[dazzla]

I'm looking to buy a digital camera for my birthday on friday and I was just wondering if any of you had any reccomendations. My budget is between �200 and �300.

I've been having a little nose around and this little bunch caught my eye:

Sony DSCP51

Fuji Finepix 2800

Sony DSCP71

Olympus C300 Digital Camera

Kodak DX3700

I've read a few reviews, and I'll continue to do so, but if you've used any of them, or have any other opinions, I'll be grateful.

[Evangellydonut]

I have an old Kodak 2MP...but can't say I like any of the new Kodaks...infact, I despise them...

With Fuji, you have to watch out for the "real" MP rating...instead of traditional CCDs of horizontally aligned squares, they align them in a diamond formation, which results in better interoplation quality. However, they often market a 2MP CCD as an interoplated 4MP camera...and if you look at the picture qualities, it's comparable to 3MP at best...

The biggest complain I got against Sony is Memory Sticks...but I'll HAVE to deal with them with my P800...but 'til then, I'll stay away from those for as long as I can...Oh, another thing with Sony is that their pictures are consistantly over-emphasized on red...(orange crayon might look like red and red look like neon-red or something like that)

that leaves the Olympus...but only 'cuz I'm picky with stuff I think dpreview.com is the best place for research goodluck.

[Patrick]

Having been in the market for a digital camera recently, I've tried out two of those at a local electronics store.

The Finepix 2800 has one of those electronic viewfinders. The advantage is that you get the same picture you'd see on the LCD screen; no viewfinder parallax. The disadvantage is that it doesn't work well in low light. The camera has a much bigger optical zoom than I've seen in cameras in its price range, which is cool, but the others offer 3 megapixel resolutions compared to 2 in the 2800. Plus I like the real-image viewfinders.

The C-300Z (marketed as the D-550Z over here) was one of the cameras I was seriously considering. It's got 3 megapixels, supposedly long battery life, and one of those nifty sliding lens covers (my last camera, a D-360L, had the same feature). But it doesn't have that small LCD panel on top of the camera that shows how many pictures are left, among other settings. I took a few pictures with it, being careful not to let anybody in the store see the Smartmedia card I took out of my pocket, and they all came out nice and sharp, putting my last camera to shame.

I almost got that one, but ended up buying the more expensive Olympus C-3020Z, mainly because I wanted to play around with the more advanced features and "manual" settings. Plus the lack of that LCD thing I mentioned on the C-300Z would've gotten on my nerves.

Also I hear the ones from Canon are pretty popular. Their Powershot models tend to have good image quality.

Here are some more sites for you. The first two have sample pictures from each camera they review.
http://www.steves-digicams.com
http://www.imaging-resource.com
http://www.dcresource.comn
http://electronics.cnet.com/electron...9.html?tag=dir

[jimsmac]

Have you looked at any of the Canon range? These always seem to get good reviews.

Also look at http://www.dpreview.com for some in depth and very informative reviews.

[-Q-]

Originally posted by Patrick:
The Finepix 2800 has one of those electronic viewfinders. The advantage is that you get the same picture you'd see on the LCD screen; no viewfinder parallax. The disadvantage is that it doesn't work well in low light. The camera has a much bigger optical zoom than I've seen in cameras in its price range, which is cool, but the others offer 3 megapixel resolutions compared to 2 in the 2800. Plus I like the real-image viewfinders.

I have to second Patrick's observation here. The LCD viewfinder is great for good light situations, but as soon as it starts to get dark, you end up "shooting blind".

Having owned this camera for a few months, I have to say that I really do like it. It's a good size and the picture quality is excellent. And the zoom is spectacular. If it had a real-image viewfinder, it would be the perfect camera...

[Paul S]

Personally, I've been really happy with the Kodaks. One thing to watch out for. The 3700 only has a digital zoom while the 3900 has an optical zoom. That's a big difference for me.

[Betox]

Originally posted by dazzla:
I'm looking to buy a digital camera for my birthday on friday and I was just wondering if any of you had any reccomendations. My budget is between �200 and �300.

I've been having a little nose around and this little bunch caught my eye:

Sony DSCP51

Fuji Finepix 2800

Sony DSCP71

Olympus C300 Digital Camera

Kodak DX3700

I've read a few reviews, and I'll continue to do so, but if you've used any of them, or have any other opinions, I'll be grateful.

Go for the Olympus C300, for quality and battery life...

[nana4]

Check out the CoolPix 2500 as well.

[proux]

How about the Canon Elph S330? Looks very nice. The ONLY bad review is that the white automatic balance is bad in low light but can be corrected (not sure if that is a big deal).

[Mutant]

Hey!

A little off topic since most the other cameras mentioned are sorta-higer end, but I've had alot of fun lately with this really small French camera I've bought from Digital Dream .

It only cost 40 GBP Sterliing, and is about the size of a box of matches. It is incredibly small, but still manages to take pretty decent photos.

Here are some pix of cats in Londons East End that I've taken using mine.

Perhaps best of all - they have a native OS X driver, and iPhoto can directly upload and even clear the camera.

I'm happy with it, and just thought I'd post this as perhaps a lower cost alternative to the other cameras I saw mentioned.

Hope this is of interest!

Take care

M

[dazzla]

I've actually found one I liked. It's the Canon Powershot A40, it's at Amazon for �199 with a free 32mb memory card:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...963409-8872641

I haven't read a bad review on it, and I've read tonnes of online reviews and quite a lot of print reviews.

The thing is, it's out of stock. Places like Argos charge �300 for it, Jungle charges �240 and Jessops charge �230.

Are there any other places I can buy from?

[jimsmac]

Try the following ones although you'll probably need to call them for availability / lead times as it doesn't seem to specify.

QED
Empire Direct
Unbeatable

[dazzla]

Originally posted by jimsmac:
Try the following ones although you'll probably need to call them for availability / lead times as it doesn't seem to specify.

QED
Empire Direct
Unbeatable

Thanks, I've been to all of them and I can actually get the A40 for �199 at Unbeatable.

http://www.unbeatable.co.uk/product_...OT4217DTAG5873

Have you used them before? Or any of the others?

[jimsmac]

I've used the other two but not unbeatable. However a couple of colleagues have without problems.

[G4ME]

Originally posted by proux:
How about the Canon Elph S330? Looks very nice. The ONLY bad review is that the white automatic balance is bad in low light but can be corrected (not sure if that is a big deal).

thats the one I went with when I was in the market a couple months ago, I even took it down the Colorado River here are some nice pics that I took with it.

http://homepage.mac.com/alrossnin/PhotoAlbum13.html

Check out my other pics befor my idisk gose down

I haven't had any complaints with it, It is the most solid feeling camera I have ever felt, compered to Fuji and Nikon and Kodak, It seems like they are pices of junk, light and to bulbouse. This one is small, fits in my pocket, compact, and soild as a rock.

The only thing is the greater rez on the S30, or S40 3 mega, and 4 mega would be great. but I can squeaze an 8X10 out of mine no problem

[G4ME]

oh and one more word of advice, if you want to doubel or some times tripple battary life shut off the LCD, that is the bigest drain on the batt. I could squeeze off about 55 shots with it on. I got about 120 with it off.

Also get a nice (high speed) big 512,128,256mb CF card because it will fill up fast with a 4mp camera, and the high speed will also extend the life of your batt.

[proux]

Thanks, very informative. I am still hesitating. Maybe I will buy it and sell it in a couple of months if something better comes out.

[proux]

Got the S330, very hard to find, a lot of retailers are out of stock...
Anyway if anyone is interested I will post a short review and first impressions.

[dazzla]

Originally posted by proux:
Got the S330, very hard to find, a lot of retailers are out of stock...
Anyway if anyone is interested I will post a short review and first impressions.

Deinitely interested in what you think of it. I'm going for the canon powershot A40 atm but it's sold out everywhere. The S330 is out of my price range (�0�5353 cheapest I've found compared to �0�5200 for the A400) but I'd still love to know your experience with it.

[proux]

I will post something, the camera is very hard to get, many stores don't have stock...

The A40 is very nice, a bit too big to carry around everywhere llike I intend to.

[dazzla]

Originally posted by proux:
I will post something, the camera is very hard to get, many stores don't have stock...

The A40 is very nice, a bit too big to carry around everywhere llike I intend to.

I had a play with the 330 today in Town in Jessops. It's such a nice camera. I can stretch to that price because I've just sold my VAIO but I'm just trying to convince myself that I can warrant an additional �0�5150...

[G4ME]

I got mine off of a no name web page that had them in stock and they were relativly cheap too, 360 somthing four months ago, but shipping was somthing like 20 ground. what ever. i think outpost has them for only 269