Photography Question - Digi Cam

[Barewolf]

Its my Birthday on Saturday.....Happy Birthday to me.... come on sing along.

Anyway i have been going out alot to lakes taking pictures, i am no David Bailey but the camera i am using at the moment (Dont laugh) is a Finepix A202. Its only 2 megapixel and has 5 flash modes and i think 2 picture modes not sure.

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.

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.

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

Also do these cameras come with memory sticks or do you have to buy them seperate?

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.

Anyway any help is much appreciated as i know sod all about cameras.

Just a quick post from a photographer on another forum. Not quite 'outside' dark, but relevant I think.

Best compact camera for gigs is currently the Fuji F30 or f31, for 1 reason these 2 stand miles above the rest 'cos they have a workable iso 3200 setting on them which basically means they can take pictures in low light with very little grain. Beware as many other manufacturers have started to use iso as a marketing tool and make their cameras go higher than they really should, bit like putting a rocket engine in a Lada. Although 'only' 6 mega pixels (big enough for A4 easily) they can give a decent slr a run for the money in low light. I know someone who has one of these, I recommended it to her and she came back from the Muse gig with some great shots.

Both the F30 and F31 come in under your budget. Sorry if they're not in that particular catalogue though.

[Mike]

I just brought one of these....well impressed

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...9-21/ref=nosim

Best buy on the Gadget show for a mid range camera

http://gadgetshow.five.tv/jsp/5gsmai...ital%20Cameras

Mike

[danielf]

Paging Mr. Grif!!!!

[Halcyon]

Does she have to buy it from Gratten ?
You can probably get a better camera for the price you will pay for one at this store.

Most cvamera's don't come with cards but will have built in memory to get you going. You can't expect to take many photos though and a memory card will be needed. Most cameras use SD cards whilst a select few use their own, eg. Sony memory stick.

I'd reccomend the Nikon's and Sony's that have some degree of manual settings but handy scene selections so you can quickly get the mode you need for the shot, eg. sunset, portrait, beach, etc.

The followiung sites have useful reviews:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/
http://www.dpreview.com/

[pedantic]

This is a decent review site, you can see some snap shots taken with the camera's for comparison.

EDIT: Bugger ! Halcyon has faster fingers than me.

[AndyCambs]

The Samsung Digimax D103 has 10megapixels and is available from PC World at the online price of £119

[andygrif]

Originally Posted by Barewolf

Its my Birthday on Saturday.....Happy Birthday to me.... come on sing along.

Happy birthday!

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!

Originally Posted by Barewolf

Also do these cameras come with memory sticks or do you have to buy them seperate?

By the looks of the listsings on that page, some do, some don't.

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.

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.

[skyblueheroes]

Perhaps the money is better spent staying online

I got a fuji s5000 for sale could do ya a deal lol

[Scarlett]

Firstly appolgies to Barewolf for a slight kidnapping of this thread but I'd rather not start a thread with pretty much the same topic so quickly.

I am also looking to get a digital camara. I don't want a top end model but I would rather spend a few hundred (maybe upto 500) on a decent camara that will last me for some time. I want it for holiday pics, family party type things (so some flash) and Live role play (where my target might be across the other side of a field or 1 meter in front of me) I would prefer something fairly chunky (i.e. with a thick grip on the right hand side at least) As I'll often have a laptop around, I can probably live without a massive amount of storage but decent battery life is a must.

any suggestions?

(BTW I'm not dead set on spending all the way upto the limit but its just to give you an idea - If someone can come back and say model X costing £150 will do everything you want then I'll be just as happy.)

for 500 quid you can get a real good camera look at the canon eos series but ensure you get a lens deal also the nikons at that price would be a good deal. For a basic digi cam you only need to spend a max of 200 quid

what you get for 500 quid will be a slr camera meaning all your setting can be manual like aperture exposure focus etc and may well be a little complicated. Look for a named model with a good camera named lens and get something with image stabilizing. There are 100s of good models so I cant narrow it down but look for them specs in say canon fuji and nikon for example

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Scarlett

any suggestions?

(BTW I'm not dead set on spending all the way upto the limit but its just to give you an idea - If someone can come back and say model X costing £150 will do everything you want then I'll be just as happy.)

At that price, you may as well go for a SLR such as the Canon EOS. The 350 is £390 at Amazon, the newer 400 is £500. We have the 350 and it's a great piece of kit.

Others might be able to suggest something cheaper though.

Edit: Wot Zingle said

[sgorge]

This might be a silly question, but: How do I post a new article. I've spent the last 20 minutes searching for the 'Submit new post' and cannot find anything.
Gorge

[Halcyon]

Whatever you decide to buy, get a good case for it and if the camera doesn't have it's own lens cover, a lens cove too.
For the money you spend on a camera, you don't want it damaged.

---------- Post added at 10:38 ---------- Previous post was at 10:37 ----------

Originally Posted by sgorge

This might be a silly question, but: How do I post a new article. I've spent the last 20 minutes searching for the 'Submit new post' and cannot find anything.
Gorge

The "New thread" button can be found at the top of each forum on the left.