Which digital camera

[spicegirl]

want to buy small,compact and good quality.I have no clue about what is good or bad and has anyone any idea what sort of prices and where to get from as i struggle to get time to shop around...thanks in advance

[Baron Greenback]

You have to decide what you are looking for in a camera & how much you want to pay.

There is a good site for reviews:

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

So far you are after a comapct with good quality - there are tons out there.
Just pick a budget & then go looking, as a rule aof thumb the more you spend the better the camera will be.

I would not get anything less than 3 megapixles, if you are planning to blow any pictures up bigger than 4R then you may want more. You might want to consider batteries as well. I chose a camera that took AA batteries so that if they ran out 'on the go' I could nip into a shop & get more - wasn't tied to my charger as such.

I would say get a camera you like the feel of & is easy to use. You may not need 101 functions, bells & whistles. Good luck

[spicegirl]

thanks a lot...ill check it out!

[Strong Eagle]

I think the best digital camera review sit by far is:

http://www.dpreview.com

[varun]

The sites suggested by Baron and Strong Eagle are a good place to go to. However, the amount of information there can be a bit overwhelming if you're not sure where to start. So let me suggest a model which both sites are quite happy with, and which I bought for my wife: the FujiFilm F10. Nice big screen, very few manual controls (generalizing here, but ladies tend to find too many buttons confusing and off-putting, which is the exact opposite of men...), gives decent pictures in low light despite being relatively small and lightweight (relative, that is, to a DSLR! ), 6 megapixels (more than adequate), and about $ 600.

Best of luck.

want to buy small,compact and good quality.I have no clue about what is good or bad and has anyone any idea what sort of prices and where to get from as i struggle to get time to shop around...thanks in advance

[Scorpion]

Would recommend Nikon series of camera, both the 3mp an the new one i had purchased is up to satisfication.

you may try ur luck of reviews at cnetasia and hardwarezone

[spicegirl]

thanks for that...varun thanks for the pointer...too much info can be a menace when you dont know what you do or dont need.Coupled with the fact that i need it as a present for a gadget freak husband who has probably been studying camera technology for the last 6 months and i dont want to look like an idiot for buying the wrong thing!

[Bremen]

thanks for that...varun thanks for the pointer...too much info can be a menace when you dont know what you do or dont need.Coupled with the fact that i need it as a present for a gadget freak husband who has probably been studying camera technology for the last 6 months and i dont want to look like an idiot for buying the wrong thing!

What's your budget? Gadget freaks will usually not want small, compact cameras... They'll prefer Prosumer cameras like the Sony V3

[spicegirl]

I think the norm will be ok as its just for holiday/party use rather than the technical/professional use...well I hope so!

[ksl]

I think the norm will be ok as its just for holiday/party use rather than the technical/professional use...well I hope so!

I think you should check out ebay.com.sg I've sold a few on there, 5 mega pixels at reasonable cost, around 200$ with a 12 month factory guarantee. They have been opened, just for testing! because it isn't very nice to sell a defect product.

To be quite honest with you electronics can be very dodgy, 10% failure rate is not uncommon, they also need a burn in period, if they last the first 6 months of regular use, they should be ok. Problem arises, if the person uses a camera once or twice in the year guarantee period.

Then it fails after the guarantee runs out, if you see my point. So it is a tip to use as often as possible, to put the camera through its paces to test the components.

[ksl]

I think the norm will be ok as its just for holiday/party use rather than the technical/professional use...well I hope so!

I think you should check out ebay.com.sg I've sold a few on there, 5 mega pixels at reasonable cost, around 200$ with a 12 month factory guarantee. They have been opened, just for testing! because it isn't very nice to sell a defect product.

To be quite honest with you electronics can be very dodgy, 10% failure rate is not uncommon, they also need a burn in period, if they last the first 6 months of regular use, they should be ok. Problem arises, if the person uses a camera once or twice in the year guarantee period.

Then it fails after the guarantee runs out, if you see my point. So it is a tip to use as often as possible, to put the camera through its paces to test the components.

just to add a point on Chipsets, there are low mid and high end cameras, a rule of thumb is that all low end, and mid range will have a comparable chipset either CCD or CMOS obviously price equates to quality.

I would sugest for a first time user of digital camera to go for low end, it pictures that are of acceptable quality, for a photo freak the midrange 500$ up for status posers and semi pros over 1000$

[ksl]

I think the norm will be ok as its just for holiday/party use rather than the technical/professional use...well I hope so!

I think you should check out ebay.com.sg I've sold a few on there, 5 mega pixels at reasonable cost, around 200$ with a 12 month factory guarantee. They have been opened, just for testing! because it isn't very nice to sell a defect product.

To be quite honest with you electronics can be very dodgy, 10% failure rate is not uncommon, they also need a burn in period, if they last the first 6 months of regular use, they should be ok. Problem arises, if the person uses a camera once or twice in the year guarantee period.

Then it fails after the guarantee runs out, if you see my point. So it is a tip to use as often as possible, to put the camera through its paces to test the components.

just to add a point on Chipsets, there are low mid and high end cameras, a rule of thumb is that all low end, and mid range will have a comparable chipset either CCD or CMOS obviously price equates to quality.

I would sugest for a first time user of digital camera to go for low end, it pictures that are of acceptable quality, for a photo freak the midrange 500$ up for status posers and semi pros over 1000$

[varun]

If he's a gadget freak, he might prefer something with more control than the F10 provides. You also mentioned later that it will also be used in parties. My experience with the latter indicates you should look for a camera that can give you good results in low light - el-cheapo cameras give horribly noisy results in typical low party lighting (full of red spots and poor detail level). Here's a check-list you might find useful

1. Budget?
2. Is "very small and pocketable" an important factor? (if size is not an issue, consider the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 or the Sony DSC-H1; if size IS an issue, look at the Finepix E550 or E810)
3. Megapixels: (anything above 6, in a small camera, for your stated purpose, is wasteful and likely to give rather poor low-light results due to many compromises made by the manufacturer along the way)
4. Is manual control important? If not, close your eyes and buy the F10; if yes, look at (2) above
5. Is movie mode important? If yes, look for cameras that can shoot 30fps (that's frames-per-second; 30 fps is the same as the PAL TV signal, and it means you won't find the video "jerky"). Also look for unlimited duration continuous video support - this means you can shoot video until the memory card is full. Some cameras will only let you shoot 30 seconds, 60 seconds, etc.

What you must ignore:
- "digital zoom" (this is irrelevant and is meant to pull the wool over your eyes; the only thing relevant is optical zoom)

Best of luck. Do let us know what you finally buy and also why you selected it.

Cheers,

- V.

thanks for that...varun thanks for the pointer...too much info can be a menace when you dont know what you do or dont need.Coupled with the fact that i need it as a present for a gadget freak husband who has probably been studying camera technology for the last 6 months and i dont want to look like an idiot for buying the wrong thing!