Cheap Digital Camera deals discussion

StJohn

Reasons for AA batteries: They are cheap, easy to find, and last a long time (particularly when you get up towards 2600mA). If you forget spares someone nearby usually has a couple, and you can always buy some in a shop. They are the same as many other gadgets and so can be swapped from one to another with ease. The chargers are easy to find and very small. When your camers gives up the ghost, it is easy to buy a new camera that works off AA batteries. A spare couple of batteries fit in your pocket. I ONLY use AA batteries now, and would not buy a camera I could not use them in. One disadvantage: other people often muddle them with disposables and throw them away!
Reasons not to use internal or specific rechargables: after a number of charges, all rechargables hold less and less charge. When a proprietary specific battery finally bites the dust (and they all do), a replacement is often really expensive, if you can find one. Chances are, by the time you need one, the battery is obsolete. If your battery goes flat you can't just borrow one from someone else. I have a stock of old cameras and batteries that are no use to anyone, whilst my AA's keep going and going...

sennenboy

I know very little about cameras and am looking for a piont and shoot camera with an option of a wide angled lens. Any suggestions?

practicaleq

For £69.99 (RRP £119.99) at Amazon.co.uk. With Li-ion rechargeable battery and charger.

Not many reviews of it available yet - it was only launched in about September 09 - but those I've seen are good (not outstanding, but good).

lazer

I got the canon Powershot A480 as a christmas present from my parents when it was on special offer - £60 (Argos)
Now my brother wants a digital camera as a present too - any suggestions for something similar?

mightyjojo

Hi all,

I too am looking for advice on what camera to buy! It's for a present for xmas for my boyfriend, who doesn't have a camera at all, so I want a small one he can carry around constantly, good enough for going out and holiday pics and movies, and maybe with basic picture options so that if he suddenly decides to become an avid photographer he won't have to replace it straight away!

I've already spent hours researching this, and I'd pretty much decided on the Samsung ES55, currently at £67 on amazon. My budget is about £60-80, and I guess I need to add case and a memory card on top of that, and ideally I'd want it all to come out to less than £100.

I definitely want one with a lithium battery, mine has AA batteries and it eats them! Apart from that, I was also told to avoid Sony because they use a special memory stick that only works with their cameras.

The thing is that I've also seen cameras like the Fujilfilm Finepix J30 at £80 at amazon, and the Casio Exilim EX-z1 at £96 at amazon. And I'm wondering whether either of those is worth the extra money? Or if there are better cameras than those two at £80? I think the Samsung ES55 is probably the best available at that price, but I've read that there's no quick button to get movies, and I know it would niggle at me to have to go into the menu every time!

If anyone had any advice it'd be much appreciated, it's our first xmas together, and I'm getting really stressed trying to find the best pressie!

Thanks

[Deleted User]

Seems like the ES55 gets a reasonable review - http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/digital_cameras/samsung/es55/300513

I wouldn't spend the extra money - get a 2 or 4gb card and a case - i think its a great present. You could also buy some pre-pay prints from snapfish.co.uk so he could get some shots printed out.

pixxyco

theonlyrick wrote: »

Cameras that use AA batteries are only more expensive to run if you buy non-rechargeables. Which would be very, very silly. And it would be particularly silly - if not stupid - to use the cheapest batteries you can find (ie those big packs of batteries in Poundland). The camera just won't last any time at all on those.

Low drain, zinc chloride batteries:
Very cheap, but pointless. Avoid at all costs!

Alkaline (normal) batteries:
Medium battery life, but expensive. Only use them if you have to.

NiMH (normal rechargeable) batteries:
Best battery life, plus you can recharge them afterwards, so they work out MUCH cheaper!
Also, 'cos they're relatively cheap, you can carry a spare pair round with you.


When cameras have those rectangular inbuilt batteries (Li-Ion), they are small and put out a lot of power.
Unfortunately, if you need to replace them they're pretty expensive, and if you're not going to be able to recharge the camera, you're stuck.
Not a problem with AAs (the normal cylindrical batteries) - they're cheap enough to keep a backup set with you.


Here comes the science bit:
Although normal alkaline batts (eg say Duracell or Energizer) can put out more energy in total than a rechargeable batt, they can't provide the spike of power that digital cameras need. This means that an alkaline will seems like it's dead, even though it still has plenty of juice in it. Alkaline batteries are like having a car that can go a long way on a tank of petrol, but doesn't have the power to climb a hill.

Just a comment on normal AA batteries against special camera batteries.

Although AA have the advantage of being easily available, I find that rechargables lose their charge far quicker than specialist batteries when the camera is not in use. I have a Fuji S2 and a Nikon D100 slr which both use the same body, but different internals. I would pick the Nikon D100 any day over the Fuji for the battery, it can be sat doing nothing for a couple of weeks but when I pick it up the battery is still good. If I do that with the Fuji with decent rechargable AA's, I usually find that it dies practically straight away as the batteries have lost there charge - and it's not the batteries as they're fine in a flash.

Now this may be due to the camera, but I would personnelly go for specialist battery camera anyday with obviously a spare battery.

PMSYORKS

Just a note on batteries ( and Fuji cameras), I have owned two Fuji "bridge" cameras for the past 6 years, I am currently using a 9600 which I have had for 2 years. I find it to be the best camera I have ever owned, this is after approx 20 years using 35mm SLR's from all the major manufacturers. A major advantage of the Fuji is that it takes AA batteries. Naturally, it absolutley eats Alkaline batteries, the only ones I used in it are the ones that came free, but, high capacity AA rechargables are available online for around £5 for four- about what you could pay in the high St for Duracell AA. I have about 20 altogether with a 1 hr chrger, I can have the camera and a spare set of batteries charged & ready at all times.Last summer, I took 650 shots in Florida with just 2 sets of AA's.

Recently, I decided that I needed a small compact to carry around when not taking the large Fuji out. I purchases an ultra slim Fuji J25 (refurbished) directly from the Fuji website ( £52.99 minus a 10% discount coupon). This gave me a very light & very thin (17.8mm) compact camera. The only disadvantage i found is that it came with its own lithium ion rechargeable battery , the problem with this is that it has to be removed from the camera to charge ( 2 hrs). In 30 years of photography I have never had to sit by unable to use a camera whilst it is on charge. Some may think this is nit picking andit can easily be done overnite when not using it, but to me, it matters.
When testing the camera, I got approx 40 indoor shots with flash from the new battery. Main problem with tiny lithium ion batteries is their capacity, the one in the J25 is 740 mAh. The AA's I use in my 9600 are 2500 mAh each ( and it takes four).

Solution, spare li-ion battery bought from 7dayshop.com for £3.49.

annamac1_2

I need download the instruction manual for a Practika DPix5201g camera, can anyone give me a link for it.
Sorry for posting this here.
Thanks, Anna

Holistic_chic

I was looking for a camera at the weekend and found the Fuji a245 12.1mp digital camera in Tesco Peterborough for half price! Now only £59.97. It's an excellent camera and comes in black, blue, silver and pink. I bought one, and so did my friend. Great camera