disillusioned with digital

Remymartin

My camera just died! I only have it 2 1/2 years & it suddenly won't do anything,won't turn on at all. I brought it back to shop & it will cost €160 just to look at it. It cost me around €300 at the time but I could probably get a similar one now for half that so no point in fixing it really. Its a fujifilm finepix e510, my first digital camera! Now I need to replace it & am alarmed at how soon I have to do this, tempted to go back to 35mm but probably won't.

I am looking for something with some level of control but not an SLR. Something with a decent ISO as last one cracked me up, but I think that was only about 200 anyway, most newer ones are probably a lot more as standard. It was quite a chunky little camera so I would be happy to go with something a little more compact if I thought it was the right camera but with at least a 3x optical zoom.

Suppose a lot of photos would be family and holidays and that but I like to take photos of preedy things and interesting things too and would like to get a bit more into photography.

I am baffled by range and reasonablenessness available.

Please help

Thanks

5uspect

Electronic equipment will die, thats a fact of life. A single bad solder joint on a PCB may feck up an entire camera. Generally the failure rate is quite low but you'll always get bad ones.

Also most smaller P&S type cameras have the shelf life of a banana technology wise to quote an article someone posted recently. Have a look at the What Camera sticky to get some idea of what would be good for you.

kmick

Whats your budget - you can get a pretty decent camera for 160 euro right now. Have a look on http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/default.asp?view=rating
and see if you can find a highly rated camera for your budget. That site is priced in dollars so rule of thumb is if its 160 dollars over there its probably 160+ euros over here (don't ask about that one).

For example (in their highly recommended section)
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canona570is/

Regarding your disillusion - dont worry - nothing is built to last now.

mathias

Something with a decent ISO as last one cracked me up, but I think that was only about 200 anyway, most newer ones are probably a lot more as standard.

Thats a huge problem with compacts , high ISO is just about ruled out , if thats a must for you then an SLR is your only choice.

See quote here from dpreview .... from the conclusion page of the canon G9 review.

It's the biggest irony of the compact digital camera market: since the cameras all use very similar sensors (often the exact same sensor) and many even share the same lens assembly, the price difference between the entry-level models and range-toppers such as the G9 simply isn't reflected in a commensurate difference in output quality. And it doesn't matter how much you are prepared to spend; you can't buy your way out of the 'compact camera problem' - a small, noisy sensor is a small noisy sensor no matter what kind of tank you build around it or how many 'professional' features you build into the body.

You cannot cram pixels into a tiny sensor and still have good ISO performance.

I believe the best performer ISO wise for a compact is the Fuji F31 and even that is only good up to 400 ISO.

Thirdfox

Unless you've got 600(?) pounds to spend on a Sigma compact DP1 camera. The Ricohs seem pretty good too (again for a hefty price that could get you a budge dSLR).

thebaz

i've had a few p&s , and would reccomend Olympus as best i've seen , try and get a bridge , as you'll get some control , but for control slr is best , although with accessories it gets expensive.
something like this might suit (never used it!)
http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/600489/art/olympus/sp-560-ultrazoom.html

sheesh

Remymartin wrote: »

My camera just died! I only have it 2 1/2 years & it suddenly won't do anything,won't turn on at all. I brought it back to shop & it will cost €160 just to look at it. It cost me around €300 at the time but I could probably get a similar one now for half that so no point in fixing it really. Its a fujifilm finepix e510, my first digital camera! Now I need to replace it & am alarmed at how soon I have to do this, tempted to go back to 35mm but probably won't.

I am looking for something with some level of control but not an SLR. Something with a decent ISO as last one cracked me up, but I think that was only about 200 anyway, most newer ones are probably a lot more as standard. It was quite a chunky little camera so I would be happy to go with something a little more compact if I thought it was the right camera but with at least a 3x optical zoom.

Suppose a lot of photos would be family and holidays and that but I like to take photos of preedy things and interesting things too and would like to get a bit more into photography.

I am baffled by range and reasonablenessness available.

Please help

Thanks

Waiting on a Yashica Electro GSN to come to me from the US hopefully will work €55 if it works it will be cool the are supposed to be great cameras for the money.

watch this space.