compactflash card. You can find them here (http://www.valuemedia.co.uk/microdrive.htm).
JayKay9999
31-01-2002, 14:29
steves-digicams has a nice roundup article titled Steve's Digicams Announces Our "Best of the Year" Awards For The Outstanding Cameras of 2001
Can be found here (http://www.steves-digicams.com/diginews_jan2002.html#bestof2001)
MikeToone
01-02-2002, 06:21
A bit late joining this, but if you got a grand to spare then why not get a Digital Camcorder. I picked up my Panasonic for £575.00.
Help :rolleyes:
i ordered 3 of these MM cards (http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=6960) for my G2 and got them this morning. Unfortunately, as you will be aware, they don't fit :( . As rwniel said the G" uses a Cf card which is significantly fatte than these MM cards. Have I wasted my money or what??
Incidently, I now have 2 digital cameras as I picked up a Kodak DX3700 in the fiasco in the bargain forums :D Will this use the MM cards and therefore help me out of my predicament?
lorenzo
Your link points to a SmartMedia card which will not work in the DX3700. MultiMedia works with the Kodak.
Unfortunately, there's a few different card standards with some cameras using one type and another make or model using another. Why Kodak decided to go for a different type to their other camera models I doubt I'll ever figure out (although that's just me having a personal gripe as I just bought a compactflash card and reader to use with my "old" camera, having also taken advantage of the recent 'special' deal and also not expecting Kodak to fold so quickly).
The Kodak DX3700 uses Multimedia cards, which are different to either Smartmedia or Compactflash. So if you have bought Multimedia cards by "mistake", then they'll work in the DX3700. If however they're Smartmedia cards, then they won't work in either (the 'DX3700' or 'G2').
D'oh :mad: There's my impatience again!
So is 7dayshop the best place to pick up the cheapest CF card? I think I will go for a whapping big 1Gb as I can't be doing with changing the crad all the time or constantly deleting images plus we are off to Europe for a month so will probably go without my laptop. God maybe I need several 1Gb cards - arrrggghhhhh!
If you're happy with a more 'modest' Compactflash (CF) card size, then '7day shop' is just about the cheapest I found. They do a range of sizes from 8MB to 512MB.
However, the 512MB is relatively expensive for its size, so the 256MB one is better value (@ £78-95 and will hold 112 hi-res photos). If you're convinced that you really do need a bigger size though, there is always the range of IBM microdrives as mentioned earlier. I came across a cheaper source for them from Expansys (http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=MICRO_1GB) - the IBM microdrive works out comparatively cheaper than the 512MB CF card (@ £233-13 inc. del or £162-63 for the Microdrive 340MB version). These are compatible with the 'G2'.
It's worth bearing in mind too, that you tend to use digital cameras slightly differently to conventional film cameras, namely that you can review your pictures before "processing". Hence, you possibly don't need as much storage as you think you do. Otherwise you could maybe get by with a Microdrive plus a couple of smaller CF cards just in case.
Argos are doing 20% off all digital cameras at the moment, and 10% off camcorders :)
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