Camera for eBaying - what to get?

skintchick

Hi - I did ask this on the I Wanna board but not really any replies.

I want to get a cheap but good digital camera to take pix for eBay purposes. I am not a fan of digi cameras so will be sticking with my film one for normal use.

Can you recommend what I might need in terms of pixels and stuff, and how much I might expect to pay?

I know nothing about them! Thanks!

frivolous_fay

A couple of megapixels should be ample... you can get decent ones for not what I'd consider too much money with 4/5 mp.

A macro function is very handy for close ups. A zoom obviously won't be critical.

I like Canons, personally.

grilli

I use my mobile phone, its only 2 megapixels but it works fine for me.

mclaren_2

depends on what you need - megapixels is one thing poeple get mixed up about - it does not matter how many pixels you have tbh. I shoot at 6MP and print out my shots at A4 and come out ace, then i shoot at 3MP and even then, at the A4 print out size, its still clear so if you are going to print out larger than A4 i would say go for SLR say the D80 but if your going to be printing out "snap shots" then i would sya go for a P&S at between 3 qand 6mp - you dont need more = the main thing is not the MP but the zoom.

DONT look at digital zoom - look for a high optical zoom - this is the important one - digital zoom is rubbish, as it messes up the shot.

You ideally want a x3+ optical though yet again, this depends on what you plan to shoot.

My P&S is Nikon 3200 coolpix and i have 3.2MP 3x optical 4x digital - (main cam is SLR)

Amazombie

skintchick wrote:

Hi - I did ask this on the I Wanna board but not really any replies.I want to get a cheap but good digital camera to take pix for eBay purposes. I am not a fan of digi cameras so will be sticking with my film one for normal use.Can you recommend what I might need in terms of pixels and stuff, and how much I might expect to pay? I know nothing about them! Thanks!

To some degree it depends what you sell on ebay and how detailed images you require but I use one of these which has a macro facility which gives wonderful close up images for books and porcelain.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FUJI-FINEPIX-2800_W0QQitemZ280030665849QQihZ018QQcategoryZ31388QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

They are getting cheaper all the time because they are now considered old technology but it is everything you would need at a cheap price. It would also be fine for using for other photographic work too.

smashed

The zoom function is totally irrelevant if you are just snapping pics for ebay. Its not like you will have to stand 20metres from your item.

I would advise getting a cheap camera from somewhere that allows a refund if you are not satisfied. It seems pointless paying £100 for just ebay purposes, but then, a £40 camera will probably be quite shoddy (tho I havent tried them recently).

skintchick

Ah. fifty quid then. Maybe it can wait and I'll borrow one. That's quite a lot cash for me right now.

mfboss

Any cheapish camera will do. Even a camera phone will do for ebay. Ebay resizes the picture anyway ( I think)

culpepper

I've used my scanner to take pics of things for ebay before.
Anything flat or small will work and be really clear with great resolution.

Contains_Mild_Peril

I use my scanner too for things like books and videos. My digital camera is used for other purposes too though, so I spent £175 on mine, but the first few pics I took for eBay were taken using either my scanner or a very basic low-resolution "toy" digital camera (the sort that come attached to keyrings for about £10 nowadays). It sometimes involved a bit of faffing about to get the lighting right though (usually window light, or else a table lamp nearby) since the camera had no flash and no exposure adjustment.
The resolution is not your main consideration, since standard eBay pictures are only 400 x 400 pixels at most anyhow, and any picture of a suitable size will be well under 1MP, so you really don't need loads of megapixels. Zoom is handy, but not essential. A Macro mode is probably much more useful. Most important is good exposure control, so your picture can be taken either with or without flash and turn out well.
Unfortunately the car boot sale season is now more or less over. Boot sales are a good source of secondhand cameras with a fairly low resloution by modern standards (e.g. about 2-3MP) which are fine for eBay photos and can be bought for under £20.

skintchick

Thanks, but no scanner (or printer). I have a film camera, a crap mobile phone camera which I don;t think is good enough (Motorola V220), and that's it. The house of skintchick is quite technologically challenged!