Advice on Digital Cameras please

coolagarry

The Konica Minolta Dimage Z10 got a very good write-up in PC Advisor Jan 2005 (page 205) and has an 8x optical lens. At less than £150 it seems like a very good buy

Hintza

I'm afraid I'm a sucker for extra zoom.

I have just gone to to digitalcamera-hq.com and done a search for extended zoom.

This is how they come up on their ratings ( I have added prices):-

Olympus C-765 Ultra Zoom:- £204 Amazon
Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2:- £219 Pixmania
Olympus C-770 Ultra Zoom
Olympus C-750 Ultra Zoom
Fuji FinePix S5000 (Bear in mind I think the S602 is better) at about £185 Fuji Refurbished

I have been very tempted by the Minolta's but have seen questions about their build quality, but on spec you get a great deal.

As yoou know I have the S602 and love it the only nagging thing in the back of my mind would be whether I need an ultra compact as well. To stick in my pocket for the days I don't want to look like David Bailey.

You will get far more for your money if you choose a run out discontinued product.

I also prefer AA batteries rather than an expensive Lithium Ion battery.

As far as memory goes I have one biggish one and a few smaller ones I find it more versatile. No need to rush in to buy them prices are dropping all the time.

The S602 also has a great micro mode for photographing flowers, insects etc if that is of interest to you.

But it will all be a trade off at the end of the day.

One last thing try all the cameras with batteries in them for feel and balance.

monomer

NB for my money I'd stick to the 3x zoom as 7 - 10x really needs a tripod to avoid camera shake and is for either sports or wildlife photography in the most part. My ma on the other hand likes to take pics of birds in her garden....

This is a good point. There are some big zoom cameras with image stabilisation (or vibration reduction) - basically an electronic way of cancelling out blurring because of camera shake. Getting a camera with that feature for less than £170 will be quite a feat.

I think the advice to go to a shop to 'test drive' some of the cameras is a good one. The size of a camera is important to some people and larger optical zoom lenses tend to be bigger and heavier as well, so don't expect to be able to slip the camera into a pocket!

As to the point raised by Hintza about batteries - there are pros and cons to having a camera with AA batteries as opposed to proprietary lithium ion.

On the one hand, AA batteries are pretty universal and you can find them cheaply almost anywhere. However, as digital cameras tend to eat power, you'd be going through alkaline batteries quite quickly so people will generally recommend getting rechargeable NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) AA batteries instead. The good thing, though, is that if you run out of power midway in a shoot, you can always pop in a set of alkaline AA batteries at least temporarily. On the other hand, AA batteries tend to be heavier than (expensive) lithium ion ones, so you'll find that the smaller cameras tend to go for lithium ion.

Happy Hunting!

Tony_H_3

I purchased a Canon A85 from Ebuyer Click Here for the other half as an Xmas present. It's about £160 inc VAT & Delivery.

It's a fully featured piece of kit which I would highly recommend, downside is that it's quite plasticky compared to my old Sony Cybershot F55E. That's probably reflective of the price though.

Other than that you will need to get atleast 8 AA Nimh 2300 rechargable batteries as it eats duracell (120 shot with LCD & flash operational)

mosaicwendy

Thanks everyone,

Unfortunately I live in a very small town and won't be able to get to a place where there is a camera shop until Saturday - but I will be heading that way.

I think all your advice has been great. At least I feel I am heading in the right direction now.

One of you suggested making a list of the ones I have seen. Well, I've made a start - the only thing is I now have 7 cameras on it!! (typical woman - right lol lol)

Can I ask a little more about zoom and mega pixels?

I saw all your comments about shake etc. I do want to take pictures of birds at the feeders in my garden, but they come and go so quickly I don't think I would have time to set up a tripod etc. do you think a 3x zoom would be enough. The feeders are about 30 feet away from the house.

Also, on mega pixels - what would be the best amount to aim for. As far as I understand, the more mega pixels the better the picture, so would I be better to go for a higher spec on mega pixels and not so high on zoom.

I hope that all made sense....

Once again, thanks for your help - it has been invaluable.

Best wishes
Wendy

BigAl94

No Wendy, a 3x optical zoom is unlikely to be sufficient for your needs, you will need the maximum optical zoom that you can afford and a tripod will be well worthwhile. You dont need to spend much, I very effectively use one of the little pocket "bendy" type which I can place on any suitable flat surface.

As regards megapixels, anything avove 3 will be fine, you wont see any discernable difference on screen or on normal size prints.

EvilMonkey

I absolutely agree with Big Al, 30ft if quite a distance so to get nice pics of birds to take up the full frame, you'd need the longer zoom.

On the tripod front, I believe https://www.internetcamerasdirect.co.uk includes a free mini-tripod with every camera (as well as a bunch of other things) so that may be something to take into account.

My Ma leaves the tripod attached to the camera all set up at her favourite window, so if she spots something its there ready to go!

Your trip on Saturday should show you the difference between a 3x and 10x zoom.

Tony_H_3

I saw all your comments about shake etc. I do want to take pictures of birds at the feeders in my garden, but they come and go so quickly I don't think I would have time to set up a tripod etc. do you think a 3x zoom would be enough.  The feeders are about 30 feet away from the house.

One of the features with the canon A85 is it's ability to digitally zoom to 11.5x as has been said by the others though, shake could be an issue. If you hold down the shutter button it will take approximately 2 or 3 pictures a second depending on resolution used...... Based on my photographic skills this is a good thing. Eg I prefer to take a lot of pictures in a short period of time I then have the ability to pickout the best ones for printing & disgarding the ones which quite frankly are rubbish.

This is something that is only achievable with digital cameras. Why? Cost it doesn't cost much compared to doing the same with 35mm film. Oh how I love digital cameras makes me look like a professional

EvilMonkey

Be a bit careful with digital zoom. The A85 has 3x optical zoom, so the digital must be 4x (to give a combined 12x zoom). But at its full digital "zoom" you are only using 1/4 of the sensor to take the picture (IE you've turned your 4MP camera into a 1MP camera).

In essence what it does is the same as getting the un digitally zoomed picture blown up x4 and you cutting out the small rectangle in the middle.

If you have a computer you can acheive the same with most photo packages with more control and better results.

monomer

Be a bit careful with digital zoom. The A85 has 3x optical zoom, so the digital must be 4x (to give a combined 12x zoom). But at its full digital "zoom" you are only using 1/4 of the sensor to take the picture (IE you've turned your 4MP camera into a 1MP camera).

This is very true, and a great way of describing it too, EvilMonkey! I believe mosaicwendy mentioned that picture quality was one of the main priorities, so it would probably be better to ignore the digital zoom.

If you hold down the shutter button it will take approximately 2 or 3 pictures a second depending on resolution used......

This is a great technique you've described Tony H! It handily increases your chances of getting a good shot, especially as the bane of most compact digital cameras is the dreaded autofocus and shutter lag. It takes time for a camera to take a picture once you press the shutter, as the camera needs to measure the light from the scene, focus on the subject and then open the shutter. Taking a 'burst' of shots cuts down the time between shots.

Just to illustrate the point of shutter lag, a friend of mine bought a very cheap (sub-£100) lower-end camera and found that most of his subjects could dodge out of the way before he could even focus on them!

Hopefully after all this, mosaicwendy won't be too confused! As EvilMonkey mentioned in an earlier post, there is no perfect camera - sometimes you just have to work around the limitations.

To summarise, I think the basic advice is:

1) get a camera with a long zoom if possible (as 30ft is quite a distance)
2) for big zooms set the camera on a tripod or a stable surface to eliminate camera shake
3) a camera with anything above 3 megapixels is fine
4) see a few cameras for yourself to see if you feel happy with the way it feels
5) be prepared to spend a little more on extra memory cards as the ones that come with the camera don't store many that pictures


I'm sure if I've missed anything, someone will be sure to point it out