Buying a digital camera

nic82

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a compact digital camera (hopefully picking up a bargain in the post-Xmas sales!).

I've found this one http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=403920&tab=specification which is 10MP and has 5x digital zoom and 5x optical zoom.

However, I've also found this one http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=404969 which is 7.1MP but has a better optical zoom.

Can anyone tell me whether it is better to have a higher MP and a lower optical and digital zoom or whether it would be better to have a lower MP and a higher digital and optical zoom?

Mainly I'll only be using the camera for snapshots but I'm also going on safari later this year, so would like it to have a decent enough zoom on it to be able to take reasonably close up pictures (although I am aware that an SLR camera would be much better for this purpose).

Price isn't too much of an issue, so if anyone has any other suggestions of a particular model/make, they would be gratefully received.

TIA

Blacksheep1979

the first one isn't that compact and also past 6/7megapixels it stops mattering so much with compact cameras as the ccd (thing that records the image) is too small to notice the difference - you're much better off paying for a better quality lens.

ormus

buy a canon or a nikon. better lens etc..
get one cheaper at amazon rather than so called sales at comet.
under a 100 quid.

dont get carried away with the MP count. it dont matter that much for normal snaps.
just marketing hype.

davetrousers

To be honest, if you have to ask then it doesn't really matter. Go with whichever you like best, there aren't really and bad digi-cameras anyway.

Inactive

Personally I would avoid Samsung Camera's, there are better brands, ie; Fuji, Panasonic, Canon, Nikon amongst others.

NinaSwiss

hi nice82

10MP vs 7mp: this makes no difference to the quality of the photograph unless you plan to produce large prints from your photos. Even at 4MP you can produce pretty good 7" * 5" photos, so its never realy an issue.

Optical Zoom: If you are going to the safari, the higher the zoom the better so that you can come closer to the action without physically been close to it.

Digital zoom: Realy has no real benefit. Its the same as zooming into the image on your computer (hence 'digital zoom') and reduces the quality of the image.

NinaSwiss

out of the two, i would go for the SAMSUNG L77, because of the zoom range it offers (38 - 266mm) as opposed to the other with 38-190mm.

If you decide to add more cameras to your options, look closer into the specifications for the optical zoom. I ll give you an example:

Camera x and camera y both have 5x optical zoom but at maximum zoom, camera y is able to come closer to the object than x. This is because the zoom ranges for the cameras start at different points.

Camera x: 28mm -140mm
camera y: 35mm - 175mm

Just something to take into consideration

NinaSwiss

if money is no issue, i would suggest the panasonic lumix dmc FZ8. It offers a great zoom range for a semi compact camera of 36mm - 432mm. Thats 12x optical zoom.

here's the link

Steve_xx

I bought this 10mp camera and it seems ok to me. Comes with rechargeable batteries and its own plug-in charging unit. It cost £59.97 from Tesco. I'm sure it's not the be all and end all of photography but it seems good enough to me.

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-3821.aspx

Jake'sGran

I got the Sony 6MGP for my birthday and we bought a memory stick for £25 between us. What impresses me is that my very bright grandson was very taken with it and all the family use it for their hols. The name Sony has always meant "quality" to me. I think it was about £140 though.

NinaSwiss

you might also find the fuji finepix 5700 of interest. Only £106 on amazon's uk website.