Recommend me a compact camera?

Northwind

<edit- in the time since I posted this, someone found my camera and handed it in! There are still some good people in the world>

I just lost my lovely lovely Canon Ixus 800IS, something to do with a bottle of whisky and a field... So, believe it or not, instead of being punished for my idiocy, Mr Insurance is buying me a new one. I reckon I've got a budget of up to £250, though if I can get a good performer for less then I'd prefer to.

So, what I'm looking for is a quick and easy to use compact- censored packet sized, more or less. Good night shots are important to me, and I don't want any less than the old one's 4x optical zoom. If it takes SD cards, that'd be a bonus (or mini SD) as I've already got the media. Any recommendations? Good quality video would be a plus (especially audio).

Lastly, this is going to be used a lot on rides and at festivals, so it's got to be tough. The Ixus was amazing for this, it had a titanium shell and survived any number of drops, plus even after I completely soaked it once it fully recovered. Then my brother took it round the world and filled it with australian sand and hong kong rain and it still went.

RIP camera Its weird but I'll really miss it, I've had it for ages and it's been such a great piece of kit. Bottom line is, it did exactly what I want a camera to do, and it did it faultlessly for years.

Andy B

The Panasonic Lumix TZ range are pretty good, 10x optical zoom, Leica lens, SD card....

A little larger than a censored pack, but still worth a look. all my shots here were taken with it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecycledoctor/

Not used the video, if I wanted a video camera I'd have bought a video camera

The Northern Monkey

Andy_B wrote:

The Panasonic Lumix TZ range are pretty good, 10x optical zoom, Leica lens, SD card....

A little larger than a censored pack, but still worth a look. all my shots here were taken with it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecycledoctor/

Not used the video, if I wanted a video camera I'd have bought a video camera

+1 for the lumix.

GF has one and the pictures are superb. All light conditions, sporty shots (ie on my bike), face recognition is good.

Definitely one of the best compacts i've seen. Rivals my brothers SLR camera too with the picture quality.

Dazzza

http://www.trustedreviews.com/digital-c ... MC-FZ28/p1

The Northern Monkey

Dazzza
not exactly censored sized mate!

nonnac85

+ another 1 for the lumix. Mine is a tz4 - great pictures, lens is good, video camera good for race days too!

keirtristan

What great timing for this post. This morning I wake up to the news that my nice slim Casio got a little water logged due to my girlfriend standing about in the rain waiting for four fat talentless guys to sing sh!te at Old Trafford.

So my camera may not work, letting it dry a little before actually trying and I had been thinking about a new camera as mine seems to take 3 years from the time you pull the trigger until the time at actually captures the shot. Not great for a 7 month old daughter (I've tried to explain about sitting still and smiling but rolling seems to interest her a lot more) but I ruled it out as I didn't actually need one.

Now I may have an excuse to get a new one and had been thinking about a Lumix at a similar price range.

Does anyone know if the lag is pretty minimal on these cameras and if the yhave the option to take a few quick snaps one after another?

Northwind

Mine's turned up! I have no idea how, but I left my number at the campsite shop, apparently a walker just handed it in, he'd taken a shortcut across the field and spotted it! Million to one chance, 20 folks were looking for it earlier and never saw a thing. I'm so pleased... Nice to know there's honest people up in the mountains

So, sorry for the wasted recommendations, though hopefully keirtristan will get some benefit

mudsucker

i'd reccomend Casio cameras. Very easy to use, take great pictures and are good value. I've got a Exilim z8 (about a year old now) and cant fault it. Dropped it about 6 months ago on the lens and sent it off to be repaired. Got it back about a week later fixed for free, very impressive

Dazzza

bigbenj_08 wrote:

Dazzza
not exactly censored sized mate!

I didn't see the bit compact. :oops:

The one posted above will suffice then.

Excellent cameras.

Anonymous

thats ace news about yours being handed in.

this is a handy thread though as i am interested in a new camera, i have an exilim z6 and it is very good but i relly want one of those ruggedized jobbies (water and shock proof) anyone got any recommendations in that avenue?

blister pus

http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/29_di ... _20624.htm

that gets good reviews, nice price, does what it sez on the tin, but like all of this ilk if you've got fat fingers then it's like eating soup with chop sticks until you get some vague mastery over of the object.

Pete-C

+ yet another 1 for the TZ series, dad has a TZ7 and its an amazing camera, the focus lock on is great for riding shots and the auto mode selection has never failed to get a great shot

supersonic

Owt worth having at 100 quid? Preferably good in low light.

blister pus

do you like the colour pink?

supersonic

On certain things ;-)

I need something for basic astro photos - my efforts with a phone cam can be seen on the clouds thread lol.

blister pus

http://www.laskys.com/cameras_and_camco ... 7eb_p.html

^ That's a steal at that price if you can stomach it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-Lumix ... 211&sr=8-2

^ Black's creeping up there though.


Nice upgrade from my Lumix LS2 snapper for next to no price increase.

supersonic

Looks good!

Very pink (though at first I thought you meant he hue that cheap cameras produce in low light lol!!!)

blister pus

no, pink as in loud proud and pink.

hmmm, low light levels from budget cams is 'adequate' / 'does the job' but it'll blow a camera phone away though. And they take very good snaps otherwise, few reviews around for that model.

supersonic

I've always been a bit wary of expensive cameras - and photography in general really. Having had really bad cameras I know what they can not do, but for general landscape shots is there a point where they obviously tail off? It seems that many just use photoshop anyway to adjust them! And in my opinion, often to their detriment as many look so unreal and overly saturated. There is art, and what I like doing, representing what I see.

Maybe it is something I need to learn more about, but it does irk me when some photo expert bods come on and say you should have done, x, y, z, cut this, add more of this etc and I think: were you there? How do you know it didn't look like that when he/she was there?!

It seems the cheaper cams fail in exposure adjustabilty, low light, contrast, and digital artefacts. I don't mind some photoshopping lol - but not these drastic things I see people do!

I am making any sense?!

blister pus

yeh makes sense. A decent camera today blows a budget camera out of the water every time like no other comparison between a budget X / expensive X comparison you literally see the difference in sharpness of image definition, colour, lack of image distortion, the lot. Take photo editing out of the equation all together you still need the raw information captured to start with to make full use of photo editing software. Modern expensive digital cameras can do virtually everything to a point of taking the art (and fun) out of photography for a lot of serious old school photographers (know a few) and they can certainly give an average photographer highly professional looking results.

I can still get some credible results with my 2 year old 100 quid Lumix even though I'm aware of it's limits, and the budget market keeps getting better every year. If you've got an eye for photography then a decent camera will seal the deal for you and you'll really make use of it, if you haven't got an eye for it then I can't see the point splashing out 500+ quid on a decent camera, you might as well get good with a budget snapper and upgrade later in my book.

supersonic

I am not getting too bad results from my mobile for well lit landscape shots:



Has a few manual adjustments, but is still hopeless in lower light and indoors. No makro mode either, so I think for me 100-150 sounds about right.

llamafarmer

blister pus wrote:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-Lumix-FS7-Digital-Camera/dp/B001T0GZF4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1246224211&sr=8-2

I've had one of these for about 9 months or so now and it's been absolutely brilliant. I'm constantly impressed by how well it performs in all conditions for such a cheap little unit. I'm no expert, but the colours are excellent, it's small, easy to use and the big list of preset modes works really well. I tried out the rapid fire the other day whilst out on my mate's boat, we were tearing along and snapping away at the jetskis jumping our wake and I was amazed at how well they turned out - really crisp!

This one has had a bit of photoshopping, but the colours and depth of focus are all stunning for a little pocket sized point and shoot.

blister pus

Nice shot, llamafarmer.

I'm glad you've got one and posted a pic so ssonic can see, I'll post a couple of shots later from my similar Lumix LS2, i'll get a landscape greenary shot in and try and get a dusk low light shot later tonight. If you could get a dusk low level light shot of clouds and stuff in from the FS7 that'd be really helpful, really give him an idea of what to expect for the money.

Surf-Matt

Got a Lumix TZ5 (or is it T5Z?!) and it's brilliant. Not made now (think it's the TZ7 now) so can be bought for under £200.

blister pus

Couple of shots from this mornings blast round the hills courtesy of the slightly older Lumix LS2 . It was really really blazing bright sunlight though, not ideal.

supersonic

Very nice! Good clarity without been too 'sharp' (if you get my drift - more realistic to me), and seems to have rendered the sky very well in the brightness which would have foxed any of my cameras.

Many thanks! Would love to see the low light stuff ;-)

blister pus

yeh, well if it carries on like this you'll see low level light with monsoon flooding.

Will take the evening sky at a couple of stages later on.

supersonic

Storms are cracking, I always try and get the lightning on my camera phones!

blister pus

Stages from 8.30 to 10.15. Flash kicked in on it's own and I got the shakes laughing on the last one, so it's not as it should be lol.....

supersonic

That's pretty good for that time of night.