What camera?

SammyS1987

Help! I am looking at buying a digital camera and don't know what to get. I went into Comet with the intention of spending £100 and had seen the Samsung ES57. But then I saw that for an extra £15 I could get a Samsung L301 which was 12MP. Then I spoke to the guy in the store who said I would be best of buying the Panasonic FS8 even though it is only 10MP and £20 more than the L301. Although it has 4x Optical zoom where the Samsung has 3x. Also the Panasonic has unlimited video recording but the Samsungs cut out after about 3mins.

Also Panasonic manufacture their own lenses which is meant to mean they are better? Slightly confused. I will be using it for video quite a lot and I want the mike to be good on it as I will be uploading videos to youtube with it. Going travelling next year so will want to take some good quality snaps too.

Any help will be appreciated aswell as advice on cheapest places to buy.

Here is a link to compare all the cameras. Also there is a slightly cheaper Panasonic on there too.
http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/compare.do?categoryId=2006&sku=530085&sku=533165&sku=541354&sku=545600

Thanks,

Sam

m5rcc

What are you going to be using it for? Simply pointing and shooting? Holiday snaps?

SammyS1987

Yeah pointing and shooting, Probably going to spend a year in Canada next year. At the moment I want it to film my Ukulele playing and upload to Youtube. My Samsung Tocco Lite isn't very good for that as the sound pick up on it is hopeless.

m5rcc

£140 but well worth it: Canon Digital Ixus 95 IS

£$&*"($£&(

SammyS1987 wrote: »

But then I saw that for an extra £15 I could get a Samsung L301 which was 12MP. Then I spoke to the guy in the store who said I would be best of buying the Panasonic FS8 even though it is only 10MP and £20 more than the L301.

Don't get confused with megapixels. More megapixels is not a measure of quality. With so many megapixels the opposite is often the case as fitting such huge numbers into small sensors leads to problems.

SammyS1987

m5rcc wrote: »

£140 but well worth it: Canon Digital Ixus 95 IS

It just keeps going up in price! Any reason why this is worth another £20?

m5rcc

SammyS1987 wrote: »

It just keeps going up in price! Any reason why this is worth another £20?

Well it's a beautiful, ultra-compact, super-slick and friendly to use, plus great quality. I personally think its the best compact under £150

kwikbreaks

Ah but for another £10...

This site poduces excellent reviews...
http://www.imaging-resource.com/

My view is that even 10Mpixels on a camera costing less than £150 is overkill.

SammyS1987

kwikbreaks wrote: »

My view is that even 10Mpixels on a camera costing less than £150 is overkill.

So I should get the ES57? Damn this is confusing!

kwikbreaks

Find a few cameras you like the look of.

Find independent reviews of each.

Based on what the reviews say (and here it would be good if you got all the reviews from the same site) make a choice.

Find the best deal you can on your chosen camera.

A high megapixel count is of less importance than a good quality lens and good internal processing in the camera to convert what is on the sensor into an image on the memory card. The only way you have available to judge that is reading reviews produced by specialists in testing digital cameras.

As you can see here asking on a site like this will just bring forth a load of personal recommendations from people who may be very knowledgeable but in all likelihood aren't.

Virtually any £100 - £150 compact will produce pictures (under good conditions) that will be acceptable to the non-expert. None will be of a professional standard though.

SammyS1987

Thanks Kwik. Think I'll go for the Panasonic, Unlimited video recording, more optical zoom and a better quality lense have got to be a good thing.