which digital camera should i buy

im wanting to buy a digi cam,started off looking at one for around 50.00,then mates started with oh if you pay an extra tenner you could have this ,blah blah,eventually im on 100.00 and thinking for 110.00 i could have better and so on

back down to the 70.00 area,im not looking for miracles just nice fotoes

ok ,what i need for the price if poss,easy to use,i want to be able to take good clear close ups,so a good macro needed,would like a good optical zoom
metal case if poss
control on the flash

to give an example i used to have a k850i mobile phone which gave great general pics,but close ups were blurred all the time and the flash always washed the object out,it was 5mp and i was happy with it generally but as stated close ups were bad

argos are doing some good deals at the mo,is this a good place to buy cameras from?

im hoping to buy one within the next 4 weeks

 

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/s...ogId=1500002201&langId=-1&searchTerms=5593732

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/s...ogId=1500002201&langId=-1&searchTerms=5592908

are the two ive been looking at

 

I almost moved this to the engine section thinking you wanted a cam recommendation for your Digifant...

 

title changed stu

 

id go for the samsung chap, slightly higher spec in some areas.

 

Save up a few more pennies and go for a Canon Ixus.

Go to somewhere like Jessops or Jacobs, where they will let you try them out in the shop. Then go and buy one cheaper online.

I carry mine (7MP) with me all the time, unlike my SLR.

There's no manual settings, so it's easy to use by chosing the type of scene you want. Shutter lag isn't too bad for a compact. Battery life is good and SD cards are cheap. Low light shots can be grainy, but so are most other compacts.

Here's some macro shots from mine (I have better, but can't remember where I've posted them ) I realise you may not want to take pictures of flowers, but I just take the Ixus with me when I walk the dog, as I have to submit a different picture every day as my 365 project entry, and where I live, it wouldn't be a good idea to be walking round with an expensive DSLR!







You do realise you'll be obliged to enter the photo competition each month once you've bought a camera, don't you?

 

yea it did seem to be the best one out of all the argos ones,also looked at jessops and you didnt get much more camera for the price

 

stella,thanks for all the info there,but this is the problem,i tried to explain in the initial post,i started off looking at cameras around 50.00 then went up to 70.00 with some advice from a friend then it was well if you put another 20.00 you can get better,untill i was at well, over 100.00,the camera you have there,there are a few different models of it,i had a quick look and they seem to be 130.00 ish,although i did see one for 89.00,but used and only 5mp
anyhow the budget is 70.00 to 80.00 tops,i suppose my question should be,looking at the 2 in the links,is there another camera for that price but better make for same spec?
your pics are great btw ,and i doubt ill be entering any competitions unless you can enter pics of engine parts
although i do live in north yorkshire and there are some nice places up here so who knows

 

last year i was in roughly the same position as you.

i was pretty much set on the canon a2100 based on all the reviews and sample photos i saw

http://www.camerabox.co.uk/product1.asp?ProductName=Canon-Powershot-A1100-IS-Pink&ProductID=6816

if you can stomach pink

 

http://www.camerabox.co.uk/product1.asp?ProductName=Fuji-Finepix-S1500&ProductID=7540
stonking camera for the money

and then this years model
http://www.camerabox.co.uk/product1.asp?ProductName=Fuji-Finepix-S1600&ProductID=10115

the photoblog site does good reviews

 

looks good,found one here the same in silver,but again more money
http://www.buyacamera.co.uk/xsearch.asp?searchtype=Name&searchfor=CANONPOWERSHOTA1100GRADED&pt=f

i looked at one similar,(different make)which i liked but plastic body though
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5593457.htm

seems to have all the spec aswell,theres just so many about now

 

they seem to update models every 6 or 12 months to make it worse, so id be tempted to go for a previous year model, get almost all the performance but with money knocked off

 

yea i think thats whats happening at argos tbh,there selling all the old stock off
"oh its so last 6 months" i dont mind if its last 6 or last 12 months so im with you there matt,some of these argos ones are less than half price,people who bought them under a year ago will be kicking themselves

i think i will be going for either the kodak or the samsung,need to make my mind up before the weekend

 

i suffer from the "well is i spend 10/20 more...." syndrome, im absolute sucker for trying to get the better model, but in reality you wont loose out on much at all by getting the last year model (from my experience buying as a camera newbie last year)

brand wise, cannon, nikon, fuji etc all see to be solid brands that dont actually seem to make many bad products.

its good fun, try not to get too addicted!

 

yea i probably would get sucked into it myself but the fact remains i havent got the extra anyway ,id have to borrow,and i dont like to borrow
i think ill be snap happy when i do get it though,just for the sake of experimenting

just two other points ive come across ,is it better to have a rechargeable battery or just the normal AA type,im torn with this idea as rechargeable save money but if you loose charge with AA's you just pop new ones in

also theres no info i can see on the cameras ive been viewing,stella mentioned about shutter lag,my samsung phone camera has a drastic lag,not worth trying to take pics of the dog moving around,half the shots shes not in it as shes long gone before camera captures the pic,id sacrifice some of the 12 mega pixels and a bit of the 5x optical for a good fast shutter speed

 

i think the smile shutter idea is great
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1WC_00L0b0

 

I've got a Canon IXUS and love it, but as you say they're over budget so I've just looked on the Canon ebay outlet and they do a refurbed Canon PowerShot A470 for 54.99 + 2.95 P&P, seems like it's got some really good reviews, it also comes with a 1 year manufacturer's warranty, it might be worth you reading some reviews.

One bit of advice is don't get too wrapped up in how many mega pixles a camera has.

Example

2 Mega Pixle Canon IXUS V2 -



10 Mega Pixe Canon IXUS90is

 

yea i suppose your right about the mp but the optical zoom is important though,not sure i want second hand or refurb ,the reason for the budget is my mum is putting half towards as a present,so id like new really ,i must admit ive had some cracking shots from a 5mp camera with no optical zoom but to get the macro shots was impossible,either blurred or washed out by the flash,mind you that was a phone camera
i have read a few reviews and found that the ones have been looking at are all very good,and i read the 10mp camera shot is good for A4 printouts which im also wanting
i will have a look at the cannon though and have a read

 

yup, that was on my short list last year too. i looked at a million reviews and sample photos. i loved the photos on the a470

and number of MP means nothing tbh

 

just read this on the powershot and im impressed
Without flash the shutter lag figures are good. A single shot was captured in 0.28 seconds and five shots too 7.6 seconds. With flash on it was very different and lag times are very slow. A single shot was taken in 1.13 seconds
my phone takes up to 6 seconds per shot [:^(]

just going to have a look how much they are brand new