Digital camera - what is a good buy?

shuttleworth96

I'm looking for a new digital camera but after a trip to my local Currys came out absolutely bewilderd! Can you help please...........I am looking for the following.....

Price about £100 - £200
Easy to use
Nice big screen
Super colours on photos
Anti shaking thingy
I am not very technical but want a camera that will take good shots at a family wedding, holiday in Scotland, parties, dogs, cruise in the Med etc.etc.

Help please!

Blacksheep1979

Have a look at the Panasonic Lumix fx07

f1charlie

Or the Panasonic DMC-LZ6 (longer zoom, slightly smaller LCD):

http://www.cameras2u.com/products/details.cfm?PRODUCT=PANDMCLZ6

Features comparison utility here to help narrow down the choice:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp

minimoneysaver

I'm looking at getting the Sony dsc N2. Anyone else think that this looks like a good camera? Amazon.co.uk seem to have it at the best price.

Blacksheep1979

you can probably do better for your money - don't be fooled by the numbers, do you need 10 megapixels? Are you printing A2/A3 sized photos?

shuttleworth96

No - I would not be printing A2/A3 size photo's. In fact, I don't really print too many shots, generally store them on the computer and disc. But when I do print standard size shots I would like super colours etc.

Has anyone tried a Canon Ixus 60 - seems to get good reviews on Amazon and at £154.00 sounds a reasonable price.

f1charlie

More user reviews here:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/read_opinions.asp?prodkey=canon_sd600

No image stabilisation though.

Lyrrad

Fuji F30 without a doubt.

Blows all other cameras out of the water on ISO's 400, 800 and even iso 1600 is usable. Most others fail miserably over 400iso and some are not too hot at 100. This Fuji will give a dSLR a good run for it's money in this area. Hi pixel count creates noise issues. This camera is 6mp and plenty for all casual users. Battery life is outstanding

It's one slightly weak point is full on sunlight, but it's a real minor weakness. Best to set it to average metering and under expose 1/3 stop, but its a 1 off setting change. Also full auto seems to use higher than required iso, but it's just not an issue for most users, and can be overcome if you use Aperture priority or Shutter Priority. AP or SP is virtually full auto, but with more control. Full auto is fine for those that don't want to know anything further than just to point & shoot and the higher than need iso is not an issue to that particular camera user.

There are a few initial one off setups to make to enable this camera to be a great point & shoot and I can help if you need advice. For those that want to read the best thread on this great little camera read this.

http://www.pbase.com/arn/fuji_f30

No image stabilisation, but really not needed.

To be fair some people moan about the xd cards used in this camera, they just don't seem to like the format, or suggest they can't use the card for other products. This is something I would strongly advise against anyway. For the life of me I don't know why this could be an issue, but I am always prepared to be educated.