which digi camera shall I get?

lynzpower

Sorry gang, another "which digital camera should I buy buy" I bet ya sick of all these arnt you Im hopeless with technology, so please do help....

Basically, I am going to malawi in a few weeks, and need to have a good camera to take photos of animals on safari. Id like a good zoom. Id also like to be able to take video clips. its vital it has a viewfinder, and also important that it has the handly bit ( you know,that bumpy bit- im sure theres a technical name!)

Additionally I do inventories on private rented properties and need a camera to cope with taking photos of smears on walls, sometimes very tiny damage ( holes from nails etc) My bosshere said I need a 10 MP camera for this, but quite frankly I cant afford that, and I dont think the job will pay for the investment

so heres my choices, what do you reckon?

mazz1953

What about this 8MP Vivitar from Ebuyer at £58.74 http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/.product/119010

lynzpower

cheers for that Maz, but im not buying vivitar again , I had one last year and it was crap!

Zagu

A friend went on safari last year with his compact camera. When he came back, he immediatly got a SLR camera. The compact ones just dont do the job of taking the type of pictures you'll want to take, so dont expect too much if you do get one.

Im not sure why you would need a 10mb camera to take photos of the damage. Any camera with a macro setting should be able to do it fine.

superscaper

Zagu wrote: »

Im not sure why you would need a 10mb camera to take photos of the damage. Any camera with a macro setting should be able to do it fine.

There seem to be one or two people recently who've been advised by friends etc on this magical 10MP number. I agree with Zagu that it's not necessary. I think quality of the camera overall is just as important as the resolution.

I've got a Panasonic DMC FX50 which has 7.2 MP and I think it's absolutely brilliant and I'd say has a better "resolution" than most of the compact film cameras I've had. It's done everything I want it to and the optical zoom in combination with the 7.2 MP is stunning. Although I'm certainly no photographer, I've used it to photograph pc damage etc which I guess is similar to your requirements.

I have no basis for comparison but I've not found a single thing to fault on my camera which I guess the nearest equivalent on your poll is the DMC-LZ2.

viv0147

I have a Fuji Fine-pix S6500fd Zoom and in my opinion its a wonderful camera I highly recommend it.

beefcarrot

If you're going down the SLR route, I've just bought a Nikon D50 and am really impressed with the quality of the photos taken by it. At the moment, the company is offering £60 cash back on it too.

coolagarry

Having been on Safari myself (Kenya) I appreciated how important it was to have a good zoom lens when the animals wouldn't play ball. I also like to have a reasonably sized lcd screen to share what you had shot with those around you. You also need a good macro lens. I think that this camera fulfills most of your needs and the price is amazing
http://www.cameras.co.uk/specs/fuji-finepix-s5700.cfm
It is reviewed on this site
http://www.trustedreviews.com/digital-cameras/review/2007/07/20/Fujifilm-FinePix-S5700/p1

footyfan

Never been on a safari, but I recently purchased a Canon A710is.

It is 7.1MP with 6x zoom and image stabilization. It has manual settings as well as point-and-shoot and is really an excellent all-round camera in quite a small package. The image stabilization and zoom may be useful on safari. Also takes very good video (for a camera). Shop around and you can get this for £150ish or maybe less. Canon do cashbacks at various times.

There are many reviews on the web but here's a link to some on Amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000IKRWJ4/interactiveda3006-21

davetrousers

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3320570/Casio-Exilim-EX-V7-Digital-Camera/Product.html

Have a look at the Casio Exilm V7, it's got a 7x optical zoom. The price a play.com is very good.

Play.com also do SD cards very cheap £15.99 for a 4gb SDHC card.

lynzpower

viv0147 wrote: »

I have a Fuji Fine-pix S6500fd Zoom and in my opinion its a wonderful camera I highly recommend it.

this one looks excellent. I might be tempted by this.