Buying A Digital Camera

Third_Echelon

(mod.. move this thread if this is the wrong place)

Hi All..

Im thinking about buying the Fujifilm Finepix S3000 digital camera. It costs between €300 --> €350 on average.

Just wanted to know if anyone has bought this camera and what they think about it..

Anybody got any suggestions about any other digital cameras in this price range that are good value for money...

Thanks

thesteve

hey, check out this site for camera reviews http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Fujifilm/

pretty good, one thing i'd recommend if buying one is if you know someone in the states, get them to get it and send it over to you, you don't get charged customs if its sent from a friend and not a store...

i bought 2 sony cameras as xmas presents from the states and look at the savings...

sony dsc-p92 (5 mega pixel) 650 euro in ireland 325 euro from USA
sony dsc-u30 (2 mega pixel) 280 euro in ireland 175 euro from USA

even the memory sticks were a load cheaper, try and take advantage of the exchange rate!!

[nicK]

5 mega pixel: http://www.lidl.ie/ie/index.nsf/pages/c.o.oow.20031222.p.Camera

thinking of getting this myself..

davidclayton

i had the s3000, good cam. good 6x zoom. too big for my liking.
sold it to buy a portable digi cam: the pentax s

if you're tinking of this type of size camera, i'd buy the...
Kodak EasyShare DX6490 Digital Camera [4MP 10xOptical]
£300 sterling on amazon.
got great reviews.

dave

Third_Echelon

thanks for the replies lads.. thats given me a bit more to consider.

thanks

sci0x

If you are looking for a camera with a printer Canon has announced that until the end of December consumers who buy certain Canon digital cameras will get a photo printer thrown in free!

Canon

gerire

Hey Third Echelon, which camera did you buy? I was also thinking of buying the S3000 at the moment and would like to know how you got on with it if you did buy it?

aaf

Personally, I wouldn't get a FujiFilm camera fullstop. All Fuji's, according to the many reviews I have read, are crap at taking pics in low light conditions especially at night. My camera, a basic A201 is crap so I was thinking of gettting an S5000 10x Optical zoom but I read a few reviews and again, the low light issue came up. Don't know which camera you should get but you should read a few reviews before doing so. Here's a few digital camera review sites:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/
http://www.dpreview.com/
http://reviews.cnet.com/

Another good source for reviews is amazon. Best of luck. Let us know which camera you end up buying and why

ThreadKiller

If you can afford it, go for a canon, I've seen consistantly good images from them & they taks CF cards which are among the least expensive.

Kali

The only thing about Fujifilm cameras I've noticed is that when you delete items from the camera, it actually wipes the specified file from the smart-card, making recovery of accidental erasures impossible.. as opposed to Nikon/Sony and Olympus cameras (they just delete the pointer to the file) which I've recovered images successfully from in the past... just something that bugged me

BrianD3

Here are two more good sites for reviews:
http://www.dcresource.com/
http://www.imaging-resource.com/

BrianD3

124124

Fuji isnt that bad at making cameras, IMHO - I have a Fuji finepix 1200 (1m pix version) for last three years or so, and its still clicking away nicely and taking well, 1m pixels. (I upgraded to Sony DSC 717 late last year and dont use Fuji anymore - but someone else is using it and its doing a great job).

Now, if I was to pick a compact digital camera, I would go for Cannon IXUS 400 - its stylish and has everything just right - if you look at dpreview.com's camera reviews, you will see it at the 'most recommended' list.

If you were into bit more serious fun, you should either get Cannon EOS 300D (digital rebel, as they call on that shore) or a Sony 828, both around 1000 euros (well, 717 is better to be honest). For your budget though, I would recommend Cannon IXUS 400.

Cheers!

Krusty_Clown

Kali: when you delete items from the camera, it actually wipes the specified file from the smart-card

So it does what it says on the tin! The other cameras (Nikon/Sony/Olympus) just don't work properly.

My biggest problem with Fuji's is I just keep losing them.. :dunno: But when it comes to replacing them, I still go back to Fuji, for value/Functionality reasons..

I just picked up my S5000 in the US for around €330, which suits my needs perfectly.
10x Optical Zoom, 30fps movies with sound (albeit at low resolution), and more photographic features than I will ever use..

Krusty_Clown

btw Aaf, looking at the reviews of the S5000 on the review sites you provided, feedBack seems positive, and doesn't necessarily suggest ...crap at taking pics in low light conditions...

some quotes:
Steve's Digicams:
We were happy with the results shooting indoors.....In low ambient light, both the Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) and large LCD were easy to view, and the S5000's AF-Assist Illuminator produced sharp focus.

DPReview:
Construction 8/10
Features 8/10
Image quality 7/10
Lens / CCD combination 7/10
Ease of use 8/10
Value for money 8/10

124124

I don't see many fuji's in the 'Highly Recommended' list in www.dpreview.com. Have a look at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/default.asp?view=rating

davidclayton

if you're going for the big zoom [6-10x] i'd defo have a look at the Kodak DX6490
[as already mentioned]
got great reviews online and in magazines.
never seen one in real life though.

if you're after a portable camera, i can vouch for the pentax optio S.
good value £230 on amazon
or £270 fo rthe 4MP version.

dave

Darwin

Amazon.co.uk have dropped the price of the Canon Powershot A60 to £99 which
is fantastic value. It's a 2MP camera with 3x optical zoom and takes cheap CF cards
and AA batteries. Additionally, wide angle and telephoto lens are available on ebay
for it if you want better shots!

Haket

Hi I've the S304, which is pretty much the same thing. I bought it to replace the 2meg A201 I bought as an intro to digicams. The S304 is superior in every respect apart from size and battery life (though 120+ pics is commonplace usin Nimh 2100mAh batteries).

Its a weird shape so, suitable camera bags are hard to find, plus its really too big to bring on a night out. Feature wise its great, with semi-auto modes and a great zoom. the video/sound is not too bad for a digicam either.

The manual features are not exactly extensive but I didn't want the complexity either. All in all I'd reccomend it.

Third_Echelon

Haven't looked at this thread for a while to be honest...

I didnt actually buy it yet... im gonna buy it before i go on holiday in june, so i have some time to look around....

i read a few reviews about the fuji s3000 and the s5000 and asked around etc... from what i can hear fuji compress the sh*t out their files, which may be good for space on your card, but id rather have a better picture...

i seen the S5000 on komplett for €380 i think it was, which is a good price seeing its usually about €550 on the high street...

i had a kodak dc3500 before and it was great, so i might go for kodak again... we'll see what happens i guess..

thanks for the info anyway...

mr_angry

What happened to the Kodak buddy? It seemed quite good quality, judging from the Cooley Mountains expedition! If you still have it, bring it along to the LAN tomorrow. And don't forget those SAP pencils!

Third_Echelon

still have it... i bought that camera, half and half with my dad at the time, so i want to buy my own really...

dont have it at the moment.. that would involve a trip home...

Damn... I forgot to raid the stationery cupboard today...

neokenzo

Originally posted by sci0x
If you are looking for a camera with a printer Canon has announced that until the end of December consumers who buy certain Canon digital cameras will get a photo printer thrown in free!

Canon

Where did you read this?

I've got a Canon. The picture quality is really great. However, the one thing I dont particularly like about Canon is that their flash is a bit strong. But you can adjust the level of flash you want, I'm just too lazy

I wiuld suggest, before you decide to buy a camera, check out how much an extra memory would cost. Chances are you would need more than what you get with the camera, if you get any. And they can be pretty expensive.

.-=MR. JOE=-.

I must recommend the Pentax Optio 555. It does great in all the reviews. It got 97% in one I read a while ago. It's 5MP and 5XOpticalZoom which is Great in a very compact camera. I could post a few photos I've taken if you guys want. It can take macro shots at 2cm!
I got mine at Pixmania. I wouldn't recommend them, Amazon had a big delay at the time. They send it with French plugs and manual. Not much cheaper than Amazon either. It cost around €560 but the Optio 550 is still around - the one it replaced. The only real difference is the speed it operates at (startup etc.)

Let me know if ye want a few sample shots.

Third_Echelon

i think i might end up getting the Sony DSC P12... some nice online deals...

Third_Echelon

ok ive narrowed it down to 2 cameras:

there is the Canon PowerShot A80 4MP

or

Sony DSC P12 5MP (same as dsc p10 but with extra battery, carry case etc)

The canon's sample pics look excellent.. full rich colour and not much grainy parts, if any at all...

The sony's pics are very good as well, but at the highest resolution where i have seen most of the sample pics there seems to be a bit of grain..

ive looked at pixmania.com and amazon and they seem to be around the same price on both at the moment... 400 for the canon 500 for sony, thats with an extra mem card and a few other things...

the thing is.. as i said earlier in the thread.. im going on holiday in about 6 weeks and ill be skiing... this is where the sony dsc p12 comes in...

its nice and small and can fit in your pocket no probs, whereas the canon is just slightly bigger from what i can make out..

so this is the dilema.. do i sacrifice picture quality for convenience and go for the sony (100 EUR more), or go for the canon?

decisions, desicions...

any info on either would be great..

.-=MR. JOE=-.

Man I'm dissapointed. Did you even look at the Pentax Optio 555?

I'll post a few of my photos later! Anyone know what the mazimum upload size is?

.-=MR. JOE=-.

Here's a few photos.........
NOTE: They're dumbed down versions to allow for quick downloading. If anyone wants a full size version you can pm me.

Horse Photo
The Asgard II (Side Shot)
The Asgard II (front view)
Sails
Snowdrops

See them at - http://www.geocities.com/somefotostorage/boards/

I'm no professional photographer so I think the photos came out pretty good!:p

Let me know what ye think,
JOE
:cool:

.-=MR. JOE=-.

Oh yeah...forgot to mension those photos were taken with the Pentax Optio 555. I don't think there's much if any quality difference between it and the older Optio 550. The only difference is operating speed.

Third_Echelon

Thanks Joe,

I looked at a lot of cameras in my search.. that was one of them, but its just a bit outside my price range at the moment...

thanks anyway...

I'm gonna order the canon powershot a80