Digital camera- will someone please tell me which one?

shellyd_3

Saved my Boots points so have about £150, I have been looking for weeks and i AM SO CONFUSED. I was trying to stick with olympus, Nikon or canon.

Olympus seem to take XD cards, should I get a camera with SD because the cards are cheaper.

Batteries, I was looking at one that included rechargable and charger, but after reading on here I think AA are recomended.

Do I need a viewfinder, how do iI know if the camera has one or not, should it state in the description as an extra if it has one.

Internal memory, how many photos to a MB?

MP this is the only area I know what i want 5mp or above.

I think I have found 3 cameras on the Boots site, these are

Nikon L3 £149.99 ,5.1 mp, SD card and AA batteries 23MB internal memory

Olympus FE130 £149.99, 5.1 XD card, AA batteries 22 MB internal memory

Olympus FE 150 £135.99 5mp, XD card, rechargable battery and charger. 9mb memory.


I would be very grateful if you would just tell me what to get as this is my first digital camera. I need it for my hols in a few weeks.

Thanks


Michelle

I also looked at Olympus mju500 and mju 700

both are £199 in store so I would build my points if worth the extra.

SMC_2

My mum has just bought Olympus FE140 and it is a great camera. If you have a Costco near you can get an 1 Gb XD card for about £40. She went with the FE140 as it takes AA batteries, the rechargables are very expensive to replace and it will need replacing eventually.

So I would say go with the FE130.

shopbot

The trick to buying a digital camera is to do your research first then go to a shop like Jessops and have a go with the cameras you like.

The reviews might all say one thing but at the end of the day the camera has to feel good in your hand.

I wouldn't pay attention to the internal memory. It is usually so small that it is not a consideration. Memory cards are fairly cheap so go for the biggest you can afford. You won't come back from holiday regretting taking too many photos but you might regret taking too few!

I rate Nikon cameras, Canons are good. Although someone has already mentioned one and liked it I think they compare poorly with some of the other brands.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/

f1charlie

shellyd wrote:

Saved my Boots points so have about £150, I have been looking for weeks and i AM SO CONFUSED. I was trying to stick with olympus, Nikon or canon.

Olympus seem to take XD cards, should I get a camera with SD because the cards are cheaper.

Remember that you won't be continually buying cards like you would with film, so the small extra cost of XD cards shouldn't really put you off cameras using that format.

shellyd wrote:

Batteries, I was looking at one that included rechargable and charger, but after reading on here I think AA are recomended.

Rechargeable batteries are often camera specific and although they can be convenient in terms of small size and lighter weight, usually they are expensive if you buy the manufacturer's replacement. Non-manufacturer replacements are available at lower prices, but still won't be as cheap as rechargeable AAs. Also with AAs, if you are caught out with flat batteries you can always buy some ordinary AAs to keep you going.

shellyd wrote:

Do I need a viewfinder, how do iI know if the camera has one or not, should it state in the description as an extra if it has one.

A viewfinder is useful in bright sunshine, when it can be hard to see the LCD screen. Also, by looking through the viewfinder it makes it easier to keep the camera steady by bracing it against the face. It should say in the description if the camera has one, otherwise look for the tell tale window on the top right front of the camera.

shellyd wrote:

Internal memory, how many photos to a MB?.

Forget about internal memory. A 512Mb card will hold about 200 photos on a 5mp camera at the highest picture quality.

shellyd wrote:

MP this is the only area I know what i want 5mp or above.

The most important thing to look for is lens quality and not megapixels, but 5mp seems to be about the entry level these days, so there is no point in looking at less than that.

shellyd wrote:

I think I have found 3 cameras on the Boots site, these are

Nikon L3 £149.99 ,5.1 mp, SD card and AA batteries 23MB internal memory

Olympus FE130 £149.99, 5.1 XD card, AA batteries 22 MB internal memory

Olympus FE 150 £135.99 5mp, XD card, rechargable battery and charger. 9mb memory.


I would be very grateful if you would just tell me what to get as this is my first digital camera. I need it for my hols in a few weeks.

As shopbot says, try and get your hands on the cameras - the right camera will be the one you feel most comfortable with.

Another useful camera review site is http://www.dpreview.com.

Hope this helps and doesn't confuse you further

Charlie

wiraone

f1charlie wrote:

Remember that you won't be continually buying cards like you would with film, so the small extra cost of XD cards shouldn't really put you off cameras using that format.

1GB XD card = £30
1GB SD card = £14

And having an extra 1GB backup just in case you filled the first one up during a holiday .. priceless!

rogerramjet

I quite like the olympus but was put off with the fact it used XD cards, especially as I have about 5 SD cards around my house ranging from 256mb to 1gb. I therefore recently bought a nikon L4, nice little camera currently selling around £99.00 in most places.

someone's already mentioned about view finders, they are useful, but not necessary as long as the lcd screen is backlit, I've a Agfa ephoto 1280 digital camera which I purchased about six years ago (cost a fortune at the time :O) had a back light with no view finder, never found it a problem even when I went to sunnier climates

Only other thing, don't worry to much about how many mega pixel, look more at getting one with optical zoom rather than just digital zoom

f1charlie

wiraone wrote:

1GB XD card = £30
1GB SD card = £14

OK OK, but if I particularly liked one model of camera and it took XD it wouldn't put me off buying it.

Charlie

wiraone

f1charlie wrote:

OK OK, but if I particularly liked one model of camera and it took XD it wouldn't put me off buying it.
Charlie

True! And that why I upgraded mine from Nikon Coolpix 885 to Sony DSC-P200 But since the OP has raised about the cost of the XD in her original post .. guess she has concern on it.

T4i

Don't forget to buy your memory card online. I've just bought a 512MB xD card online for £28 inc. delivery, £59.99 in all the shops in town.

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oh, and they gave me a free gift with my order. A 16MB xD card, which I sold for £8 making my 512MB xD card £20 - A saving of £40.01

oldwiring

The screen consumes power; a viewfinder does not!
As to xd cards they are very small. Have any tests been done to assess the quality of their output against other types and beraing in mind configurations of cards does it follow that aparticularly sized card of one type will give the same numder of shots at a setting than any other?

f1charlie

alexjohnson wrote:

Am interested in the thoughts on cheap SD cards. I have just paid £35 on eBay for one fo the SanDisk cards that has a USB plug cleverly built-in - so no cables to carry.

I've seen those advertised, but I couldn't figure out how they could fit a USB plug into an SD card, and still allow the SD card to fit in the device's slot!

Charlie