Digital Camera Advice required please - £150 :)

Discogod

Hi all,

I need a bit of camera advice - not long to go til November when i go on holiday to Australia. I'm just starting the hunt for a digital camera. So, your advice is welcome.

Our budget is around £150 & we're looking to replace our two cameras we have already, a canon powershot a80 and an Olympus C350.

I'm hoping on getting on that is better than both of these. It's gotta be a good point & shoot camera, but i'd like one that can shoot well in poor light conditions offered by small concert events (indoor max 1500 capacity venues).

Camera has to be relatively slim or small, certainly no bigger than the Olympus we already have, the smaller the better though as it has to fit in our pockets.
I'd like more than 3x optical zoom we have currently simply cos that's what we've got now & more is better, right?
Image stabilisation - cutting out shaky hands etc is helpful!
Video recording, currently my canon can record up to 3 minutes. I'd like this to be without a limit (or around 10 mins perhaps)
Some manual settings could be useful - my canon has manual settings but I only really use it at gigs, so if the new camera can take great gig shots in low light levels (ie when the lights aren't on full blast) then I shan't need manual settings.
Oh, another thing I like about my canon, it's got a swivel screen on it which you can turn round so you can take pics of yourself (http://a.img-dpreview.com/news/0308/canon/a80-frontback.jpg) - this is merely a bonus though i feel.

Oh & what advice can you offer about batteries? I've read alot that says new cameras out these days take their own batteries as opposed to AA? I always imagined it would be cheaper/easier/more convenient to use AA but please enlighten me!

Thanks in advance

isofa

As you have a wide set of requirements, it'll be handy for you to read some tests and comparative reviews in some of the many digicam camera mags in the newsagents, all will have best buy tables at the back.

The quality of the lens is always one of the most crucial factors in my opinion, so stick to decent camera brands and read the reviews at www.dpreview.com and www.steves-digicams.com to see what the experts think.

You'll never get perfect results for all the features you want in one device, one good at video will not be the best stills camera, and so on.

For low light use, find a camera with a high ISO mode, 800 at least, but preferably 1600 or even 3200 for extreme conditions, the higher the sensitivity, the more grainy the image is likely to be though.

You'll only need image stabilisation for longer zoom lengths or very low light photographs, for photos in normal light 3x zoom, you'll have no problem with shake, so it's not a massive issue. If you are going for a camera with a long zoom, then stabilisation is worth having, but remember it removes the motion of your hands shaking, not the motion of the subject - so a long exposure with a moving subject will still result in a blurred image!

Cameras with in-built Li-Ion batteries last for hundreds of shots, my tiny (and old-ish) Canon Ixus lasts for about 300 shots nowadays, and my Pro Canon SLR will do 500 without breaking into a sweat, they are much better than AA battery cameras, and the compacts can be smaller as they don't have to house two large batteries.

I'd first start looking at the current Canon Powershot range, depends what prices you can get them down to, they are good cameras, the Panasonic's are very well received too.

For prices try: www.camerapricebuster.co.uk

Discogod

thanks alot for your useful advice. I'll have a nosy around the web over the next week or so & see what i can pick up.

Other thoughts from members are welcome in the meantime.

£$&*"($£&(

It's the low light levels that worry me. Many of these cameras have small sensors and while manufacturers are chasing higher mega pixels there ignoring sensor size. And this shows in low light with higher ISO settings - from the reviews I've read it's often a problem and there always talking about noise. Cameras with slightly bigger sensors are better - I read a review of 12 cameras in Computer Shopper and the Fugifilm FinePixF100fd seems better than most.

DwainDibley

The first cameras that spring to mind are the Panasonic TZ3 (Or it's successor, the TZ5 though that might be out of your price range unless you have a good search online and on Ebay). This has 10x optical zoom and up to 3200 ISO sensitivity. It also has a nice Leica 28mm wide-angle lens and Panasonic's excellent optical image stabilisation. I have a TZ3 (I have a few cameras, part of my current debt problem!) and it's an excellent camera though the noise reduction on its a bit too aggressive and you can lose detail.

The other camera would be the Canon PowerShot A720IS, which was £149 from Jessops when I last looked. This has a 6x optical zoom and optical image stabilisation and takes great pictures. I had one of these then foolishly went and sold it! This camera also has more manual settings than the Panasonic, you have shutter/aperture priority and full manual modes.

I wouldn't get too hung up on high ISOs, I find most pictures taken at high ISO, especially with a compact camera are nigh on unuseable, the larger sensors in digital SLRs handle higher ISOs better imho.

palmeras69

Can I recommend the Fuji s5800? 10x optical zoom, 8mp (plenty) and plenty of manual control 9if you need/want it). Apparently very good for low light.

It doesn't have RAW mode or optical stabilisation but still very good.

You can get this from Amazon for £99 delivered - absolute bargain.

Cheers,

unrich

S5800 cheaper refurb from fuji

daveyjp

One feature being lost on compacts is a viewfinder - this applies to Panasonic. My dad has a TZ3 and whilst it has excellent zoom, actually using it is quite difficult, especially in bright sunlight. 'Framing' the photo is also more difficult.

DwainDibley

Very true with the optical viewfinder - the Canon A720IS has a small optical viewfinder though.

unrich

canon ixus and canon A series mostly have optical viewfinders. Tiny ones but they have them.

Using a small tft screen viewfinder it is not much good helping with judging focus.

If you're thinking of the Fuji s5800 slao consider the A590IS from canon. £99 from Empire. I can't seem to link.