Advice Needed

Subliminal

Hi, im new to Photography, and im about to buy a Digital Camera to start learning with. The problem is, im on a strict budget of 150 euros, wth no credit card use ( Which Means no website links pls ) can anyone

A: Recomend a Digital Camera for 150-160 Euros MAX
B: A place where i can buy it in a shop in dublin

Any help appriciated, thanks.

slumped

Conns Cameras - Clarendon St in Dublin 2

Camera Exchange - Georges St in Dublin 2

Pixels - think they are on Baggot Street near the Green.

I hope you are in Dublin!

Shrimp

My first cam was a Samsung DigiMax 202, 2.0mp. Sounds like ****, but infact you can preduce some good stuff with it, some of which can be seen here http://shrimp123.deviantart.com/gallery/ I am selling it if you like, but if not check out some of these..

http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/901/xx/0-165/1/1/criteresn.html

Subliminal

Thanks everyone for your advice, as things turned out, i got a present of a new Vivitar 5mp Digital Camera of my brother in law, and even tho its not a brand name, this is my first digicam, and it will suit me perfect. its got great specs, and the picture is very good, with TV out and the software that comes with it, its exatcly what i wanted. Now ill be bothering you all more for tips Im interested in macro and ( Urban/Scenic ) landscapes, so i will be snapping away. Oh, does anyone know where to get cheap SD cards? Im in dublin, thanks.

Shrimp

Just pop into conns or even peats or maplins, they'll have them, they tend to be all the same kinda prices. Make sure to put up some photos soon, it'll be cool to get some C&C..

Karoma

Again, an online (Irish) shop for cheap cards: www.shop4memory.com
They're prices are pretty decent (They include postage within Ireland and VAT,etc. - so what you see is what you get -p&p + taxes can add up when ordering from other places. And the stuff is usually delivered in the usual An Post timeframe.. I've used them a few times.)

jlang

Subliminal wrote:

Oh, does anyone know where to get cheap SD cards?

I got a few 512Mb SD cards from a guy in Hong Kong on eBay. Toshiba brand, bid about £8, with postage insurance etc, worked out at about E25 each - much better than you'd do in any shop. No problems after a few months.

Subliminal

Shrimp wrote:

Make sure to put up some photos soon, it'll be cool to get some C&C..

Cheers, but the problem im having is size, Boards.ie only allows somthing like 400kb, and my pix are coming in at 1.2mb. Ill have to get a photohost to store them. Took a good macro yesterday ( I think ) of an old laptop ke yboard, the name speaks for itself....dust!

Rhyme

You could change them to .gif or .jpeg and host them at imageshack, they go up to 1024KB as photobucket resize any image above 250KB. Good hunting and/or snapping.

whyulittle

There is a Macro Photo Challenge going on here at the minute.

Subliminal

Ok, well here we go....just a pic i took yesterday, its not good, but i need to test loading an image



This is a stray cat that i feed in the back of the apartment complex i live in. Total darkness too, flash was used. Its not meant o be a good pic, just a test, but C&C welcome all the same.

PS: Dust to follow...

Karoma

JPEG or PNG are possibly more appropriate filetypes for this sort of image. You may want to consider getting a copy of Photoshop or similar (Cheaper = Paint Shop Pro); and a flickr.com account for free(limited) hosting.
Aside: it's usually not really necessary to have the visible timestamp imprinted (It can ruin otherwise good shots) - this data is typically available via EXIF (Meta Data; data embedded in the photo :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXIF )
I've found http://www.photo.net and http://www.photoxels.com to be great resources.
These are just suggestions,hope they help:)

Subliminal

Karoma, really appriciate the advice and ive bookmarked them all. Well, finaly here is my VERY first Macro attempt. I dont know if it even qualifies, but i would really appriciate any comments and advice. No editing done to pic btw.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b169/Photoflix/Dust.jpg

An old laptop i was fixing btw!

Karoma

There are a few formatting rules (i.e. Size) but yeah it'd be acceptable methinks.
I'm distracted by the dirt too much (Perhaps a crop might work : remove the dark part at the fore - which is kinda dead space.. *shrug* just a suggestion to play with)

Shrimp

Turn of the Date/Time.

peckerhead

And call it "Dandruff", not "Dust"..!

rymus

if youre looking to put some images online, set up a free flickr account (www.flickr.com)

Even better, subscribe to flickr and get unlimited space. Just the job for hosting thousands of photos.

Subliminal

Hi all again, after messing around with the camera as mentioned above ( Vivitar 5385 ) ive come to the conclusion that this is not the camera for me. The camera is fine, but it hasnt got the options that i want to take good pic's. Ive decided to sell it, and some other stuff, to get 200 euro together to buy a more decent camera. Does anyone know of a good digital camera with a few options to play around with? with good optical zoom, and manual focus etc? maybe someone has one for sale? I have the option to get a Cannon Powershot A40, is this a good camera? Any help appriciated, thanks.

Sub

Karoma

http://www.google.ie/search?q=canon+powershot+a40&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official

The A40 is a 2MegaPixel camera.. I'm not one caught up in the MegaPixel race. However, it does limit your options greatly if you think you may want to print pictures

Subliminal

Cheers karoma. Yeah i was thinking it was a bit low, maybe 3 - 4 mp would suit me better. And to top things off, ive just read an old post by shrimp, the pics he took were fantastic, and he said he used a canon G6. Ive googled it, and now im in love with it, even though i cant afford one! . it really seems to be a great camera, but alas, out of my price range by a long shot. I wish i had more money to spend ( Only have 150 - 180 MAX ) but i am off to New york soonish, and need to save money for that. As i said above, if anyone has a good digicam for sale for the money i can spend, id be interested. Oh that canon G6 is calling me......

Sub

peckerhead

If you're going to NY soon, you'll get twice the camera for your money there...! You could get this for about €200 — loads of "creative control", and excellent pix... And it uses rechargeable AAs rather than a lithium battery, so you can easily pick up a pack of alkalines in an emergency.

Subliminal

yeah, i know, and i will probably buy some stuff like that there, but i need one for now also, just to learn a bit, and maybe get into photography not just for hols pics etc. Ive been talking to conns cameras, and they have a powershot A60 for 175 Euro....seems a good deal. If i cant sell this vivitar cam, i wont be buying anything!

Sub.

Subliminal

Just talked again to conns cameras. He has a samsung V4 for 199 euro, was wondering does anyone have personal experience with this, and is it any good?

Karoma

i thought 180 was the "MAX"
The V4 seems to be an excellent Point N Shoot (P-N-S) - I dunno if it allows for the full control of shots (i.e. Aperture and Shutter Speed. Most Samsung's don't); a lot of control is there in the form of sets though..

Also, I'd personally strongly recommend that you completely ignore "digital zoom" when buying a camera. If you find use for it afterward, all well and good. But it adds too much noise and distortion to a picture to be considered in any way a benefit; and may trick you into buying a specific camera just because it boasts "12x zoom" (When in reality it's only 3x optical or less)

Peckerhead's suggested camera above gives you a lot more features/control.

*shrug* my 2c - See what the guru's say.


Now, you seem to be getting ideas.. so confess: what type of pictures do you want to take?

Subliminal

I am getting, and appriciating the suggestions/ideas. If only i could click my fingers and know WHAT camera to buy for the right price!!!

Oh and i want to take Macro Shots and lanscapes/nature.

philologos

try use google's froogle froogle helps you find the right things for the right price

Karoma

Subliminal wrote:

I am getting, and appriciating the suggestions/ideas. If only i could click my fingers and know WHAT camera to buy for the right price!!!

Oh and i want to take Macro Shots and lanscapes/nature.

I asked for that
Right.. you're not going to get the all-singing-all-dancing camera that you want for that budget (I know - I had/have a similar budget!) - you can get one that gives you what you want for around that price as P*Heads suggestion has shown...Especially if you buy in the States!

Have you read the previously posted website - re: aperature/ISO/Shutter speeds?
At least, you have some idea on what you want: Focus on lens length,o "macro distance" on spec. sheets

Canon A520 looks decent -190E ~

Subliminal

Karoma wrote:

Canon A520 looks decent

Yes it does! Ive checked it out before and it seemed perfect, if only my credit card company would kindly clear my debt, id buy that right now!

I will call around a few camera shops and see if i can get a good price....it does seem to be a great all rounder.