Spec me a camera around £150

Jonesiani

Jonesiani

Jonesiani

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Evening!

Me and the wife are heading to New Zealand soon for 5 weeks, and obviously I'd like to take photos of the journey.
We only have the cameras on our iPhone (6S).
I know next to nothing about current cameras, so can anyone point me towards a camera for around £150?

Thanks!
 
Unless you get an absolutely stonking second hand deal, there's no £150 camera that'll beat your phone.
 
Uv is right, the £150 price will purchase a camera, but not a particularly good one.

You only need to look at what is available, the big manufacturers, Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic, Olympus and Fuji aren't making money on cheap compacts and their range at that price point illustrates it quite well. Not much choice really.

The exchange rate has also worked against everyone, pushing cameras out of that price range as well.

You say you're going to New Zealand for 5 weeks. Is this to visit family or one of those 'trip of a lifetime' trips - i.e you're going to travel all over New Zealand?

If it is a family trip, do they have a decent camera you can borrow? All you would need then is a set of memory cards to bring home with you.

If it is a trip of a lifetime event, then I would suggest you look long and hard at your budget and see if you can push it, it would be a shame to go all that way to some spectacular locations and not come back with some half decent shots.

Personally, if I didn't have a decent camera, I would go with a mark 1 Sony RX100 but you're looking at more than double your budget at £349. Also don't forget whatever Camera you decide on, to get a couple of spare batteries and a number of memory cards.
 
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RX100 1 is a good call, will give you much better low light performance, a good lens and faster focusing - I get great results with my MKIII to the point that I'm happy to leave the DSLR behind on holiday. Second hand market they can be had < 200 if you look around.

The canon s100 s110 is also worth a look second hand, much less than a jump from the 6s though.

On the 6s worth having a look at the Lightroom app, both for post processing but also it's supports RAW shooting and a bit more control over the camera parameters. Also worth considering investing in Lightroom for desktop or try the trial version, as it will give you a lot of tools to tweak and organise your images with.
 
Have a look at something like a Canon PowerShot SX610 HS. 18x optical zoom with image stabilisation. Supposed to be a nice little camera, I haven't personally used one though. Can be had new for less than your budget. Probably still worth having a look around for a second hand rx100 if you want something for low light.
 
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I was recently asked the same question by a friend and suggested getting a 2nd hand Sony CSC. He ended up with one of the NEX5 range for around £120 with the kit lens. For me, getting something like this allows people to get a good idea of manual settings and invest in system which they can either add to or sell on and get their money back. It was bought from that high street exchange shop online btw.
 
Thankyou all for the advice.

The trip is actually our honeymoon, 4 weeks in NZ and a week in Samoa.

It's the wife that owns the 6S, I own a 6.

You're probably right, use the 6S and save some money. :) I will however have a look second hand for those suggested.
 
Jonesiani said:
Thankyou all for the advice.

The trip is actually our honeymoon, 4 weeks in NZ and a week in Samoa.

It's the wife that owns the 6S, I own a 6.

You're probably right, use the 6S and save some money. :) I will however have a look second hand for those suggested.
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or trade in you 6 for a 7, the camera in my other half's iphone 7 is amazing and you get a cheeky phone upgrade!
 
if you want to dab your feet into DSRLs there is a canon 1000D in the MM for £65, you could get a kit lens separately in your budget.
 
Unless you are into photography as such I'd just stick with the iPhone. My guess is you want to capture memories of the honeymon with the photos and not win prizes for composition, image quality etc. If you really want better then you'll have to increase budget as said above.
 
Genoma said:
RX100 1 is a good call, will give you much better low light performance, a good lens and faster focusing - I get great results with my MKIII to the point that I'm happy to leave the DSLR behind on holiday. Second hand market they can be had < 200 if you look around..
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Are the Sony RX100 range still the best compact camera's you can buy ?

I have the RX100 mk2 but I haven't been keeping up with the lastest camera's for a few years
 
chaparral said:
Are the Sony RX100 range still the best compact camera's you can buy ?
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VFM, I'd argue that the Panny LX100 is better - larger sensor, still pocketable - though getting towards the size where you could get an Oly PEN with a pancake and then you've got the option of switching lenses if you wish.

Irrelevant though as you're not going to get either for £150 :p
 
Cant you borrow a camera from someone ?

A camera will be better than a phone personally,it is after all your honeymoon and you don't want low par photos do you :)

I have a little Sony compact,got it for £50 from the members market a few years ago,has proved to be a good compact for the money,also got a decent camera but the little Sony has been faultless.
 
As good as phone camera's have become, I strongly suspect you will regret not taking a 'proper' camera with you on your honeymoon. The ones schizo linked above are a great place to start and for the money you're budgeting it is hard to beat.

I would recommend something with at least an equivalent 300mm zoom (the Sony goes to 875mm!) It does go through batteries fairly quickly but get a couple sets of rechargeable batteries and your good to go.
 
Just so you're aware, phone camera pictures in good light can sometimes be comparable to DSLR pictures if viewed on a phone, certainly when not shooting fast moving subjects and wanting low depth of field. Stick them on a decent monitor or TV however, and it's often a big difference. If you can edit raw files basically, the difference can be huge. I realise this is very vague, but it's sometimes overlooked.
 
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