Request: Camera from Usa?

litirspam

Hi,
I have a friend coming home from USA soon and I want to get a digital camera which will be future proof for the foreseeable future. In other words I want to buy a camera with whatever features I would need for everyday use and maybe a little bit better.
-good zoom
-good flash
-fairly easy to use
-USB/firewire

I am willing to spend up to €200 - €400

Any suggestions appreciated.

Even if you could suggest a few to check out and I will go from there.

mpkelly

Are you looking for a Digital SLR or a straight forward Point & Shoot? What kind of money are you thinking of spending?

litirspam

I am willing to spend up to €200 - €400.
Are SLR's only for advanced photography?
Small and compact is probably what I am looking for.

bucks

Id reccomend this one.

Canon PowerShot S500 Digital Elph, 5.0 Megapixel, 3x Optical/4.1X Digital Zoom, Digital Camera
Its exactly €250 (in the states) not sure how much they are here, price around.

Check out www.bhphotovideo.com for more info.

rymus

why settle for 5mp? You could get the 7mp Powershot S70.. Very nice camera. I have the S30 and if the build quality is anything like it, you could hammer nails with the thing. Having said that though, Canon seem to have superior build quality more or less right across the board. I'll agree with previous poster in some small bit... go for a powershot, no matter how many mp you'll finally end up getting. (unless you fork out the extra for a 350D of course)

litirspam

Thanks for the replies rymus and bucks. I will check those cameras out now.
I have a question.
I was told that a 4mp camera is all you need for ordinary sized photos and you only need higher if the photo will be bigger. Is that true or is there more to it?

bucks

litirspam wrote:

Thanks for the replies rymus and bucks. I will check those cameras out now.
I have a question.
I was told that a 4mp camera is all you need for ordinary sized photos and you only need higher if the photo will be bigger. Is that true or is there more to it?

This is true, unless you plan on having your photos printed up in a very large size 4mp will do. The reason i suggested a 5mp camera is because it sounds like thats all you would need. If you were going down the road of trying to get somewhat professional shots then you would be looking for a digital slr and your current budget wouldnt suffice for that.

Its a well and good getting a 7mp camera but figure out what exactly you want the camera for, and bare in mind the larger mp the more memory you will need, so budget for that aswell.

rymus

I've gotten perfect 6x4's and 5x7's out of my old 3.2mp. Never went any higher than that because I never saw the need to. Don't get much stuff printed. If all you'll ever be looking for print-wise are 6x4's you'd be pretty safe staying in the 4mp range.

Only reason I suggested a whopper of a 7mp is because you never really know what you'll end up doing with your camera. Sure you could buy it now for snapshots and getting small prints done but I've often heard people I know moaning because their 3mp cameras cant realistically go up to poster size. That's the end of my winding non-sensical tale for this evening.

Stick with a 4mp, save yourself some money and in a few years buy a DSLR when you want to start getting prints 6 foot across