Camera advice wanted!

maniac886

Basically I have a choice between SONY DSC500 and the Panasonic DMCLS2B. There is only a £25-£30 difference between the two but I am not sure which one to go for?

Any advice welcome thanks!

Gazman321

Personaly I would go for the SONY DSC500 because it has more megapixals, a bigger lcd screen and better digital zoom.

Astaroth

Digital zoom is nonsense so ignore that bit - all it is zooming in on the LCD screen on a part of the photo, it doesnt effect what is actually taken and is totally irrelevant once it is off the camera.

Megapixals is one of the greatest white elephants to hit photography... 5 mp is plenty for printing up to A4 size so unless you are wanting to print A3 or bigger then you will see no difference but simply have larger file sizes that take longer to download/ manipulate and mean you get less photos per meg of memory card. It has been drummed up as such a big thing by budget brands to allow them to use cheap electronics and more importantly lenses but then sell it under splashy adverts saying it is 10 megapixels - what they dont say is that it means you get a 4mb file of rubbish rather than the 2mb of rubbish you would have got if it was "only" 5mp

I have to admit not being into point and shoot cameras so would suggest you look at the reviews on http://www.dpreview.com/ - the canon ixus range get very good reviews so probably worth checking

f1charlie

Digital zoom does affect what is taken, but it is not worth using as image quality deteriorates. You can see the same effect by blowing up an image using any photo editor - the greater the magnification, the more pixellation you get. As mentioned, don't get drawn into the "more megapixels, the better" hype. What's more important is the lens quality.

There's a detailed review of the Panasonic here:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/ls2.html

but I couldn't find a similar review for the Sony.

The real answer is to get your hands on both and see which feels best to you. To get good photos you need to have a camera you feel comfortable with.

maniac886

I have to admit i do like the idea of Panasonics I.S. I dont really want to spend more than £120. I know sony is 1MP greater but thats not really gonna affect my decision as 5MP is more than enough.

Thinking about it the next camera i want must have an image stabiliser facility!

Ta for the help guys

f1charlie

Where are you planning on buying it? I see Comet have the Panasonic for £69.

maniac886

f1charlie wrote:

Where are you planning on buying it? I see Comet have the Panasonic for £69.

Comet or Argos...both around £70.....my old camera is the Olympus Fe-110. I wish id never bought it, even though its 5mp, most the pictures turn out blurred and the picture quality is appaling!!!

maniac886

Does anyone know of any other camera which has an image stabilization function around the £120 mark otherwise i will be going for the panasonic!

maniac886

I went for the panasonic in the end....better value for money. £74 inc delivery plus 3.5% through quidco. Then got myself a 2gb sd card from amazon for £17 delivered!