I am soon to be in the market for a new digital camera.

Going to have between £120 and £150 to spend.

Just wondering if anyone had any suggestions or ideas.

Thanks in advance.

(not sure of the spec I am after, just want a decent one).

The market is full of decent cameras so hard to say which is good for you.
It depends what you want to do. ie you may want to have fully automatic or you may want the ability to set manual controls.
Check out http://www.dpreview.com and read some reviews to get an idea of what you want.
Barry has just got a new camera I think.....in the last year or so anyway but it may be someone else.

as long as the fully automatic versions are fool proof and good enough for the average bod on the street, then that's good enough for me.

Can't be bothered with faffing around with settings...... (half of the time I don't know what I am doing anyway). THanks for the link.

Our friends at HUKD found this one if you have access to a Costco Rich.
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/panason ... 8#comments
I got a panasonic cashback deal a few years ago and it worked fine for me.

This looks Ok

http://www.dpreview.com/products/panaso ... nic_dmczs8

Thanks Wilbert. But it's a Christmas present from my parents, and knowing how set in their ways they can be, I am not sure I will be able to convince them to use Quidco.

Thanks for the link though.

@ Surprised, that's a good started for 10 for me... thanks.

Just go to Amazon and check the ratings at the right price. Good name and no naff gimmicks and you are sorted.

Some say size is important. Others go on looks.

and some say it's what you do with it that counts?

I hear that anything over 5 inches (sorry, 5 mega pixels) is a meant to be a waste? Something along the lines that you would only notice the difference in picture quality if you blew the shot up to that of the size of a piece of wall paper.

I could of course totally dreamt that.

You will want more than 5 megapixels as you will struggle to get a decent A4 sized print with that.
No real point in going over say 12mp as this introduces noise into images.

That depends on the lens. The bigger the CCD or CMOS chip, the more information each picture carries for the same pixel size. So in essence you get a bigger picture, not resolution - unless of course you were capturing the picture in the fourier plane, in whcih case it would be better cos you would get higher spatial detail. But the smaller the pixel size the greater the resolution of the image.

tbf I wasn't going to go as low as 5mp anyway, after all do they still sell cameras that basic?

I have 18.7 Megapixel on mine.

That's just boasting

The best point and click you could get is a Leica but they are very pricey - I think the cheapest is about £400-500 - but Panasonic sell the Lumix range which uses Leica designed optics in their cameras and are cheaper.

I ended up getting this one - http://www.dpreview.com/products/fujifi ... nepixs1500

perfectly fine for me, but not really a camera you would take with you on a night out!

you can see some of the photo's from it on my FB.

For a night out then the camera on a mobile phone is sufficient I think.

A lot also depends on whether you want to be able to carry it around in your pocket or would be okay with a case and a strap. Panasonic Lumix was my first "proper" camera, and the one my daughter now uses, but it doesn't fit in a pocket!

Forget megapixels.

Go for good optics ( and a decent manual zoom)

Forgive me for editing the title.

Sted's spot on.

If you don't want to use manual or semi-auto controls then the most important thing is the quality of the lens. It doesn't matter how adept or creative you are - if the image quality is inferior to begin with you'll never take a good photo.

Look for something with a decent zoom lens. Optical zoom is important here, not digital zoom which simply alters the image the optical zoom/lens has taken (something you can do later yourself with any photo editing software). I'd look for 12X optical zoom or more with a high quality lens.

Another thing to consider is response times, i.e. the delay between you pressing the shutter button and the shutter responding.
Cheaper/older digital cameras are notorious for a 'long' delay (1/2 sec+) during which a moving subject will have moved, perhaps even partially out of shot. Look in reviews for a fast shutter response time and, if you think you might use it, fast 'continual shooting mode' times, where the camera continues to snap while you hold down the shutter button.

The number of mega pixels is important, but only to a point. For home snaps anything over 6 Mp will take pics that look fine on your computer and print well up to A4 size paper, but try larger than that and it'll start looking grainy. Nowadays, though, 8 Mps+ seems to be the industry standard.

Conversely, don't be tempted into extremely high mega pixel cameras. 12 Mps is quite adequate for prints up to A3. Although I don't understand why, I've heard that there is little benefit to be gained by going much higher (processing speeds?), and even if you did you'd need a much bigger (more costly) memory card as each snap will be a large file.

You will need a memory card if you don't already have one. What size you choose should depend on the size of photo you want to take (in mega pixels) and how often you expect to download those photos to your computer and clear the card.
I tend to take pics at 12 Mps and have a 4GB memory card, which gives me space for around 250 shots, but any camera should let you set the Mp size of your choice.

As you are on a budget, you may already have cards from an older camera. Check what format they are (SD, SDHC, XD, etc.) - if they match your preferred new camera, great - but I wouldn't make that the determining factor!

I bought a Panasonic Lumix FZ35 a wee while back and the lens is fantastic. It's a Zeiss lens and far superior to the Fuji it replaced. I doubt all Lumix models have Zeiss lenses but it's worth looking to see if one you like does.

Finally, if you don't have them already, you may want to add a spare battery (or rechargable AAs/AAAs & charger) and a camera case to the bill.

Was I wrong in posting yesterday that Lumix optics are actually Leica based optics then Flyman? I'm pretty sure they are mate...

Edit: just looked up your camera on Amazon and it does say Leica as the lens that's used... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-DMC-F ... B002IKLJU0

i think it is to do with sensor size. Most cameras have a sensor of 2.2-7 inches and once you get over about 10-12mp then the image quality starts to degrade. Camera manufacturers have sold the idea that more pixels is better. To make that totally true then they need to increase sensor size but that will double the cost of cameras.

You are quite right, Dixie. They are Leica and they are excellent. My mistake.

Zeiss have a very good reputation, too. fwiw.

Panasonic Lumix

They really are superb

I have a decent digital SLR and a lumix for when a pocket sized camera is more convenient - and the pictures are great, crisp, clear and with vibrant colour. You can also set the ISO to 800 so its good in low light conditions.

It has a wide angle lens (28mm) as standard but a good zoom

Battery chrages fully in an hour and battery life is excellent - unless you are doing a lot of flash photos then you dont need a spare battery

Get one!

They're good at making lenses those Germans ... There's a German company called Baader Planetarium that make superb quality eyepieces for telescopes too.
Damned expensive though!!!

I have got one like this and i have to say for the price they are superb

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fujifilm-FinePi ... 495&sr=8-1

plus get 4 enloop batteries, they are great.. best batteries I have ever used

All taken on 'auto' or landscape as im a complete amatuer (some were taken by my girlfriend though)

CLick to enlarge

I quite like those photos

I bought this early in the year and found it great, easy to use, excellent pics, I set it below the highest mg pix. You can probably get a better price if you look around. Bought mine in Belgium.


http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/compact-cameras/nikon-coolpix-s3100-704985/review

Quite nicely priced too GM. At £75 definitely one to look at closer.

I like the one Barry has shown too.

Chrisharry's looks newer, better and cheaper than my one.