Digital Camera requirements, what to look for

Knifey_Spoony

Hi, First of all thanx for reading this! I have read through other similar threads but they all have different requirements or different budgets to me.
okay, Im looking for advice on buying a digital camera for the first time. im looking for advice on what to look for, like the min amount of pixels I should go for, min zoom etc Im an absolute beginner so dont know what to look for, although i obviously have used one before.
Im willing to spend a MAX of 500 euro which will include a big memory card too.
Here's my requirements:

Ok firstly, I want one that obviously takes good quality photos. Im no pro but I do like taking photos. Im going travelling for a yr soon so good photos is gonna be esssential. I'll be kicking myself in yrs to come if I dont get good photos.

The ability to take video's would be a good feature too, especially with going travelling.

A fairly big screen would be good too so I can see my photos easily.

Big storage is important also as I'll be taking loadsa photos.

I also need one thats fairly easy to use as im no tech-nerd

Finally, good battery life is another requirement.



So,am I being too fussy??? I just dont wanna be ripped off when Im buying one so I thought Id look for advice here first. Although I want good quality pics I wouldnt even try to hazard a guess as to how many pixels I should look for. etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also is 500 plenty to spend on one? Obviously Id prefer to spend less but Im willing to pay 500 max for one including a memory card.

I have so many more questions but I'll save them to till later. i hope someone can help. Looking forward to your replies

leche solara

You need at least 4 megapixels, 3 X Optical zoom (dont mind digital zoom its crap) You also need at least 512 Mb card. Try www.pixmania.com they show by brand, megapixel or price. Should be plenty there to pick from.

astec123

I would say you spending too much, but here goes, my advice is to look at ones over 5mp as you can afford it, or under that figure if its got lots of features.

I advise the konica Z5 model which with the sites I visited to check prices I can find it cheapest here

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=7426126341&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=84579

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=7426161427&action=c2VsZWN0X3Byb2R1Y3Rfb3ZlcnZpZXc=&product_uid=80107
add that for an added bonus. If you would need it

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=7426205408&action=UFNQcm9kdWN0U2VhcmNoUmVzdWx0cw%3D%3D&order_col=sell_price&order=ASC&subcat_uid=446&offset=90
And you can afford the luxury of 2 1gb memory cards, about 2000 photos, and not even I could fill those up too fast.

Those are my suggestions, that is probably not the best price as postage will be over 30pounds, but thats a good camera and spec, plus a big screen and a good battery life.

Basically look for 5mp or more, thats good for very big prints.
look only at the optical zoom, digital zoom means nothing on a digital camera. Its fun for messing with but little else.
Look for rechargable power in batteries, avoid ones that do not have removable ones though
Never buy a non brand name camera, they are very bad
Avoid ones that take, company specific photo formats, some camera companies tie you iinto one, and to do editing either requires buying the companies (expensive) software or lashing out for other software to edit it.

Other than that just look around on the various big sites. And consider imports as you will save money most of the time.

And to add memory to that

Knifey_Spoony

Thanx for that both of you gonna check out those sites now. Yeah my mate said 500 is probably too much to spend too. Im kinda clueless tho, wasnt too sure how much a good one would be. So how much would you advise spending?
Oh and yeah i agree, 2000 photos might be a wee bit too much space The camera in the first link looks really good though, thanx for that.

Would you's mind helping me with a few more queries...?
Just wondering, when travelling, whats the best way to do things, like every so often copy the photos on the card to a disk and then delete them off the card and start again? Or just get a big card and leave them all on it?
Also, whats the craic with videos?? Do most of the cameras have a video function? And do vid's use loads of memory??
I'll probably be investing in an iriver before going away also so maybe I could store photos on that and get away with less storage on the memory card? Am i making sense??
Oh, and finally, where would u advise buying one? Shop or the net? And if the net, which sites?
Sorry for all the q's! thanx so much for all your help x

leche solara

If you have access you should burn to disks and clear from the card. You could also save to a yahoo briefcase to have another backup. If you have a yahoo email account you can get a briefcase. http://briefcase.yahoo.com/

Watch out when cameras say they have video - not all record the sound as well. There's an offer in Argos at the moment for a Kodak CX7530 (5 meg, 3 X Optical) + a printer dock for €300. This is good camera with video and sound, but obviously you wouldnt carry the dock around the world. You'll get a 1MB SD card here http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=300158&view=detailed. This costs €78 + €10 for postage.

Thats a good package for under €400.

astec123

"Would you's mind helping me with a few more queries...?"
no problem at all.
"Just wondering, when travelling, whats the best way to do things, like every so often copy the photos on the card to a disk and then delete them off the card and start again? Or just get a big card and leave them all on it?"

Depends what you want to do, I would prefer to have several smaller cards for a trip away and use each one over a day or so and then I have them in order and it means I dont screw up and accidentally blank one. But a single big card is a useful thing to have.

"Also, whats the craic with videos?? Do most of the cameras have a video function? And do vid's use loads of memory??"

Most cameras use this as a gimmic, but they can often be good enough to enjoy on a TV a resolution of 640x480 is ideal for a TV viewing. A 600mb file of video will equate to about 2hrs of video in general, but depends on the format that it saves it too.

"I'll probably be investing in an iriver before going away also so maybe I could store photos on that and get away with less storage on the memory card? Am i making sense??"

Ahhh a man with sense, I have myself a PMP, come visit us on mistic river if you want advice on that topic.

"Oh, and finally, where would u advise buying one? Shop or the net? And if the net, which sites?"
Use shops to try out items for real and see if they suit, and then buy online as it will always be cheaper.

Good luck and if you want any more advice feel free to PM me.
Sorry for all the q's! thanx so much for all your help x

Knifey_Spoony

Whats a printer dock? Sorry, im pretty clueless.
That argos one for 400 seems really good. The memory card u gave the link for, that defo suts that camera? Or do all memory cards fit all cameras? Sorry again for all the questions

astec123

Whats a printer dock? Sorry, im pretty clueless.
A dock is simply a means of transfering direct to a printer and for most is a useless item as you want to see them on the computer first before wasting money printing it, to realise the person in the shot looks like they have "crapped themselves".

"That argos one for 400 seems really good. The memory card u gave the link for, that defo suts that camera? Or do all memory cards fit all cameras? Sorry again for all the questions"

There are lots of memory card types, but the camera will say what type of card it takes, some accept several different types, and these will vary in price with some formats costing a lot more for the same space.

leche solara

You connect the dock to a PC and it copies your pictures over. It also recharges the rechargeable AAs that come with the camera - takes about 1½ hours lasts about 200 photos. If its also a printer dock (which this one is) it means you can print pictures direct (6" x 4") from the camera without going through computer.
Different cameras use different memory cards but the one I mentioned in Komplett is a Secure Digital (SD) which fits that particular Kodak camera. The camera itself comes with a 32MB internal memory enough for about 25 pictures at best quality setting

davidoco

I did a trip to SE asia and AUS last year and took about 2500 photos using a Nikon Coolpix 3200. Using two 128MB cards I burnt them to disk when full. I got between 150 and 200 photos on each card. Also each time when burning to disk I burnt the previous disk to the new disk and sent home one copy. I think about 2 euro to burn a disk in Asia and 5 or 6 in AUS.

Took most pictures at 1,600 x 1,200 which is perfect for normal prints when you get home and for viewing on PC or TV.
Took some pictures on max of 2,048 x 1,536 for larger prints. Put the camera on 1,024 x 768 when in the pub or messing about (although didn't save much on space compared to the 1600 x 1200).

Most digital cameras are point and shot and you get good photos. Put a bit of effort into learning the settings and you will get great photos.

The one thing and this is one thing that I kept kicking myself over was the optical zoom (forget about digital zoom). It had a x3 optical zoom which just wasn't enough. The problem is to get more zoom you need a bigger camera and if your travelling you want to keep it compact. There were so many times that you wanted to take a photograph of a person (covertly) and, of course, you couldn't get close enough with the 3x zoom. The sky in Australia just seems so much bigger (????????).


Next camera for me CANON PowerShot S2
http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/102927/art/canon/powershot-s2-is.html

plus 50 euro for a 512 mb card.

Knifey_Spoony

Thanx for that Davidoco. Yeah I know what you mean about a good zoom being important. In SE Asia last yr myself. It was impossible trying to get photos of monks etc from far away. Thankfully the odd one or two agreed to getting in some close up ones though. SO a good zoom would be pretty important. But as you say, size is important! (despite what other girls try to convince you,haha) The powershot S2 one you gave the link for looks huge, but impressive. But I dont think i'd fancy carrying it around with me for a yr. Also It would be pretty hard to conseal so It would probably get robbed within the first wk in Brazil!
Thanx loads for all your help though I really appreciate it.
Oh, one more thing, where are you getting the 512mb for 50 euro, that pixmania site?

Knifey_Spoony

Ok,hi all, its me again. Im nearly decided (I think). Just need everyones advice on the one Im thinking of getting. Its one that astec recommended. Its the Casio Exilim Pro Ex-P600 model, roughly 310 euro on ebuyers. As far as I can see it has everything im looking for,and is pretty compact too!
I just need advice and some pros and cons on it basically. Ive read through the reviews and the product info on the ebuyers site but some of it is a bit jargon-y, so If there's any dodgy bits I might have missed please tell me.
Also, as for memory, Im thinking of going with the 512mb card that davidoco mentioned, 50euro on pixmania. Would you advise getting 2 of these, or one 1gb one? Also how much video etc will each of these hold.
Finally, batteries... What are "Proprietary lithium ion rechargeable batteries"? Are they like normal rechargeable ones like AA ones? I cant find them on the site. Are they dear? Id probably need to buy more of them as when Im travelling it wont be possible to recharge them all the time so spares would be handy.
Any other advice or tips would be great.
Thank loads everyone

Mayshine

Ok,

you say you are travelling for a year or so. Where is you first point of call. If it is asia (Hong Kong, Singapore) why not buy your camera there as soon as you arrive, you'll save a bundle (or get a better camera),

Don't buy casio, its image quality is so-so.

If you need big zoom is a reasonable compact package try the panasonic DMC-FZ5. Point and click cameras are ok, but the small lenses and sensors mean that they will suffer in all but good light conditions. I.e pretty poor for night and low light photography.

Spend some time on www.dpreview.com and read the reviews there. You can certainly do a lot better then the casio.

Also in Singapore, where I live 500 euro will probably get you a good 7MP camera with a GB of memory. Think about it before you walk into argos

Dave

jlang

Blinky1 wrote:

"Proprietary lithium ion rechargeable batteries"

Basically, they're special batteries designed for the camera. Like the one in your mobile phone. If your camera takes one, you'd be advised to buy a spare.

Having a camera that takes AA size can be handy as if you run down you can just buy a set in any shop, but you'll get better performance out of rechargeable NiMHs so just using normal alkalines isn't really a good option. Basically you'd be carrying a charger and a spare set of rechargeable batteries anyway, so the proprietary ones isn't any great loss.

Darwin

I notice some recommendations favouring 5MP+ cameras. While there are certainly some fine 5MP cameras on the market, don't get distracted by the numbers game - the lens and CCD quality are very important considerations. An increase in the number of megapixels does not necessarily equate to an increase in image quality - in fact you are more likely to get "noisy" images from high megapixel cameras that have poor CCD/lens optics.Also, ask yourself how likely it will be that you will want to print A4 size images? I think for most people a good 3MP camera is absolutely sufficient and will still give decent sized prints.
Yes - a good optical zoom is a great facility, I have 10x on mine and it gives great close ups. The trade off is it makes the camera less compact of course.
Good luck in your search...

kjt

I've just been reading through this thread as I was about to start one of my own. Really helpful

If you dont mind me asking, I'm doing something similar and have about the same budget 5/600. I want the camera for travelling and also for designing websites and photos for editing in photoshop and the like.

Both of these camera's look really good, Which would be the best .. and if the more expensive 1 is it worth the $$ ?

Cam 1


Cam 2

Thanks


(P.s soz for buttin in on your thread Blinky )

Kappar

Anyone got any comments on this camara. I am not looking for anything special just something for holidays etc. http://www.aldi.ie/special_buys/product_221.html

kjt

Oh, I was also wondering.... 12x optical zoom, How far are we talking here?
5ft, 50ft, 100ft?

Mayshine

its 12x magnification.

if you are 12 feet away from the object it will be like being 1ft away, if you are 100ft away it will be like being 8.something feet way.

DW