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digital camera for sis

D

Davegod

Platinum Member
My family are thinking about bunching together to get a Digital Camera for my sis before she goes off to Australia for a year, in about 3/4 weeks.

Looking for a fairly sturdy unit, easy to use, decent battery life and picture quality. I'll get at least a 64mb memory card for it aswell.

Problem is I dont exactly know what to look for, and just to make it more of a challenge I live in UK and hence giving a price bracket in $ isnt going to be too easy - for reference I checked a low-cost computery e-tailer and looked at the products with most in stock (presuming this = most popular). These are just examples for the approx price:


BenQ Dc2300 Mfr part #: 98.T1567.90E £87 <- good price
Hp Photosmart 320 Mfr: Q2180A £90 <- about right
Olympus C150 Mfr part #: C150+ £108 <- OK
Fuji Finepix A202 MfrN072900A £117.49 <- about upper limit to pay
Fuji Finepix A204 £152 <- too much really

Any suggestions, even tips on what to prioritise or check for when comparing?
 
I'm not sure how much £ is in American $$, so I can't make any recommendations according to price.

I think you can't go wrong with a Canon Powershot S200 or S230, though. Possibly called Digital IXUS V2 and Digital IXUS V3 in Europe. I've got the S200 and it's a great camera for every day shots and even does some fine macro shots for a tiny camera. Also, the Nikon Coolpix 2500 ain't bad. Looks cool and functions nicely. I think it's bad for night shots, though. Two megapixels is good enough if you just want to look at the pics on a computer, but if you want to get prints, especially 8X10 prints, then 2MP will be a bit too little. The S230 would be good in that case, though it's significantly more expensive.
 
IMO the Nikon Coolpix models are great value!
what does she want to do with the pics?
you'll need a better camera ie more pixels, if she intends to print out pics vs just viewing them on the pc!
 
the canon powershots i can see are these, waaaaay over budget, the cheapest one there "A70" is about double the budget 🙁 Nothing looks anything like the pic of the S200 on canon site.
edit: I am finding some A300's 3.2mpixels for £160, too far over budget but getting there. Also found a Canon Ixus V2 which looks like the S200 but its £220 🙁

There's a Nikon 2100, but its £168, too far over budget 🙁

GBP£100 is about USD$160, but it doesnt work out as cleanly as that since there's normally siginficant price disparities between UK and US, esp on electrical goods. I listed some cameras in the rough price range for rough price comparison, to try and get around that.

It's just to be used for my sis to take pics of Australia, doesnt have to be anything approaching professional quality, just looking for the best one for the budget. I imagine 3/4 of the pics will just go onto a PC but the best of them she would want hard copies of.
 
Hmm, I don't know many cameras down in that price range because the quality is generally... well to put it plainly, crappy.

My friend has a Fujifilm FinePix 50i that seems to be pretty good. I've seen it for about $300 Canadian (in a supermarket so dont ask me where you can find it 😉 ), which is $200 US, which would be about £133? It also doubles as an mp3 player... interesting, heh.

The Sony Cybershot-U Should be a pretty nice camera. Small, simple, easy to use, gives you nice pictures. (a bit higher than your limit)

I used to have a Kodak CX4200, and it was a good camera for the price, $200 Canadian. The picture quality is probably good enough for someone who isn't really interested in taking good pictures, just wants to get acceptable pics. I wouldn't recommend this camera to anyone, though.

The Canon A200 (but preferably A300) is also a nice camera for the price. Works nicely and the pics don't look bad.

Out of the above, I would say get the Cybershot-U. The Canon if it's too much.
 
heh sis has found out and thinking of adding some money so limit gone up a bit, plus she gets a 10% discount at a big retail shop who also are great for warranty etc. so new list is more like:

Olympus C350Zoom 3.2mp £199 £180
Sony DSCP32 3.2mp £199 £180
Sony DSCU20 2.0mp £149 £135
Fuji FinePix A203 2.0mp £179 £161
Fuji FinePix A204 2.0mp £169 £152
Fuji 2800 2.1mp £199 £180
Kodak CX4230 2.0mp £150 £135


Lexar 64Mb SmartMedia £23 £21
Lexar 64mb Compact Flash £40 £36
Lexar 64mb Memory Stick £40 £36
Sony 64mb Memory Stick £45 £40


the Olympus C350Zoom and Sony DSCP32 are stretching it a little bit, but since they have like 50% more "megapixels" I guess its well worth the extra? The Sony DSCP32 looks a good option, does the short video clips, easy novice use etc but uses memory sticks :/

Also, i take it there's little difference between SmartMedia, Compact Flash and Memory Stick, other then obviously a camera only takes one or the other, and it seems smartmedia is a LOT cheaper? WTH is "xD"? - this is apparently what the Olympus C350Zoom uses. Is there much difference between brands? i.e. will the cheaper Lexus stuff be just as good?
 
I'd say get either of the Sony cameras. My friend has a DSC-P72, which is similar to the DSC-P32 but with zoom, and it's pretty good. The Cybershot-U is lacking in features, but I've seen good reviews.

The only bad thing about memory stick is that you can't use the stick for anything other than Sony stuff.
 
for M4H

re: the Sony DSCP32, looks to be a good choice, especially since it says "Powered by 2100 mAh NiMH rechargeable AA batteries (included with charger); connects with PCs and Macs compatible with USB 2.0",
- so should offer flexibility of AA batteries (presuambly particularily important with another countries' electricity).

Other area of concern for all of them though, how do you rate the chances of being able to plug it in at a 'net cafe in order to transfer them, without extra software? Also, any picture hosting reccomendations, preferably free?
 
Generally if the cafe is running Win2k or XP, she should be able to get them to work, provided they haven't disabled the usb ports. :rolleyes;

Have you considered a used camera? If you can get your hands on a Canon A40, they're great. They share a lot of features with Canon's newer cameras (great image quality), use inexpensive AA batteries and CF, and are relatively small. I've seen some on ebay for around $160.
 
Also, i take it there's little difference between SmartMedia, Compact Flash and Memory Stick,
Click to expand...

I have a FujiFinePix 2400 (2Megpixel). It was my first digital and here are a couple of things I know to look for in my next digital:

1) Light sensitivity. My Fuji is equivalent to ISO 100 film. That's kind of slow, and means long shutter speeds on dim days. The next time I'll go for at least ISO 400 equivalent.

2) Memory speed. Smart Media seems slow to read and write. When I shoot 1600x1200 photos, takes about 5 seconds to save the shot. May not sound like a lot, but is bothersome at times. The time to save depends on the photo resolution and jpg file quality. Next time, I'll check out memory speeds. I suspect some of the newer memory will be much faster.

BTW: Otherwise, love my Fuji!
 
get the nikon 2100 end of conversation...spend the few extra bucks and she'll actually like her brother...

it slips easily into the purse...
(this seems to be the biggest seller with the daughters)
(we have 3)
wonderful menu system...
fantastic quailty..
movie mode...

 
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