Desperate search for digi-cam after theft

woj101

If anyone can give me a blinding suggestion I will nominate them for moneysaver of the century:

I'm going on holiday this weekend but last week my Kodak Z730 was stolen from the school I work at. I'm desperately looking for a £150-£200 camera at a bargain price. I want a minimum 5 megapixels (7-9 preferred) and a camera with a good autofocus (I'm thinking low light conditions particularly cos this is where. my kodak fell down a bit).

For guidance, I've seen the Fujifilm E900 on Amazon for £179.99

This is almost perfect - 9mp, rechargable AA batteries with recharger supplied, good size and fairly good styling. The only real downsie is that I've read several references to its excellence being let down by its autofocus - which for me is a must in an autocam.

If anyone can come up with an alternative or convinve otherwise about the E900 then I'll love them forever. But be quick - I've only got til 2pm to order from Amazon to get guaranteed delivery for tomorrow.

Many thanks

wolfman

Hmmm, I've not read up about the Fuji before.

If you want one with replaceable batteries, I'd personally probably go for a Canon Powershot.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000B5KFHM/202-7756304-6883829?v=glance&n=560798

My brother has a slightly older model, and the results are very impressive. I've personally always gone with the Ixus style of camera (proprietary battery) as they're smaller, but the Powershot (namely the A620) gets some very good reviews, highly recommended in many cases.

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_a620-review/index.shtml
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/A620/A620A.HTM
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canona620/page14.asp

woj101

I have looked at the A620 - I guess the major off-putting factor about it is its need for 4 batteries. I'd imagine this helps with battery life but I can't see pat the extra weight and bulkk they enforce, and the faffing around with so many batteries each time. I won't rule this out yet, cos you're definitely in the right area with this one. Thanks very much, Wolfman.

hobo28

Dont worry too much about megapixels. After 5MP's, it doesn't make much difference unless you are going to develop pictures A4 size or larger. More megapixels doesn't mean better quality shots

Get a good quality one instead such as a Casio or Canon instead. My casio battery lasts for a good 300 shots so don't get too hung up either on AA batteries.

ABH_3

woj101 wrote:

If anyone can give me a blinding suggestion I will nominate them for moneysaver of the century:

I'm going on holiday this weekend but last week my Kodak Z730 was stolen from the school I work at. I'm desperately looking for a £150-£200 camera at a bargain price. I want a minimum 5 megapixels (7-9 preferred) and a camera with a good autofocus (I'm thinking low light conditions particularly cos this is where. my kodak fell down a bit).

For guidance, I've seen the Fujifilm E900 on Amazon for £179.99

This is almost perfect - 9mp, rechargable AA batteries with recharger supplied, good size and fairly good styling. The only real downsie is that I've read several references to its excellence being let down by its autofocus - which for me is a must in an autocam.

If anyone can come up with an alternative or convinve otherwise about the E900 then I'll love them forever. But be quick - I've only got til 2pm to order from Amazon to get guaranteed delivery for tomorrow.

Many thanks

You could get the same camera you had here:
http://froogle.google.co.uk/froogle?q=Kodak+Z730&hl=en&lr=&cr=countryUK%7CcountryGB&sa=X&oi=froogle&ct=title

or more importantly here:
http://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/page488.htm for £145

HTH

woj101

Thanks very much guys, but I think Wolfman takes the prize.

Concentrating my reading on the A620 more the 2nd time round suggests it is the best option. I do require the higher megapixels, the low-light focusing seems well recommended and the the swivel screen is a definite bonus. Plus, it takes SD cards which is my preferred medium.

polybear

I've got the A610, and never regretted it. The fold-out screen is fabulous; as for the batteries I recently used my camera on holiday and took about 225 pictures without recharging - no idea what it will actually go to. As for megapixels - only worry about it for big prints. The downside to more mp is that you don't get as many pictures on a card and i have also heard that the time taken for the camera to get ready for the next shot is increased (bigger files take longer to store). No idea if this difference is actually noticeable though.

Polybear.

CAT-THE-FIFTH

You can get it for 135 quid

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deal/1593/fujifilm-finepix-6-3mp-digital-came

This camera has very good low light performance due to its low noise levels above ISO100.

http://www.dcviews.com/reviews/Fuji-F11/Fuji-F11-review.htm

Also do not fret about megapixels. The Fuji F10 on which this is based out resolves 7mp cameras even though it is 6mp

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilmf10zoom/page9.asp

Another point to consider is that you need to multiply the the pixel number by FOUR times to produce an image twice the size as before

A 3000x3000 pixel image(9MP) would be twice the size of a 1500x1500 pixel(2.25MP) for example.

This is because it is an area not one linear dimension.

Hence 6MP is not really that different from 8MP and so on.