Digital Camera, now or wait?

swizzle_2

I`m going on hoilday at the end of the year and want to upgrade my kodak Easyshare CX6200.

But is dig camera tech still moving quickley?

I want a point and shoot camera- not bothered about movies. Memerory is not a prob has I will acess to a computer and was going to burn images to a cd while i`m away.

Thinking of spending up to £150.

I am not very technical so will need something that produces images good enought to just print/email with out spending loads of time on the computer editing.

Any idea`s?

John_M_Business

I just got an Olympus Mju 800 - which is over your price range, but the smaller Mju's are still really cute, robust and effective. They'd do what you need. The Mju 600 is just a little over your budget, but the mini is under and is a decent package.

As for buying now or waiting. This is a question that anyone could ask themselves for YEARS... the technology is always moving on... always! Whatever you buy, next year there will be cheaper, smaller, better technology. Such is life! I bought a DV Video Camera about 18 months ago, and now am thinking of getting a HD Camera... Or just to use my mobile (OK, they're not quite there, but it won't be long... )

coolagarry

If you are going on the type of holiday that includes wildlife (ie safari in Kenya or similar) then it might be worth looking for something with a big optical lens.
Depends on what type of holidays you like.

swizzle_2

The camera will just be for seaside and kids, plus a bit of sight seeing.

Was looking at a Canon Power Shot A610, abit over budget at mo, but might come down in a few months?

wolfman

Camera technology isn't moving as fast as it was.

A 5mp camera is more than adequate for a point and shoot. I've always like the Canon iXus range, although the iXus 50 is around £185 so a but over your budget, but highly recommended.

T4i

One thing I've learnt with digi cams is shutter lag (or lack of it)

Simply go to a camera shop and try them out yourself. If you are wanting action type shots or shots or animals/people then you need a camera with quick shutter lag.

From what I've tried myself the Sony cams r quick, the fuji E550 is quick and Canons (I think)

I got myself a Fuji E550 just before crimbo and it produces very nice pics....All depends what u want out of it....I wanted my camera to take normal batteries (there aint mant places to charge a battery in the 'bush') and I wanted it to take the xD type memory card. I got the Pentax S5z before that and ended up taking it back because it was the worst thing i've ever used!

Point and shoot or manual setup......compact or SLR......

Fleetwood_Lad

Some of the Canon Ixus range suffer from weak LCD screens by all accounts. The cameras are small and advertised to "slip into your pocket". The problem is that the screen surface on some models doesn't appear to be up to the stresses applied when owners sit down with the camera inside their pockets etc. Do a search on google "sd300 lcd"

Pentax have a water resistant range now that are protected in a few feet of water for up to 30 minutes. They are also dust resistant. Ideal for holidays and the great outdoors. I mention this due to the fact that I've just wasted my 4 mp olympus in the wet and windy Lake District despite taking as much care as possible with it. Thats two cameras wasted up there.

The Pentax WPI is a 6mp, x3 optical compact and can be had for £162 and upwards. (£168 dixons/currys/pcworld online) A new improved version is being released later this month called the Pentax W10.



http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/optiowpi.html

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06021503pentaxw10.asp

Fleetwood_Lad

I forgot to add that Canon are also releasing new models in the next few weeks which might bring down the prices of older models.

The Canon A620 gets very good reviews. (The big brother of the A610 which also is well regarded) It produces excellent phots as a point and shoot but also satisfies the enthusiastic David baileys out there with the ability to manually tweak the settings. It's relative size in relation to the ultra compacts tends to put some buyers off though.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2005_reviews/a620.html

Neil_Taylor

FL
Friend of mine fell into an ornamental pond in Scotland, with Digicam and Cellphone.
Both stopped working, but when thoroughly dried out, worked OK.
Worth a try.

Kentish

If you want a Canon, then the Canon Outlet on eBay is usually a good place to get cheap cameras. They're refurbs but the stuff I've bought from them look brand new and come with a 12 month warranty.

Willxx

My missus recently bought me (or more accurately paid for! ) a new digital camera, I've had a Luminax something or other with a stainless steel body from Tesco there was 20% off and it cost £95.00.

As someone else has pointed out shutter lag is a problem but there is a load of settings you can set manually including a sports setting which speeds up the shot a bit, oh and its 8mp so the largest piccy sizes are immense. A 512mb SD card will take about 120 shots form memory at largest size. My 1st digital (2mp state of the art 4 years ago, my missus has a better camera on her phone now!) cost me over £400 (when I had money i.e pre-my beloved daughter making an appearance ) so although this isn't a professional type camera it works well enough for my point and clicking.