Recommend me a camera?

bobbydigital

I currently have a Nikon L830 and it's okay for what I use it for, taking pictures for ebay listings but it has a few faults,

It can sometimes take black photos, this is very rare but the camera struggles a lot in low light situations, even what I'd say was okay lighting it just doesn't like it, it has to be sun shining and bright for a decent picture. The focus is automatic only which can be hit and miss. It uses AA batteries, I have 2500mah Ansmann ones, even so with the issue of low light/focus sometimes they don't go very far and take ages to recharge. It's a little bit chunky.

So basically I wanted to upgrade to something else, willing to buy a good used camera for say £100 on ebay.
Have looked at Cannon Powershot SX600 HS and SX620 HS 20MP but reviews said the L830 took better photos :?

So I am after something used, £100, manual focus option, lithium rechargeable battery, easy to chuck in a rucksack and takes nice photos without much effort.

cougie

Phone cameras are all you need. If not buy a separate camera for eBay listings.

CitizenLee

Phone cameras are pretty crappy unless it's one of the higher end/flagship devices, and even older models will still sell for more than a decent point and shoot.

Should be able to get a used Lumix or Sony Cybershot for around a ton... or even a Canon G series.

FishFish

Agree with Canon G.

robert88

Just a casual snapper me. I've a Canon SX710HS and a Panasonic Lumix TZ70. Whilst the Canon pics are fine, I prefer the cheaper Lumix which often takes better pictures and has a rather good through-the-lens viewfinder option for when the sun is shining too brightly for the screen viewer.

edit to say the Lumix takes good close-ups. I use it to record documents when I've no scanner to hand. The Canon not so good. The Lumix TZ8 was also excellent for close-ups and must be some very cheap ones around.

rolf_f

Robert88 wrote:

Just a casual snapper me. I've a Canon SX710HS and a Panasonic Lumix TZ70. Whilst the Canon pics are fine, I prefer the cheaper Lumix which often takes better pictures and has a rather good through-the-lens viewfinder option for when the sun is shining too brightly for the screen viewer.

In almost all circumstances, sun shine or not, a proper viewfinder is way better than a screen viewer. It ought to be number one requirement above all else!

keef66

I can heartily recommend a Lumix TZ something or other. The viewfinder plus the zoom I find really helpful with shot composition. The fully automatic point and shoot settings produce pretty impressive results, but you also have a bewildering range of manual options.

They seem to launch a new model every 5 minutes so I'm sure you'd find a used example for your budget.

bobbydigital

Nice one, thank you.

I had totally forgotten about Panasonic as a brand, I will keep my eye out.

eric_draven

Before I bought an SLR Nikon I had a Canon S5 IS,it was a really good camera with a view finder and a rotatable screen took normal batteries,maybe thin on the ground now as they are an oldish model,before that I had a Panasonic F series F18? a few more features but I found the Canon easier to use

Wheelspinner

Depends if you want the long zoom or better picture quality. You'll get better pictures with a larger sensor unit like the Panasonic LX100, but you lose the greater zoom capability. The Sony RX100 Series are nice little units too.

For a bit cheaper used option I had a little Leica D Lux 5 which was superb, wish I'd kept it. There's an equivalent Panasonic too for that. (Lx5? Lx7? Can't remember). Lots of good choices in that kind of range.

siji

Now a days there are thousand of good DSLR camera launch in the market i dont know that time you were finding you got or not but now there is lot of collections in various websites

bobbydigital

I opted for the Panasonic TZ60, takes better pictures then the L830 but it's 10 times easier and copes better in low light situations where the L830 would produce very dark images.

It's also a lot faster to upload pics to the PC via USB, has many more functions with more adjustability, probably 1/4 of the the size, rechargeable battery etc

I got it for £130 and the L830 are going for around £100 still so seems like a good little upgrade.