Help me choose a digital camera

[skyblueheroes]

My parents are in Jersey and will be buying a digital camera to take advantage of the cheaper prices.

So, he wants to spend anything upto £250-£300 if worth the extra. This should hopefully include any memory upgrade or battery to make it worthwhile.

A good mega pixel size is preferred, and not too fussed about video options as he already has a camcorder. Should obviosuly come with sotfware etc....

So, what do you reckon ?

BTW - need to know today or tomorrow as he's coming home on Sunday !

[altis]

For that sort of money I'd recommend the Canon Powershot A80. Ask Bifta

Read all about the A80 here:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/a80.html

and my previous rantings here:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=7743

[squiggs1982]

I'd be inclined to say a canon of some description. Had quite a few different makes and models and the canons were undoubtably the best. Best images in terms of lack of noise, had good levels of sharpness an colour reproduction.

Got a Sony DSC-P10 just now, not bad, but wish I had my digital ixus 400 back!

Def stay away from the DSC-T1. It looks nice, but the images are a pile of poo!

That's my two bobs worth, but what I know about cameras, you could write on the back of a stamp!!

[Bifta]

I'd recommend it too, couple of my friends have bought one after me telling them about it. If you can stretch a bit further you could go for the Powershot G3 or G5 (I bought the G5 recently, excellent camera). I'd try and buy the A80 online though, Jessops charged me £289 for mine (and £429 for the G5). If you're going to go for the A80, get 4 rechargable batteries and a charger, save a packet on buying alkalines.

[skyblueheroes]

Thanks thus far guys. Apologies for not noticing the previous thread on the A80 !

I had drawn up a list of what I thought and it was all Canon anyway. The Ixus 500, 430 and A80.

The 500 is a good £80-£90 dearer, which is money that can be spent on a good 256 or 512 card. I think I'll recommend the A80 and see what prices he can get over there.

Thanks again gents.

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by skyblueheroes

Thanks thus far guys. Apologies for not noticing the previous thread on the A80 !

I had drawn up a list of what I thought and it was all Canon anyway. The Ixus 500, 430 and A80.

The 500 is a good £80-£90 dearer, which is money that can be spent on a good 256 or 512 card. I think I'll recommend the A80 and see what prices he can get over there.

Thanks again gents.

I'm not sure of the benefits of the Ixus over the A80, from what I can tell the A80 has more features and is cheaper. Try and get them to buy it in Jersey, arent they tax free?

[skyblueheroes]

Originally Posted by Bifta

I'm not sure of the benefits of the Ixus over the A80, from what I can tell the A80 has more features and is cheaper. Try and get them to buy it in Jersey, arent they tax free?

Yeah, thats what he's hoping to do.

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by skyblueheroes

Yeah, thats what he's hoping to do.

Cool! Tell him/them/her to get a CF card from Crucial, I bought yesterday, nice a cheap and crucial memory has always been quality.

[skyblueheroes]

Originally Posted by Bifta

Cool! Tell him/them/her to get a CF card from Crucial, I bought yesterday, nice a cheap and crucial memory has always been quality.

CF. Is it not SD for the Canon's ?

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by skyblueheroes

CF. Is it not SD for the Canon's ?

Nope, def. CF for the A80

[altis]

Originally Posted by skyblueheroes

CF. Is it not SD for the Canon's ?

No no no no nooooo!

Canon and Nikon are the two main consumer camera manufacturers sticking it out with compact flash. All professional cameras support this format.

Did you know that SD stands for Secure Digital and this means that the cards have embeded digital rights management?

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by altis

No no no no nooooo!

Canon and Nikon are the two main consumer camera manufacturers sticking it out with compact flash. All professional cameras support compact flash.

Did you know that SD stands for Secure Digital. That means the cards have embeded digital rights management?

That just highlights how completely ignorant I am, I thought the "secure" in "secure digital" applied to the little tab you could flip to stop images being erased.

[altis]

See this post for my previous rantings in favour of Compact Flash:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...9&postcount=21

I would definately avoid anything that uses an obsolete card format like Smartmedia.

Next, unless I had a special reason, I would avoid any proprietary format like Memory Stick and xD. As with lens mounts, manufacturers like to lock users into their own brand.

Currently, this leaves only two formats - SD and CF. As mentioned above SD includes digital rights management (which I am not particularly fond of) and there is a vast range of accessories that are CF compatible. Check out some of them here. Did you know that you can plug a CF card into a PCMCIA slot using a simple passive adaptor that rearranges the pins? Also, with another passive adaptor, you can connect a CF card to an IDE slot so that it behaves just like a HDD - with no drivers!

IMHO there is only one logical choice and I always look for equipment that supports it.

Originally Posted by altis

See this post for my previous rantings in favour of Compact Flash:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...9&postcount=21

I would definately avoid anything that uses an obsolete card format like Smartmedia.

Next, unless I had a special reason, I would avoid any proprietary format like Memory Stick and xD. As with lens mounts, manufacturers like to lock users into their own brand.

Currently, this leaves only two formats - SD and CF. As mentioned above SD includes digital rights management (which I am not particularly fond of) and there is a vast range of accessories that are CF compatible. Check out some of them here. Did you know that you can plug a CF card into a PCMCIA slot using a simple passive adaptor that rearanges the pins?

IMHO there is only one logical choice and I always look for equipment that supports it.

I went for a camera with Secure Digital because that's the format used by the expansion slot in my Palm m515. The cards are smaller too! There doesn't appear to be anything compact about compact flash.

[Tezcatlipoca]

I'd definitely recommend a Canon digicam.

I got a Powershot A70 a year ago for around the price range you've given, but as Bifta said, you can now get the excellent 4MP Powershot A80 for roughly that price.

I also agree with Bifta that an A80 would be better than an Ixus - the Ixus range is quite nice, but you'd be paying a lot extra simply to have a slim camera with less features. The A80 is bigger than the Ixus models, but still easy to handle & use, & no bigger than a normal film compact camera.

Don't just look in Jersey though - try online. Saint Helier has a Jessops & a couple of other good places that sell digicams, but the only price difference between Jersey & the UK is the lack of VAT. You may get a better deal from an online retailer, even though you'd have to pay VAT.

I bought my A70 from www.cameras2u.com.

They currently sell the more recent Powershot A80 for £229 (inc. VAT): http://www.cameras2u.com/products/de...UCT=9026A006AA

EDIT: They also have the S50 for £289, & the G5 for £379