Digi camera advice

[Wilza]

Hi, im after a good digi camera for my girlfriend for christmas,does anyone recommend a good one! I've got a Fuji Finepix myself but it's a brick so she keeps saying! i've been looking at the Canon IXUS 950 which looks good.Any ideas

[monkey nuts]

im not a camara boff ,but iv always used a sony cyber shot and its lasted for 5 years so far in salt,rain, sun and the heat when abroad(50c in eygpt last year)basicaly treated like poo
mine is 4.1 mega pixels and not much bigger than a mobile phone, so im sure the is a newer and better one now, might be worth a look

good luck john

[BaggieRich]

Can't really voucher for the quality as I haven't used it much yet, but I just bought a Kodak C613 6.2MP for £45 at Tescos.

Seems okay so far.

[Omahayank]

It's ALL personal pref... this is what I like.

As high of MP as you can find/afford!
As high of OPTICAL zoom as you can find/afford.
Image stabilization is NICE, but it gobbles up battery charge.
So does looking at your pix on the camera's little screen!
The longest of battery life as you can find... If you'll always have access to electricity, (AND remember your charger) any style battery's OK
(I Strongly recomend a Lithium-Ion battery-no charger memory)
If you'll be away from the modern world, standard batteries might be a better choice...AAA or AA.
Any camera will gobble up std. bats so bring Lots !!!

[Portland Pirate]

Originally Posted by Omahayank

It's ALL personal pref... this is what I like.

As high of MP as you can find/afford!
As high of OPTICAL zoom as you can find/afford.

I don't agree with Omahayank on as high an MP as you can find/afford. High MP is totally over rated. What you need is a good optical lens, such as a Carl Ziess, which can now be found on many digi cameras. Fuji and Canon are both excellent cameras. I had a Canon Ixus and even at only 3MP the picture quality was far better than that of the likes of a 7MP Samsung.

[tonybolton]

Originally Posted by Portland Pirate

What you need is a good optical lens, such as a Carl Ziess, which can now be found on many digi cameras. Fuji and Canon are both excellent cameras. I had a Canon Ixus and even at only 3MP the picture quality was far better than that of the likes of a 7MP Samsung.

Agree 1000% percent, you cannot go wrong if you pick up anything that has a Carl Zeiss lens, I used to use a Sony with a Zeiss lens and it was impossible to take a bad picture with it. Be careful with high digital zoom as the picture quality becomes questionable, best to go for optical zoom as all the work is done through the lens rather than by blowing up pixels. As for megapixel quality once you go past about 5 meg, the increases in MPixels is largely done by the processor in the device again by screwing about with the pixels.

So basically . . .

Carl Zeiss lens
3-5MP
4x or more Optical Zoom
Digital Zoom (wouldn't worry about it)
Check the battery life as the lower end camera's tend to die very quickly.

[Wilza]

Thanks for the info guys, I'm thinking of going for a sony cybershot with 7.2 mp, my fiji is 7.7 mp and that gives good picures. prob gonna spend £100/150 on one.

[Banana Steve]

Now what is wrong with the cheap 24 shot woolworth camera for £5.99 or for the extra quid 36 pics.

[Wilza]

[Omahayank]

Originally Posted by Banana Steve

Now what is wrong with the cheap 24 shot woolworth camera for £5.99 or for the extra quid 36 pics.

Woolworth??? Really?? We don't have them here, anymore.....They went from Woolworth to Woolco to belly-up. Is it still mostly a pharmacy type store?

Besides a digi give instant gratification and 100's if not 1000's of pix.