Advice Re Camera Purchase

J3OEF

Hi,

Im posting on behalf of my mum as im the "technical" guy within the house. She is wanting to buy my younger sister a camera to go with other presents for xmas, she wants to spend roughly £200 on one so im wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to which i should be looking at or comparing for this price?

She is 17 and will be using it for her college work where she is doing art & design and stuff like that. She suggests Nikon but i dont got a clue what to go for or look out for in a camera really.

So any advice or links will be appreciated

thanks

da1seggy

Based on the budget, a compact digital camera rather than an SLR.

I'd say, anything between 5 and 8 megapixels should suffice. Make sure it has optical zoom of at least 3x.

I personally would recommend one that uses SD memory cards as I find them cheaper.

The Casio Exilim range is decent, as are the Panasonic Lumix

http://www.cameras.co.uk/

f1charlie

Add £20 to the budget and you could get an Nikon D40 SLR:

http://www.johnlewis.com/230411289/Product.aspx?source=30151

SLR for best picture quality, a compact for convenience.

J3OEF

thanks, i will take a look at those whats the difference between digi and SLR? Is a nikon D40 more then what she may need?

da1seggy

My guess would be picture quality. SLR's are typically used by professionals and can price into the thousands.

Oh, and the comparison is between Compact & SLR - they're all digital cams

f1charlie

You have to look through the viewfinder in an SLR to compose your photo - no looking at the LCD (unless you spend a bit more).
You can change the lens on a SLR.
SLR has a bigger sensor, so gives better picture quality.
SLRs usually give you more manual control.

J3OEF

right get ya, surely its better to look through the slr anyway rather then just looking at a lcd to take it? i think if you can change lenses and it benifits the camera or gives her more options then this may be a better choice

f1charlie

If she's going to get into the photography side of things or be more creative, the SLR is the way to go. However she may not like the size of an SLR and would be more comfortable with a compact - that's something you'll have to be clever and find out (if this is going to be a surprise!).

Marty_J

Unless she really wants to get into photography in a big way, she'd probably like a compact better so she can carry it around with her on nights out and the like. Even the smallest SLR is rather unweildy compared to a compact.

This is a really nice little camera:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-Digital-IXUS-80-Camera/dp/B0012ZGI44/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1227915249&sr=1-2