Can Anyone Recommend a Good Camera?

jammiev

canon ixus 75 !

deltic_2

Canon A570 IS - £118 from Amazon - has face detection and image stabalisation !! Has an excellent video system which is great for improptu filming of kids and takes SD cards which are dead cheap !!

Note: any camera above 4x optical zoom need image stabilisation to take good pictures in bad light at longer focal lengths otherwise they will end up blurred! Lens quality is very important - Nikon and Canon tend to be best.

Buy at least a 2GB card for video and loads of pics at high resolution.

Invest in a cheap Digital photography book or get one from the library to improve your picture taking too. Not all issues surrounding poor picture quality are down the camera - half are probably down to the user too.

bartman

From the expert opinions I have read, the impression I get is that the most important factor is the quality of the lens. The Leica lens in the Panasonic must be the best, surely?

normal

Lenses are very important, but so are sensors. I've got a Panasonic and a Fuji and I tend to use the fuji more even though the Panny is a much higher spec as the Fuji's sensor is much better in less than perfect lighting situations. I can get amazing results with the Panasonic LX2 if in bright outdoor light, but it starts to lose it indoors, or on a cloudy day as the pictures become full of noise. I'll admit the fuji Z5 doesn't have as good a lense (but it was also 1/3 the price so I wouldn't expect it either) and it's definitely not as sharp as the best of the panasonic, but it's much more versatile in different lighting situations and the face recognition also helps. If I carry only one camera, it's always the fuji despite it being a much lower spec camera!

scat

Bought my kid's Fuji's and think they are absolute rubbish.... my brother-in-law has a Panasonic and I think that's rubbish too!

Best advice I can offer you is to get a shortlist together then do a search on flickr and see the results real people are getting with them!

I went for a Canon S2 IS ( this is going back a few years! ) as I wanted to learn to use a camera properly but couldn't afford a full DSLR. Has proved excellent value for money - especially as I still can't afford a DSLR!!!

my pics are on my website http://www.snappycat.co.uk and I also have some on flickr here http://www.flickr.com/photos/23123614@N00/ .

I'ld be wary of taking too much advice of anyone - we are all biased according to which choices we made when purchasing our own cameras!!!!

Middle_Sister

We are after a decent camera as well because the one we've got you can't see when the sun is shining. We want one with a viewfinder. Any recommendations?

baby_belle

Thank you once again for taking the time to reply - I have ordered a Canon Ixus 70 from Amazon as the price was just too tempting. It should be delivered tomorrow so can't wait to try it out. I have read reviews and looked at sample photos taken with the camera and both seem good.

Just for info, this model does have a viewfinder but I believe it is quite small and fiddly.