taimatsu | (no subject)

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If I wanted to buy myself a reasonable-quality digital camera for UKP100 or less this weekend, how realistic would I be being, and where should I look if it were possible? I want to buy it in person, not online. It's got to be easy to use and produce basic web-quality images. I'll want to be able to plug it into both Windows and Mac computers. If it were difficult to break, that would be a bonus. I have no idea how realistic my budget is.

Discuss.

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Your budget is tight but feasible -- don't forget that you will probably want a memory card of some stripe to go with the camera itself. We bought my stepdad-in-law one of these (http://www.jessops.com/Store/s31463/0/Digital-Compact-Cameras/Kodak/Easyshare-C310-Digital-Camera/details.aspx?&IsSearch=y&pageindex=1&CatId=236&comp=y) for Christmas and he seems to find it fairly easy to use -- the site suggests it'll work with a Mac and also with a PC but I can't offer you any first-hand advice about the Mac end of things.

As to where you go to get one, well, Jessops are good, larger Tescos seem to be selling them these days (well, the big one near us does), and so would PC World and the like. I have no idea which, if any, of those exist near you, sorry ;)

This is handy, thank you! How big a memory card should I be getting? Don't you usually get one with the camera?

I have a 512 mb card (that would be about £35 from Jessops, nicely matching your budget), which gives me about 300 pictures, I didn't manage to fill it even wiuth 4 weeks in australia.

That's really helpful, thank you.

Some cameras might come in a bundle with a card -- it's worth looking around -- but in general they seem not to. (Many cameras have some internal memory but in practice it's usually very small indeed.)

How big a card is a bit of a "how long is a piece of string" question -- it'll depend on what you can afford and whether you're likely to be taking loads of pictures in a single session or not. If you're not likely to be taking more than a few at any one time, you can probably go for a relatively small card -- realistically I'd suggest going for the largest card of the appropriate type which will fit into your budget...

Compacts usually come with a memory card but it will be too small.
How big a card you need depends on the resultion (MP) of the camera and how many pictures you're likely to take in one session.

The linked camera has 4MP so a photo will probably be around 2MB. Now you can extrapolate.

7dayshop.com do very cheap memory cards if you can afford to wait for mail order. ie get a small card to start with, and some more larger ones later. My 1gig SD card cost me under 15 quid.

Remind me where you are?

Near one of these?

'Fraid not - I'm in Reading. :/

I bought something cheap online (<£50 all inc, IIRC) on behalf of someone else a while ago - I can't remember the details but could probably find them if you want to have a go at finding the same thing in a store.

I want to buy it in person, not online.

So long as you're aware that will be more expensive, fair enough.

Yes, £100 should get you a perfectly decent camera, though it'll most likely come with non-rechargeable batteries and a tiny memory card, both of which you may want to upgrade.

I just can't be doing with ordering things online when I haven't a computer of my own to do it at, and I can't receive parcels at home, and money coming out of my account at unpredictable times. Hassle. Anyway, I would rather like to have it to use on Saturday and Sunday, as my childhood home is about to be sold, and I'm going in a hot-air balloon on Sunday :)

Jessops are normally very helpful though that could just be the dudes in the branch I go into.

It really depends on the shop assistants. I recently wanted to buy a skylight filter at the smaller Cambridge branch and none of the two muppets knew what I wanted...

*nods* but Lucy's want of a basic decent camera is more mainstream than a skylight filter, so they're more likely to be able to help.

Sorry, at the photo department in Dixons, maybe but in a specialist photographic shop I expect them to know what a skylight filter is (a standard piece of kit for any SLR photographer). I also don't expect them to be able to tell me the difference between compact A and B other than what the tech specs on the box say.

Hey, even I vaguely know what a skylight filter is, and that's from doing photographic developing for a term in the sixth form :)

I've personally liked the Fuji compacts so this one (http://www.jessops.com/Products/ProductDetail.aspx?SkuId=35445) would fit your requirements exactly. It's just within your budget but has a very good resolution and a metal body.
Sadly, it doesn't come with an xD card so you will need an extra. the 12MB internal memory would be for enough for oh, 3 shots at full res.

That looks quite plausible, thank you. I'll check it out :)

I love the camera I have -- when I got it, it was worth what would be equivalent to about UKP 200 or so. Can't remember the megapixels off the top of my head, but it has a rechargeable battery, which I personally find much preferable to non-rechargeable. Digi cams go through batteries like CRAZY, especially if you use your cam a lot.

Plus, I did have to get a memory card, because my cam's internal memory doesn't hold too many pictures. I was able to get a 250MB memory card for the equivalent of UKP 20. It holds about 175 pictures, depending on the resolution.

Go to www.bestcameras.co.uk, print out the camera-only prices of any you're interested in, and take them to Jessops to price match. I got about £100 off mine.

(am on phone and typing, will elaborate later if you need me to!)

*nods* they will price match nicely too. They have the ability to be very helpful!

Exactly - lovely people in the Manchester store. I'd only printed out the bundle prices, and they don't price match on those, so I went over to Manchester Library and printed out the camera prices :D

I've had good experience with Jessops, in several towns/cities.

For reviews, check out http://www.cameras.co.uk/ - useful easy to read reviews with price comparisons, online suppliers for price matching and test photos

Hi Lucy

Get the biggest memory card you can afford - this works out cheaper and more convenient in the long run than getting a small one now and then buying another one later. With my digital camera I ended up buying a succession of progressively bigger memory cards which add up to 1Gb. Mind you, back in 2003 when I got the camera memory cards were very expensive.

I find that prices vary loads and things (especially memory cards) are generally cheaper online.

Get one that takes standard AA or AAA rechargeable batteries, then you can get good ones and a fast charger later.

I don't know what you get for 100 pounds these days but I'm sure there are loads of reviews out there. Worth doing loads of research because you'll have the camera for years hopefully.

Yay I look forward to seeing your photos! :-)

Hugs

I got an Olympus FE100, It's selling for about £79 in the larger TESCO's. With a memory card of 128mb it came to £100. It has AA batteries though, and if you use the flash it can be greedy, but works well with rechargaeble batteries. It's a 4.0mpx and although no view finder it takes lovely pics.

Example: http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g74/rach74_photos/LiverBuildingLong.jpg

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