Suggestion for a digital camera please ..

Donnie

Also, watch out for poor motion picture capabilities. It probably isn't the main reason why you buy a compact digital camera, though you'll be glad that it is included.

Minimum requirement; 640 x 480 pixels at 30 frames per second(fps) with full card length shooting capability.
Anything less is obselete.

The Canon Ixus cameras have this capability, though the compression system(Motion JPEG) that they use ends up with HUGE file sizes. Good quality, but NOT user friendly. You'll get around 9 to 10 minutes of high quality video with sound on a 1 Gigabyte SD card.

Some new cameras are using MPEG4 compression to attain around 70 mins of video with sound using the same size of card, albeit with some loss of quality.

I use the latter. A 30 second video of 640 x 480 at 30fps with sound will use less than 7MB. Using the Canon Ixus will result in usage of around 63 MB. Too large a file to send easily.

elisebutt65

This is the one I just bought. Very happy with it so far. I just put the card in my card reader so son't need to download software etc.
It's half-price at the mo and used a code I found here under Boots codes to get some 10% knocked off s well - total was £71.50.

Basic point and shoot, 3.2 mP and cmes with batteries and memory card so you can use it out of the box, which is all you really need for a first camera.

tigs78

I've just bought a Samsung A6 from Argos, down from £229.99 to just £99.99. Very impressed so far... 6 megapixels, 3 x optical zoom, 4 x digital zoom etc. It also came with a USB cable so you wouldn't need to get a card reader to transfer your photos to the computer.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5603251.htm

roadsidetree

wow :T I am impressed with the excellent quality of responses that this thread has received so far! Thanks to all you people :A

tigs78 - I am very much interested in "Samsung Digimax A6" model. Thanks for the suggestion! However I just have one query - when I checked the reviews in Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0006L2KKQ/qid%3D1137530871/026-4044662-4449243) I came across one post where the user mentioned about the low battery life. I would be very much interested in your experience so far. Did you ever have this problem? Please let me know.

Once again - many thanks to all you wonderful people :T

:beer:

tigs78

tigs78 - I am very much interested in "Samsung Digimax A6" model. Thanks for the suggestion! However I just have one query - when I checked the reviews in Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0006L2KKQ/qid%3D1137530871/026-4044662-4449243) I came across one post where the user mentioned about the low battery life. I would be very much interested in your experience so far. Did you ever have this problem? Please let me know.


I only bought mine last week so havn't had to change the batteries as yet, it takes regular AA batteries so you could always get rechargables if turns out to eat the batteries!

It comes with a small internal memory 32mb, i've bought a 512mb SD card which stores around 160 pictures for £20ish. An added bonus is that Argos seem to be giving out the 7 megapixel A7 as an alternative in some stores - there is a seperate thread on the Argos board...

2005CLAIRE

I had a look on Steve's reviews but can't seem to start a search within my price range. My eldest son aged 13 is going to Paris in April and I would like to get him a camera but it would have to be REALLY cheap - but on the other hand I don't want to buy anything that is total rubbish. I was tempted to get the one advertised in Somerfield for £39.99 but from what people have said about it I have been a little put off. Any ideas would be greatfully received as I know nothing about cameras.

Donnie

Here are details from the Samsung website; http://www.samsungcamerausa.com/productdetails.asp?productid=37

It a little dated in design and heavy, but decent value.

Here's the spec for the A7, if you're lucky enough to get that one; http://www.samsungcamerausa.com/productdetails.asp?productid=109