Advice on cheap camera

LoLth

Hi,

I was hoping to get some advice on a cheap-as-chips digital camera.

My requirements:
point and click goodness. I just want to snap things. this is for holidays and walking about rather than specifically going to see somewhere.

Must be able to take decent night time pictures. (is this shutter speed? ISO ? low light ? ) - GF has a canon with big lense etc but either its crap at night time shots or we just dont know how to change the settings properly.

SD / Xd preferrably as I already have these cards and would like to re-use.
Decent optical zoom but not a huge requirement. Am I right in thinking you get a better pic without digital zoom and you can use photoshop to zoom in on the parts you want anyway ?

I had a rather nice BenQ camera that did the trick nicely (4mp) but something happened to it and all of a sudden the pictures are coming out blurred about 80% of the time but there is no way of telling until you look at them on a larger monitor and by then its too late.

If at all possible, I'd like to go sub €150 on the camera. A camera that is usable but also allows the option to go manual as you learn the way thigns work would be ideal.

any thoughts? hopeless quest ?

Biro

LoLth wrote:

GF has a canon with big lense etc but either its crap at night time shots or we just dont know how to change the settings properly.

There's your key sentence. What model is your girlfriend's Canon?
You can't just point a camera at night and click and it'll magically return a good shot. My guess is that you're using the Canon on one of the automatic settings, which is like every other camera with auto, useless for night shots. You need a tripod because of the long shutter speed needed, plus you need the timer set so that your finger pressing the button doesn't shake the camera.

LoLth wrote:

Hi,

I was hoping to get some advice on a cheap-as-chips digital camera.

My requirements:
point and click goodness. I just want to snap things. this is for holidays and walking about rather than specifically going to see somewhere.

If at all possible, I'd like to go sub €150 on the camera. A camera that is usable but also allows the option to go manual as you learn the way thigns work would be ideal.

any thoughts? hopeless quest ?

Sub €150 won't get results like your girlfriends canon will, although I better wait to see what model she has.
You'll still get a point and shoot for €150 with a search that'll be fine. Stick to the main brands, as optics are key.

Spyral

I had a rather nice BenQ camera that did the trick nicely (4mp) but something happened to it and all of a sudden the pictures are coming out blurred about 80% of the time but there is no way of telling until you look at them on a larger monitor and by then its too late.

I dont mean to be a pillock but have you checked to make sure that the lens is clean ?

mathias

Most cameras with a manual mode will take decent night shots these days , unless its very basic or very old. So its most likely you need to learn the settings. ( canon with a big lens suggests you should be able to do it )

With point and shoots none of them are any good at high iso ( thats anything over 400 ISO ) due to the small sensor , so your going to have to set a long shutter speed , something in the order of 1 or 2 seconds.

For this , as posted above , you'll either need a tripod or a beanbag , to keep the camera steady , and use the timer , most have a 2 second and a 10 second timer.

LoLth

Hi,

sorry about the delay in response. GFs camera isnt a canon its an olympus (shows how much attention I pay! )

http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/29_C-8080_WideZoom_Specifications.htm

its a nice camera , just a bit bulky and expensive enough that you sort of worry about it. You are right though that we dont know enough about camera settings to make full use of its abilities.

However, i am still in the market for a cheap and cheerful option and I have opted to go for a canon powershot A550 . Its small , fairly basic and is seemingly decent for low-light and night time shots as long as you're not looking for pictures to hang on the wall or anything

Spyral: First thing I thought of was that maybe the lense was dirty or water had gotten in somehow. Unfortunately it seems that the dropping has damaged the auto-focus in teh lense so its ok for shots of far away objects but cant re-focus on closer objects . its fecked.

anyway, thanks for the advice. I always wanted to learn more about photography maybe someday I'll sign up for some evening course or something.