Scirocco Central

After some advice on cameras. I'm off travelling new zealand and south east asia soon and need a new camera as current one is only 2 magapixels and really old.

I want to get some good pictures of the amazing NZ landscape and fancied an SLR but dont want to spend too much incase it gets lost or broken so an SLR will probably be left til a later date.

Criteria are :

Small and light
Good picture quality for landscape and low light conditions
Cheap enough not to matter if it gets nicked.
Good memory capacity (current camera takes 128mb card max )
Not pink!

Any suggestions would be helpful as i know nothing about cameras really.

Cheers, Chris.

Hi Candy Monster,

1. Start with a visit to this site http://www.dpreview.com/ They are independent and do quite a few in depth reviews with more info and tests than most of us will ever need (or understand)!

2. When you have a short list, go have a look in a high street shop and make sure you like the feel, ease of use etc.

3. Don't be seduced by Megapixels. On small cameras (or at least cameras with small sensors) after you get to 5Mpx you'll see almost no difference in image quality but you'll see a big difference in the number of shots your card will accomodate.

I think you are being totally sensible not going down the SLR route with the trip you have in mind. I use a Canon SLR which I absolutely love, but it's a bugger lugging it around together with additional lenses and all the other paraphernalia I've collected.

Thanks Spiney,
I've wanted an SLR for ages for taking car pictures but they're big and expensive which kind of rules them out for this trip. Handy bit of advice there as i probably would have just gone for the highest megapixel one

I'll check out that site.

Cheers, Chris.

Hi Candy Monster,

You're welcome. Can't recomend the dpreview too highly. Started by a couple who are real experts and love cameras but without an agenda. Rare as rocking horse droppings!

To be honest you will get some good-to-decent results from any recent digicam from the large/brand-name companies. If you're not super-picky about pixel level quality then any one of them will do you fine.

I currently have the Ixus 100IS, a great little digicam with great picture quality. It's small and light and very portable. If you're going to somewhere like NZ with good scenery and want landscape photos, its advisable to get camera with a wider lens, so you can capture more of the view in one shot. The IXUS 110IS is good for this, just slightly larger than the 100IS.

I know a bit about cameras so feel free to ask away.

Also megapixels is the biggest marketing BS ever. Unless you plan on doing large poster size printing, megapixels aren't going to matter that much.

You'd much rather have a 10-megapixel image that has good quality pixels, rather than a 12megapixel poor quality image.

..

Don't know much about cameras but we have a few different models of Panasonic Lumix at work and they are pretty impressive

I wanted a decent compact for myself for holiday pics etc, I don't have the expertise to justify a SLR

Just bought a Lumix DMC-TZ7 and it's excellent,

It has a 3" LCD, It has a good zoom, but more importantly, a great wide angle lense which I wanted for taking buildings etc when you can't get very far back from the subject (Going to Russia tomorrow )

You can configure a lot if stuff if you know what you're doing (ISO etc) or you can just let the camera do everythig

Cost about €340.00 so fairly high end for a compact but worth it I think

Oh yes, it also records HD video ! So I don't need my Handycam any more

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-TZ7, the Canon G10 or the Fujifilm Finepix F200EXR are nice high end, good quality compacts. Have you considered the olympus E420 DSLR though? It's a micro four thirds camera (so basically smaller than a traditional DSLR) but has all the benefits of an SLR with the interchangable lenses, optical viewfinder, etc while being not much bigger than a compact and around the same price as you'd pay for a high end compact.

Have a look at:-

http://camerapricebuster.com/index.html

when shopping around for the best prices on cameras.

HTH but any questions, fire away.

Deacon

my old man got a G10 for christmas, amazing pics as compact with eos features, i was staggered at results i got when i just took a few trial shots, some good deals about to

The olympus E420 isn't micro four thirds, it's a small SLR. Might be a good option though. The Lumix G1 is the only camera on the market at the moment using the new system (i have one and it's great). Olympus will have theirs out soon i believe, but it'll be a retro styled thing rather than an SLR style grip with finger wheel. ie you'll have to take your eye from the viewfinder the compose the shot, so it's meant to be used like a compact (viewed using the screen) only with better picture quality from the full size sensor. The G1 gives you the option to use it properly or like a compact. (the electronic view finder is very cool BTW, you can bring up all the menus and settings/values etc without ever taking your eye from the view finder)

I'd recommend whatever lumix compact fits your budget, basically anything with IA (intelligent auto) and Mega OIS (image stabilisation) if you're just looking for good holiday snaps etc., it's usually a pretty good bet if you don't have hundreds of spare hours to read camera reviews. Once you start reading reviews it's hard to stop.

Cheers for the advice guys, much appreciated

I'm going to take a look at a few of your suggestions and look at some reviews. No doubt i'll be back with questions.

Didn't realise how much cameras had moved on to be honest! I need to buy one in the next few weeks but a wide angle lens sounds ideal. I think my budget will have to max out at about 200-250 ish tops simply due to the fact that the camera could go missing or get damaged in the time i'm away. £150ish would be even better but I wont be back there in a while so want some good pics

Thanks again, Chris.

[quote="DavidH"]The olympus E420 isn't micro four thirds...quote]

My mistake, you are correct it's a four thirds, not micro four thirds camera.

Deacon

Read this review....
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/q209grouplongzoom/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One question is Is the panasonic TS1 (T26) worth around £30 more than the samsung WB500?

The samsung seems to be available for around £170, whereas panasonic is £205 ish.

I find the wider lens of the samsung appealing and the functionality looks good (shortcut button) but the panasonic seems to be a better all rounder.

Landscape and town shots are likely to be the most common pictures but some portraits taken too.

I decided to stick to a £200 budget as by the time i buy a SDHC card and a case the price will be creeping up.

Any opinions much appreciated.

Cheers, Chris.

I know 3 people with Panasonic cameras from the long zoom TZ range and they all perform pretty well all round.
I know 2 people with Sony H range cameras and they are very good but perhaps a bit bulkier.
I don't know anyone with a Samsung camera and not many seem to expound their virtues. Read in to that what you will. If their cameras are anything like the 3 Samsung phones I went through last month having to return each then I'd avoid.

If you are still in the market, I might offer another suggestion.

I've ordered the Olympus SP 590 UZ.

On the site you've referenced before

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/O ... p590uz.asp


The Olympus and similar are 'cross over' cameras, smallish, better than compacts but without the interchangeable lenses seen on SLRs.

This particular camera scores well in the wide angle lens tests, but has an amazing 26x zoom (equivalent to a ~600mm zoom on a 35mm camera).

Pimxmania ~£220 or Amazon ~£258.

Just bear in mind that if you're for a simple "point & shoot" ... make sure you get a camera and not a gun !!

∫

Sorry if this is too late for your trip...
Sounds like you need a compact camera...

If you're really concerned about noise and don't need much(/hardly any) zoom, then get a Panasonic LX3 - absolutely great. Though may be about £50 over your budget
Otherwise if you need some zoom, and are not too concerned about low light, then get either a Panasonic TZ7 or Panasonic FX580. - Shoud be able to get one online via amazon etc within your budget.
Check reviews and have a play around in Jessops!
Oh, and don't forget to get a spare battery too!