What camera??!?!

[BushEd]

Uh-oh, its another "please tell me what camera to buy" thread

Been offered a camera as a present; the question is, which camera?!

I doubt if the use i would get from a camera would warrant an SLR camera; and even if it did, i wouldn't trust myself to use it Plus, i want one that i can stick in my rucksack when travelling without it taking up to much room, or being broken on the first jolt.

Nevertheless, i'd like to take some nice bushy shots, and like everybody, i love a good horizon.

So, basically, i want the best of all worlds and to be a difficult 'hijo de puta'

Seriously though - there are way tooo many cameras out there and i'm almost totally clueless; so any help or advice would be mucho appreciated.

Ta

 

[lamper]

Hi BushEd,

I have an SLR and I love it, but if your aren't yet 'in' to photography I would suggest a high grade point and shoot like....

http://www.jessops.com/online.store/products/75930/show.html

I have actually just bought on of these myself for the following reason
- Wanted a smaller camera to keep on my belt whilst walking
- Had to be great quality
- Had to have manual controls for shutter and aperture - for more creativity.

I got the one mentioned above (partly because I love Canon optics - my SLR is also Canon)
- the optics are top notch in the point and shoot world.
- 12 mega pixels will give A3 prints without having to enlarge
- Optical stabilisation for low light and long zoom shots
- Shoots RAW files

For £200 it represents great value and will last you well into some seriously advanced photography.

Hope that helps...

Mike

 

[TomBartlett]

The canon powershot G11 is a good as you can get before stepping up to an SLR. A tad pricey at £419 . While some may mock this, Apple's new Iphone features a 5 megapixal camera and is something you're likely to carry around with you for those unexpected Kodak moments. I think the basic model is coming out at around £150 but I'm not sure on that.

 

[Laurentius]

I recent bought a Fuji Finepix S2000HD, many years ago I had an S602, the amount of improvement in between is incredible. It's lighter, has a greater optical zoom, higher pixel resolution and HD video!

 

[Wayland]

Borrow an older model off someone and learn to use it. (Most people that have worked their way up the equipment ladder will have something that is almost lying around.)

When you have done that you will know exactly what you really find useful and what is limiting, so you can then make a good choice that is tailored to your own needs.

Best advice I can offer.

 

[ged]

I wouldn't want to recommend a digital camera for anyone without knowing a lot more than I do but I have some experience with several. First of all there's no doubt that they win hands down over film for usability, features, cost, flexibility, you name it. But there are things you don't necessarily think about until you've cursed at the thing a few times.

Viewfinder!!!! I simply can't use a camera if it hasn't got one. Many haven't.

How long does it take from power on to taking the first picture? I've missed a lot of shots because my (seven year old) Fuji takes forever to go through its power up routine. It's not so much point and shoot as press ON button, point, wait, curse, and shoot if it's still there.

Optical zoom? The reason I bought the Fuji. It's excellent but there are better now.

Image stabilization? Well worth the price IMO.

Primary cells or rechargeable? My main gripe about the Fuji is poor battery life, and it can't use rechargeable types.

Battery availability in remote areas? AA cells are everywhere, others may not be.

Type of memory card, size, cost, availability? The SM cards in my Fuji are almost obsolete and the biggest you can get is 128Mbyte. My wife's two year old SLR takes up to 16G and they're cheaper!

Related to memory is the ability to take images at reduced resolution so you can get a lot more shots on a card if you want to. I can get about 100 low resolution shots on the Fuji's supplied card, my wife can get several thousand on hers. She took nearly five hundred one afternoon at an air show and some of the results were spectacular.

If you're snap-happy and take thousands of shots then discard the rubbish you'll get some great results BUT it will take most of the rest of your life if you aren't careful!

Movies? Some can't do it, probably not many now.

Remote control/remote flash? Getting into SLR territory perhaps.

I'll leave out obvious things like size and weight, you'll know it when you see it.

Definitely try out a few before getting one or you might regret it. The first one I bought for my wife's birthday went back to the shop within a week. She's still got the second one but it doesn't see much action now she has an SLR.

If you want stunning pictures I'd say go for an SLR if you can stand the price and the weight and bulk (don't forget the extra lenses), but if you just want snaps then most point & shoot things available now will be well up to the job.

And get a bigger disc drive for your computer. She now has over 20,000 shots. So she wrote a little 'picture of the day' program so that she sees some of them, otherwise they'd just gather metaphorical dust on the disc. It's great to get a nice surprise when you fire up the browser.

 

[teflon]

...I doubt if the use i would get from a camera would warrant an SLR camera ... i want one that i can stick in my rucksack when travelling without it taking up to much room, or being broken on the first jolt...

Looks like a compact then - none of which are likely to get broken under normal circumstances. Ignore the perceived ifs, buts and maybes that need money to avoid. You really won't need much. Simple is good and decent battery life. There are lots out there that won't cost the earth. 8]

 

[Large Sack]

Ged makes some good points (especially the need for a dedicated optical viewfinder..bright sunlight will kill the picture on an lcd sceen) and Tom Bartlett mentions the Canon G11. The G series cameras are bomb proof but personally I think The G10 is a better camera and there should be some bargains around.

But, as others have said, try borrowing from friends/family first to get a feel what what you might want out of a camera.

If you want to do some YouTube demos of all your Bushy Skills you may want a camera that has video capabilities also as well as the striking product shots and beautiful panoramic vistas!

Suggest a lens of at least 28 - 125 mm zoom as a good compromise. you really need to keep the wide end as wide as possible and many compacts will start with a 35mm wide end but will enable you to get a longer reach at say 250 -300mm. I personally think you will have more use for the wider end of the spectrum than the tele end (esp as the high end of the tele will require a steady hand. Also check out the macro function. a macro of 1cm or 1" will enable you to get some great nature shots while in the 'bush'.

When all is said though, you should give some thought to what it is that you might want to photograph, then go for a few trial runs with a loaner and see how you fair. One other thing, if you want to buy from the high street the chances are that if you give the manager at Jessops a bit of flannel, you will get a discount.

Cheers

 

[BushEd]

Hi BushEd,

I have an SLR and I love it, but if your aren't yet 'in' to photography I would suggest a high grade point and shoot like....

http://www.jessops.com/online.store/products/75930/show.html

I have actually just bought on of these myself for the following reason
- Wanted a smaller camera to keep on my belt whilst walking
- Had to be great quality
- Had to have manual controls for shutter and aperture - for more creativity.

I got the one mentioned above (partly because I love Canon optics - my SLR is also Canon)
- the optics are top notch in the point and shoot world.
- 12 mega pixels will give A3 prints without having to enlarge
- Optical stabilisation for low light and long zoom shots
- Shoots RAW files

For £200 it represents great value and will last you well into some seriously advanced photography.

Hope that helps...

Mike

Thanks for all the help everyone!!

Went with this one in the end, looking forward to testing it out

 

[Large Sack]

Enjoy!

Post back later with some pics

Cheers

Sack