my 1st digital camera but which one to buy

[jane l]

my birthday is on it's way  and my lovely oh is buying me my 1st digital camera so i can [we] can do some grave yard photograph but i don't know which one to choose . there are so many grave yards around my area and though only 1 or 2 have my ancestors in them i would really like to take some photo's of them and record the info for others to share. when i was in lymington last year trying to trace oh relies i found it very sad that most grave's were un-readable and lost for ever.
looking for a camera max £100?? any ideas
thanks jane l

[groom]

Hi

Might be worth looking at this

http://www.cameras.co.uk/html/digital-cameras-under-100.cfm

I bought a Nikon Coolpix S8000 last year and I'm pleased with that, but it was about £150.

Jan

[The Mc]

Argos has loads in your price range, get one about 8-10 megapixels and with optical zoom rather than digital zoom then you won't lose clarity on those close up shots.  Most nowadays are excellent and a lot in that price range as well can shoot movies in high definition as well.

Mine is a Kodak and cost less than £70 at the time from PC world. Best camera I ever had!

[millymcb]

I love my Lumix TZ7 - although unfortunately it costs more than £100.  The cheapest I see at the moment seems to be £169 at amazon (it should be over £200).  I wanted to be able to shoot video too which is why I had to get a more expensive one.

I got it last year and had intended to get a Canon of some kind as I have loved the previous canons I have had - but saw this and thought it even better. But I would have been happy with either.

Whatever you go for though - apart from the advice from Mc about optical zoom and 8-10 megapixels - I would always make sure I have a lithium ion battery in it rather than AA rechargeable ones.  I used to have a nikon which used those and they were forever running out after hardly any time at all. in the end I had to keep buying normal AA batteries as a back up and it cost a fortune! 

Now I have two litium ones and have one charging while I use the other - although one charge generally lasts me all day unless I am using it to view pictures or take video a lot. (oh yes - that was the other thing - I like the video options on the Lumix and the Canon). The pictures are fantastic.

Milly

PS  There is a cheaper alternative Lumix on the site where I got mine which actually looks quite nice...http://www.rootschat.com/links/0c1i/ and a Nikon Coolpix which looks within your budget http://www.rootschat.com/links/0c1j/

[Lydart]

Get a Canon Ixus every time ... dont know the current cost ... but I've got two ... they have served me very well indeed over the last month in sticky humid heat on the Equator ... and took around 1400 pics plus about a dozen little videos ... all on a 4 GB card ... see my blog for some of the results from Kenya !

Canon for ever !!    (And no, they aren't paying me !)

[sallysmum]

I agree with Milly - I have a lumix which is brilliant.  Mine is a DMC-FX35, which is an older model (2 years!) and probably been superseeded but the qualityu of photos is excellent.  I was out with a friend who had an SLR and we were trying to get the same shot of a moody sky.  She was unable to capture the photo and agreed that mine was better (not meaning to brag here - it was the camera, not the monkey behind it!)

sallysmum

[jane l]

hi everyone and thankyou that really helps its always good to find others input into such things. will go and check them out and see what i can find. hopefully when i have my new camera i will be able to start with the grave yard where my father is buried which is full of some very old and interesting stones.
thanks again
jane

[john_w]

Make sure you hold each camera you are thinking of buying. In some cases the controls will feel natural, in others they will be awkward. What about physical size? Bigger cameras are easier to hold, generally have bigger control buttons and a bigger screen but may not fit in your bag or pocket.

Don't forget the camera will probably not come with any memory so budget for that. Beware that some kinds of memory card cost a lot more than others.

As for batterys its is swings and roundabouts. Lithium Ion batteries have a high capacity so will last longer but they are expensive. The manufacturers original ones particularly so, but the unbranded ones, although cheaper, tend to have a lot less capacity. My compact uses AA batteries. I bought a set of 6 rechargeables and charger for about half the cost of an average lithium battery. But I do have to carry them as well as the camera.

I made my living from photography for  a lot of years and still get some income that way. For serious stuff I have a reflex but  I also have a Panasonic Lumix LZ10 camera that I carry every where. It has Japanese electronics and a Leica lens. The images it produces up to about A4 are indistinguishable from the much more expensive reflex camera and the difference in quality at A3 is small.

At the moment Currys have a sale on with an end of line Lumix at about £90:00
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/panasonic-compact-digital-cameras/344_3199_30301_36_xx/xx-criteria.html?sPageInfo=1_12&sSortInfo=topsellers-desc

[jane l]

thanks John W some very intersting points there to take into account that i would not have thought of so thanks again
jane