Good Digital Cameras for under £250

[apmaman]

Hey folks, in the market for a new digital camera. Haven't got a clue what to look for really so im here to ask for some help. It would be used for alot of point and shoot stuff. However I do like photography so taking pictures at gigs or of fireworks shows, sunsets and stuff like that. Basicaly a good allrounder im after.

Ive found a Samsung Digimax L85 for under £200. Seems good with 8.1m pixel 5x zoom and a lovely rechargeable battery. I love the retro style as well.
Would this be a good camera to go for? anything else to really consider or any other camera's to look out for?

[Gurj]

I just got a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8, paid less than £190 new and that included a 2gb card. It's a 7.2mp camera with 48 times zoom. Plus it got classed a Best Buy by Which magazine. So far got to say it's a good camera.

[jemsite]

not sure about euro prices, but for pure photos (with a bit of video) get a canon elph. any one you can afford. if you want to shoot alot of video go with the kodak v603 or v803 as it's mpeg4 video (much higher capacity and better framerate) and the pics look good to... glen

[TongueShredder]

Get Samsung digimax S1000. While I am not sure about the price, I am pretty sure it is within your budget. It is a 10.1 megapixel camera.

[Passion_and_Warfare]

Originally Posted by apmaman

Hey folks, in the market for a new digital camera. Haven't got a clue what to look for really so im here to ask for some help. It would be used for alot of point and shoot stuff. However I do like photography so taking pictures at gigs or of fireworks shows, sunsets and stuff like that. Basicaly a good allrounder im after.

Ive found a Samsung Digimax L85 for under £200. Seems good with 8.1m pixel 5x zoom and a lovely rechargeable battery. I love the retro style as well.
Would this be a good camera to go for? anything else to really consider or any other camera's to look out for?

Dude, I have the Samsung Digimax L85 camera, it has all the settings for the type of pictures and needs you want from the camera, It's awesome if you have a 32" HDTV because you can connect your camera to it the through the HDMI cable and the colour and sharpness look stunning on a big screen. I've been doing slideshows of my New prestiges all week on my TV lol, plus under £200 for all that is an excellent price.

[Gurj]

If it helps, here's a couple of reviews on the Which website:

Samsung Digimax L85

The Samsung Digimax L85 is a classic-looking digital camera; memories of old film cameras come flooding back! It’s a good all-rounder, one of the few downsides being a slow shutter delay of 1 second. This is quite poor, but of course one solution is that if you half press the shutter button first, then compose the picture, then fully press, shutter delay will be reduced.

Focussing, image quality and flash pictures are all good. Battery life is excellent.

Features on this camera are a step up from its predecessor, the L80. You get aperture and shutter speed priority modes, and manual focus.

There’s a movie mode, and quality, although some way from spectactular, is ok. You can use optical zoom while recording too, a definite bonus if you like to take movies.

The maximum ISO setting is only 400, so you’ll be a bit limited if you want to take dim light shots without flash.

Pros: Proficient at the basics – image quality, focussing and flash all good. Excellent battery life. Cons: Slow shutter delay.


Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 ( I got the FZ8, which is 7.2MP)

BEST BUY

This Best Buy Lumix is large but you have the benefit of a paparazzi-esque 36-423mm zoom range; holiday in St Tropez and you’ll almost be able to snap movie stars on their yachts.

The quality of the 5.9 megapixel photos is not quite up with the best in the class if you use auto focus, but you can switch over to manual for really important shots.

You’ll find movie clips aren’t bad at all and the flash is strong. It takes nearly four tenths of second to take a photo, which is only average for this type of camera class.

If you trying to shoot fast moving subjects you can use shutter priority or go for aperture to create interesting effects.

The Panasonic is easy to use and - despite the large zoom lens - at 400 grams is pretty luggable. You won’t have any problems with battery life either.

Pros: Massive zoom, plenty of useful settings, highly portable considering the zoom, battery life.

Cons: Picture quality using auto focus, average shutter delay.

[Davey]

If it's quick shooting stuff you're after, I've just bought a Sony Ericsson K800i mobile phone and the camera on that is 3.2 MP. Not the best in comparisson to other digital cameras, but when you consider for that price (£180 for me on o2, Currys have it for £155 on Virgin) you get an MP3/media player built in, net access, etc.

GREAT value for money and the pics come out pretty damn nice too

[apmaman]

Thanks Gurj for that, seems the Samsung Digimax L85 aint to good at the low light shots. Im looking into the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7. I think thats winning slightly because of the image stabiliser, higher ISO and bigger zoom. Although, it does look rather hefty. I'll see if I can find them at the local PC World or Currys to mess about with and see pictures on screen.

I've got a camera on my phone just now, its alright for just fun random moments when you want to capture a moment. However I find there is alot of noise in the pictures and there not that good detail.

[TongueShredder]

Here is the review for Samsung Digimax S1000

http://reviews.cnet.com/Samsung_Digi...tag=prod.txt.1

[vaughn]

i got the kodak z612 is........has 6.1 megapixels....and 12x optical zoom
with image stability..comes with a lio lon battery......you can find it for a little over 200$ great camera for the money

[projectjem]

Originally Posted by jemsite

not sure about euro prices, but for pure photos (with a bit of video) get a canon elph. any one you can afford. if you want to shoot alot of video go with the kodak v603 or v803 as it's mpeg4 video (much higher capacity and better framerate) and the pics look good to... glen

canon dont have the crazy names in the uk. like rebel, kiss, elph, fairy-ass etc.

you have stuff like powershot, a series, ixus (the little ones) etc

[apmaman]

Well after along time searching I've narrowed it down to these Two

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8
Or
Canon S3IS


As far as I can tell there pretty damn equal, but there are slight differences between them, price for example. The canon is only £30 more than the panasonic and since I'm incredibly indecisive Im asking for opinions on those two. Whats the best one to get? Do I go Canon Or Panasonic?

[Gurj]

Tbh, I couldn't tell you which one is best.
I took this when I first got my panasonic and I'm basically someone who knows jack about taking a descent photo!

[apmaman]

Wow the colours on that picture really stand out. The pinks especially! Thats really good stuff from the Panasonic. Meh, ill stew it over for a few days and see what replies I get here. The Panasonic is the one in the lead since its the cheapest

[Gurj]

I was pretty surprised how well the colours came out. To compare, this was shot using my old Sony Cybershot (3.2mp).