Help needed buying a digital camera

[Mariner]

I know a few people who own a TZ7/TZ8 (including my brother in law) and they are pretty happy with the performance. A friend visited Sri Lanka last year with a TZ7 and captured some nice pics.

Personally, I bought a Samsung WB600 shortly before Christmas on a whim as the price was so good - I paid the equivalent of EUR 150 including VAT. It has a 15x zoom and is slightly bulkier than the Panasonic but the Samsung has been a decent enough buy - I've only used it sparingly, however!

Truth be told, if I'd thought about it more, I'd perhaps have gone for a slightly smaller camera with a smaller zoom, as the WB600 is perhaps a little heavier/bulkier to put in my coat pocket than would be ideal. I should perhaps have saved up a little to buy a better camera with a smaller zoom but with similarly smaller dimensions. An excellent price, however.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Ah well I guess I had it on the brain since I have been thinking about it. What about the video quality? I have a 400D and want a 550D kind of (for higher ISO range and lower noise). If I can shoot video on par with a <$200 camcorder (like the flip ones) then I would jump in. I cannot seem to find anyway that can tell me though. Most reviews compare to expensive camcorders.

Obviously with additional accoutrements it shoots excellent video, but if you just try to get some video how does it do? I would buy the LCD eyepiece thing if I did it, but not a lot of other stuff. I planned to use the magic lantern firmware as well probably since it has some super advantages. Maybe canon will come out with something even better though soon who knows.

Just thought I'd add that the t3i was announced, it includes an articulating LCD screen. Not much else in the way of new features, but that one is pretty huge if you want to use it as a video camera.

 

[Pete]

I want to spend about 200 euro's. I don't really have any specific wishes apart from it being idiot proof. Also a small form factor would be nice.

Aw. I was going to recommend the Canon S95, but it's ~US$400. It's small and quick, a nice low-light point-and-shoot.

Bright lens (F2.0 at 28mm) and a relatively big sensor (with ISS, I'm pretty sure) means it as close to idiot-proof as it gets for a pocket cam. My only real complaint is the less-than-overwhelming battery life (related to its lack of viewfinder), but that really depends on your situation (e.g., one charge wasn't enough for a snap-happy touristy day in cold weather) and you can always buy more batteries. It's got 720p video, a grippier shell, and slightly tweaked controls over the previous-gen S90, so if you can find the latter anywhere near your budget, go for it--the pictures should be just as good.

My main criteria was low-light, no-flash shooting and a small form factor. My quick research suggested the S95 is the best of the current crop, and it hasn't disappointed me in my limited experience with it. Its main competition appears to be a slightly bigger Panasonic whose name I forget but which is probably mentioned in all the S95 reviews. I don't know how the current gen Fuji F## compares.

I won't be buying another digicam for a while, but by then I hope to see better dynamic range. The S95 has an HDR mode that involves combining two shots, but it's not easy to get to--and they recommend a tripod--so I never tried it.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

400$ is too much. The cheapest deal I could find is 330 euro's.

I also took a look at the lumix fx70. Seems that is a pretty good camera too but it only has 5x zoom. However it has better video recording and slightly better picture quality than the tz8 it seems. Especially in the dark. And it's smaller.

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/panasonic_lumix_dmc_fx70_review/conclusion/
http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/panasonic_lumix_dmc_tz8_review/conclusion/

What would be a good choice? Not just between those two but in general. I find it really hard to make a good choice as I just don't know what will work for me or not.

 

[Pete]

Hmm, this new $330 Nikon P300 is supposedly S95 competition (f1.8 lens, backlit sensor). It's slightly bigger but it does 1080p video and panorama shots.

It has an 18x zoom brother in the S9100, also $330.

 

[Kurt]

the pictures kinda sucked

Practice makes perfect (pictures) - no expensive gadgetry required. Ideally you want the cheapest thing that fits into your pocket and be done with it. Prices and measurements are easily found online
Also, buy when you are in Japan.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Ideally you want the cheapest thing that fits into your pocket and be done with it.

please ignore this horrible advice. If it were remotely true cell phones would take just as good pictures as a professional camera.

 

[Kurt]

please ignore this horrible advice. If it were remotely true cell phones would take just as good pictures as a professional camera.

The guy wants to view snapshots on a computer for fucks sake. I have an old ca 2004 Finepix 330 lying around somewhere that does adequate shots and in FULL-HD y'all lol.

My advice ignore all the nerd rage and buy whatever. If you belong to the vast majority of people who 'just' want good pics and don't know or don't care about the specifics (which is perfectly fine) then why bother with bying something you will never fully use anyway. Heck, most people don't even know their camera has things like manual white balance and shutter speed.

 

[AlphaWolf]

The guy wants to view snapshots on a computer for fucks sake. I have an old ca 2004 Finepix 330 lying around somewhere that does adequate shots and in FULL-HD y'all lol.

Old doesn't make a camera bad. Or cheap. How much did you pay for that?

My advice ignore all the nerd rage and buy whatever. If you belong to the vast majority of people who 'just' want good pics and don't know or don't care about the specifics (which is perfectly fine) then why bother with bying something you will never fully use anyway. Heck, most people don't even know their camera has things like manual white balance and shutter speed.

And if you want to take shitty pictures you can use your cell phone, and save money. If he wants to take some pictures that look decent, he can get a good camera in his price range. And if he decides he wants to get rid of it later, he might even be able to get a fair % of it back instead of chucking it in the waste bin.

 

[Frank]

Older cameras generally have a higher shutter speed to get a better color balance per pixel. And less noise/blurring. Because the pixels are bigger.

 

[Tahir2]

Some of the old Fuji cameras are sought after e.g. the Fuji F30. Newer cameras are generally sacrificing image quality for specs as megapixels sell.

That is a thought - maybe buy a second hand DSLR?

 

[Kurt]

You guys would probably make terrific salespeople - but terrible friends


I don't remember what the Fuji cost, I'm guessing around € 120, probably less. It was very, very low-end even then, but good value for the money. I got it mainly because I had access to cheap xD cards

 

[AlphaWolf]

You guys would probably make terrific salespeople - but terrible friends

And what you know about taking good pictures probably couldn't fill a thimble.

I don't remember what the Fuji cost, I'm guessing around € 120, probably less. It was very, very low-end even then, but good value for the money. I got it mainly because I had access to cheap xD cards

They were ~$200 at release, right around the price range the OP is looking for. A newer camera will probably have more cute features and a bigger LCD screen and maybe a bit slimmer profile, but the optics won't be much better than that an old finepix330.

So ya if he wants to look at used he could probably pick up a 5 megapixel camera that will save him some money, but buying the cheapest thing on the shelf, still gets you a piece of crap, just like it always will.

 

[Davros]

Ive got one of these

 

[AlphaWolf]

Ive got one of these

had you figured for that one

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I ended up buying the panasonic lumix zx3. It has 8x zoom so that is more than the fx70 that is 50 euro's more expensive and the tz8 was just too much for just taking some snapshots. It should arrive tomorrow.

 

[Kurt]

Post pics

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Got 2 I made this evening. Also had some daylight ones but imageshack says they are too large...

http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/2025/p1000079.jpg
I took this one in the dark with 15sec exposure time by selecting one of the default scene modes so it's actually a lot brighter than it really was. Anti shake doesn't seem to work though when having long exposure times so you really need to find a steady spot to put your camera on.

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/8786/p1000080j.jpg
Took this one at the same time but now with default exposure time with a different night scene mode.

Doesn't look too bad though all pictures look like they have quite a bit of noise I think. Same goes for daylight pictures and some even look ugly because of what seems to be not enough light.

Still need to read the manual though so I might get better results when I actually know what I'm doing.