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Originally Posted by Barewolf
Its my Birthday on Saturday.....Happy Birthday to me.... come on sing along.
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Happy birthday!
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Originally Posted by Barewolf
Anyway its been a good little camera really when in the garden or house etc, but when i am going to the lake and i take pictures they come out very dark and gloomy, even though its not dark and gloomy outside. Trees in the background have no structure, they appear black etc. Even on the maximum quality setting. If things are close up its ok, up to 10-20 feet etc.
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Sounds to me as if your camera is underexposing your outdoor shots. Are you using the landscape picture mode on the camera when taking these kind of shots?
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Originally Posted by Barewolf
Now my Girlfriend said she would get me a camera for my Birthday which is why i need advice. I have no idea of what camera will be best for what i want to do so i will just explain what i want to do.
When i am outside, cloudy or not, i want to take a picture and be able to pick up the trees in the background as i see them with my eyes, even if they are 1/2 a mile away, i dont want to see just black shapes of trees etc.
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You need a camera with a good range of optical zoom lengths. Ignore anything on the camera that says digital zoom, this is no use. Optical zoom is where the focal length on the physical lens is changed to meet your needs for that specific shot.
To shoot what the eye sees, you need a focal length of about 50mm, if you want to bring something nearer to you, you need more, if you want wide angle shots, you need less.
I won't complicate things by talking about digital focal length multipliers, but you will need a zoom lens of some description.
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Originally Posted by Barewolf
Now she can only really afford £150 and she has to get it from a catalogue, she might go to £180 i dont know, lets just say top end is £180.
This is the catalogue she has to get it out of with the cameras on it, can anyone tell me which is the best camera for what i want to do?
http://www.grattan.co.uk/Web/main/pr...P%5FMasterItem |
I'm not familiar with any of those compacts myself, as a general rule Fujis usually deliver pretty good results. The Nikon I have seen slated in a review.
Your best bet is to search for the cameras on that page...visit Tesco Extra, Jessops, pick them up, feel how they sit in your hand, ask questions about them etc. Also, a good review site is DPREVIEW, give it a Google!
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Originally Posted by Barewolf
Also do these cameras come with memory sticks or do you have to buy them seperate?
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By the looks of the listsings on that page, some do, some don't.
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Originally Posted by Barewolf
The one she was looking at was DIGIMAX S700 Which seems really good but it only has 20mb Internal memory, which at max setting only takes 11 pictures. This finepix cam came with 16gb Memory stick.
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With the kind of resolutions some of the cameras on that page have (7.1mp was the highest I think) you're going to need a hell of a lot more than 20mb or 16mb. If they are true 7 megapixel cameras (some use a software resolution to upscale the image to that, which is not the same as a true 7.1mp image) then you're image file size will be in the region of 4mb per photo.
You should be looking at getting at least a 1gb card to store your images. A useful tip is to have several 1gb cards rather than one 4gb card, for the simple reason that if you lose the 4gb card or break it or it becomes corrupt, then you've still got three others with your photos on.
You can pick up a decent brand (Lexar or SanDisk) SD card, 1gb for about £10-15 these days. Avoid slower and no-name cards, as you're writing big files with each photo faster cards will do you favours.
So here's a checklist:
- More optical zoom = good.
- More megapixels = not necessarily good, but more will allow bigger prints
- SD cards are cheaper than xD cards, a bit. Do your research before you buy.
- Does camera come with rechargable batts and charger? Regular batts won't last 5 mins.
- How does camera feel to hold?
- What software does camera come with?
I'm sure there's a few other things to take into account, but that's a good starting place. If you need any more help, just shout.