A Nice Camera

wannabedamned

wannabedamned

wannabedamned

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First post in the photography section I believe! So hello!

I'm looking to purchase a good camera, now i understand in these forums good could mean £1000+ on camera's and lenses :p Well I'm not quite that rich.

My brother has a Kodak camera, Possibly the Z812, But I'm not sure, He bought it about a year ago, and got it for £180 refurbed.

Now that's a fanastic camera.

And I wouldn't mind something simlar to that for myself. But I was wondering if there was a better one now. A year later.

What I want from my camera, Is instant picture taking, No delay time between pressing the button and the photo being taken, Nothing worse than going for a picture of something, Knowing you got it while it was exactly how you wanted it, but the picture comes out at a later pose.

I'd also like some sort of image stabilization.

I also want great clarity of pictures if that's possible, I want to take photos that look fantastic, and i can be proud of them. We bought a canon about 3 years ago, and the pictures are just lame, They hold nothing of the magic in scene you actually took a photo of. (If you get my meaning)

Doesn't need to be mega compact something the size of the Z812 would be fine with me.

But I just want a good, Amateur yet still nice quality camera.

Now here's where I cut my options down, I'd pay between £250 and £300 for the camera.

Any help would be great. :)
 
hey wannabedamned, for £300, you're close to dslr money there, you could get a used 350/400D + kit lens which will shoot (no pun intended) any point and shoot out of the water ;), then you can always add to it later :)
 
A DSLR will be hugely restricted compared to a compact though, until you start spending money.

Then you also have the fact you need multiple lenses to do different things etc. and the cost and inconvenience of a DSLR soon mounts.

So, onto some suggested models to look at:

Canon S5 IS
Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ18
Fuji 9600
 
divine` said:
A DSLR will be hugely restricted compared to a compact though, until you start spending money.

Then you also have the fact you need multiple lenses to do different things etc. and the cost and inconvenience of a DSLR soon mounts.

So, onto some suggested models to look at:

Canon S5 IS
Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ18
Fuji 9600
Click to expand...

Hardly TBH

I had a 350D and 18-55 and I took just shy of 15k images with them before getting new lenses ;)

350D + 18-55 IS is probably a good start :)
 
It's a factual statement, a DSLR is restricted compared to a lot of compacts unless you buy extra lenses.
 
divine` said:
It's a factual statement, a DSLR is restricted compared to a lot of compacts unless you buy extra lenses.
Click to expand...

You're right, depending on what you want to shoot.

I managed fine with portraits and landscapes using the kit lens (and still do). The only reason I have got a 55-200 is for the odd bit of wildlife.
 
divine` said:
A DSLR will be hugely restricted compared to a compact though, until you start spending money.

Then you also have the fact you need multiple lenses to do different things etc. and the cost and inconvenience of a DSLR soon mounts.

So, onto some suggested models to look at:

Canon S5 IS
Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ18
Fuji 9600
Click to expand...

How would a DSLR be restrictive? The faster focus, instant zoom, better transfer speeds, multitude of manual settings and excellent upgrade path would prove a problem somehow?
 
Cuchulain said:
How would a DSLR be restrictive? The faster focus, instant zoom, better transfer speeds, multitude of manual settings and excellent upgrade path would prove a problem somehow?
Click to expand...

What happens when you want to shoot something slightly far away?

Oh, you'll need a telephoto lens. £200 please.

What about if you want to focus closer than 40cm?

Oh, you'll need a macro lens. £200 please.

I'm sure you can see where i'm going with this.

An SLR with just a kit lens will always have a restricted usage compared to a compact that usually has ability to do macro all the way to equivalent 350mm+ telephoto.

Someone with a budget of £250-£300 is not the sort of person who should probably be investing in an SLR.

It's just slightly annoying how this forum is getting almost like the Audio forums. 'I want a small Hi-Fi for my room' "Rubbish, you need a dedicated amp, with these massive floorstander speakers and seperate CD and tuner decks"

The guy asked for a compact, if he wanted to spend the next three years upgrading, buying add ons, investing hundreds of pounds, i'm sure he would have said so.
 
completely agree with Divine (what happened to the madness bit mate??) here.

an SLR needs money spending on lenses etc, and if someone doesnt want to do that then there is no point investing in one. Thats the difference, buy a compact - or invest in a SLR.

I would be looking at the PowerShot G9.

fyi, you can get a 400D with kit lens for £289 (after cashback etc) atm.
 
Compact wise (or at least semi-compact), the Canon G series are good at the moment. I'd also personally highly recommend the Samsung NV series, which are great little cameras with tonnes of settings if you want to get technical or just straight point and shoot modes for a quick snap. I bought one for my Mum when she smashed her last one and she's been thrilled with it.

As above, for that sort of money you could go down the dSLR route. However, as correctly pointed out above, to gain the functionality that would be seen in a good compact, you've got to spend some extra. I went to Indonesia last summer and getting shots of birds, I had a 300mm lens. The guy next to me had a decent prosumer camera (I forget what now) and he could get more bird in the frame than me without a problem and it had an inbuilt IS system. Now I'd imagine that the quality difference of the glass made a difference and that I ended up with the better shots, but it does make you think.
 
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GeX said:
(what happened to the madness bit mate??)
Click to expand...

That's back from playing W:ET and the OcUK squad splitting into two teams. We put a marker on the end of our names to signify team but my name was too long so I shortened to divine and have just used that instead most places now.
 
divine` said:
What happens when you want to shoot something slightly far away?

Oh, you'll need a telephoto lens. £200 please.

What about if you want to focus closer than 40cm?

Oh, you'll need a macro lens. £200 please.

I'm sure you can see where i'm going with this.

An SLR with just a kit lens will always have a restricted usage compared to a compact that usually has ability to do macro all the way to equivalent 350mm+ telephoto.

Someone with a budget of £250-£300 is not the sort of person who should probably be investing in an SLR.

It's just slightly annoying how this forum is getting almost like the Audio forums. 'I want a small Hi-Fi for my room' "Rubbish, you need a dedicated amp, with these massive floorstander speakers and seperate CD and tuner decks"

The guy asked for a compact, if he wanted to spend the next three years upgrading, buying add ons, investing hundreds of pounds, i'm sure he would have said so.
Click to expand...

I had a budget of £400 when starting out. I now have 6x that in equipment 2 and a half years on.

The lack of zoom didn't bother me in the slightest, just treat it like a prime, you have work around what you have. If you need a zoom u'll think dam oh well I got this shot instead.

Bridges are compromises and always will be.

If he knows abit about photography and wants to further it: SLR
If he wants to learn about photography: bridge/SLR
If he wants something to put in his pocket: PaS

As he said no shutter lag thats Bridge/SLR as I don't know if there is any PaS without any shutter lag?

I think he should pop down to the local photography shop, have a play with a PaS, Bridge and entry D-SLR and see what he prefers, it may turn out that he finds a £150 PaS that does him just fine.
 
You've pretty much made my point for me entirely.

'Starting out'
'6x that' (£2400, bit more than his current £250 budget...)
'2 and a half years on'
'lack of zoom'
'work around what you have'
etc. etc.

You've just demonstrated the SLR system is restrictive until you start spending more money, which is exactly what I said in the first place.

He asked for a decent camera, specifically stating an example of a camera he liked and said he wanted something like that. Nothing he said really pointed towards him wanting to invest in an SLR system that he spends years adding to, spending on, investing in. So I suggested him some decent cameras to look at, in his budget, that would suit all his requirements.
 
divine` said:
You've pretty much made my point for me entirely.

'Starting out'
'6x that' (£2400, bit more than his current £250 budget...)
'2 and a half years on'
'lack of zoom'
'work around what you have'
etc. etc.

You've just demonstrated the SLR system is restrictive until you start spending more money, which is exactly what I said in the first place.

He asked for a decent camera, specifically stating an example of a camera he liked and said he wanted something like that. Nothing he said really pointed towards him wanting to invest in an SLR system that he spends years adding to, spending on, investing in. So I suggested him some decent cameras to look at, in his budget, that would suit all his requirements.
Click to expand...

ive just bought a 400d and that with the kit lens is absolutely fine until you decide you want lens, and lack of zoom please tell me your kidding, the quality of picture ****** all over a compact.
 
divine` said:
What happens when you want to shoot something slightly far away?

Oh, you'll need a telephoto lens. £200 please. - From £59 new, less second hand

What about if you want to focus closer than 40cm?

Oh, you'll need a macro lens. £200 please. Kit lens can focus down to 10cm with a £4 +4 macro filter.

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/472/img2479um3.jpg
Click to expand...

No problem with you saying what you think, but get what you're saying right ;)
 
A £4 macro filter will be a piece of rubbish and a £59 telephoto lens? That'll be almost as bad.

edit - Besides, not that either of those things remove the inconvenience factor of having to carry extra stuff around and swap things over.

The guy asked for recommendations on a nice camera, similar to the Z812. I don't see why everyone wants to push him into getting an SLR when his budget is £250 and nothing he's said he wants points to needing an SLR.
 
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