OT: What digital cameras do you guys use ..

[T i m]

.. for photographing your diy work of course (

[Chris Hodges]

I've got a canon ixus 55 compact, and a canon 350d dSLR. In general I find the canons to be more intuitive and quicker to start up than fujis, though most olympuses I've seen have been pretty good (used to have a camedia but I've forgotten the model).

My wife's old fuji didn't get on with NiMH rechargeables, but the one in work does, and there may be a mains adaptor available for indoor use.

Have you consider going for a 2nd hand dSLR (eg canon 300d)?

Chris

[John Cartmell]

I have the earlier version and find it excellent*. Its 4xAA batteries last for days (and days) of fairly intensive shooting - though I don't use the screen for taking photographs.

*used for personal snaps, magazine work, wildlife photography, studio 'product display' work.

[Lobster]

Not making any recommendations per se, other than if I was buying one now I reckon my overriding concern would be for absolutely minimum lag on the shutter release button. I can't begin to count the number of immaculately framed, perfectly lit shots I have taken, but with crappy content because the subject was long gone by the time the picture was taken...

David

[T i m]

Ok, thanks ...

Another thing going for the DSC-F707 is the battery life, but against it the (expensive and for this model restricted capacity) memory stick (especially as we have some biggish xD cards already)?

Well, I had, but 'second hand' and 'camera' aren't words I am normally comfortable with in the same sentence. This Sony has come from a known source and we could play with it before buying so that's no quite so risky. Buying a second hand camera off the net (eg eBay) could end in tears. It could also be perfectly fine, the problem is I don't have the money to gamble with.

I'd even go as far as to be willing to pay say 20 quid (on a £180 camera) more to buy it new in my local camera shop (rather than order it new over the net), knowing that my purchase would be 'safe' for a year at least and I could just walk back into the shop with it if I had problems.

My Dad was talking about disposing of his entire studio, anyone getting any of that would have stuff that you couldn't tell had ever been used so I know it can work .. (not that not using stuff can be good for it either ..) ;-(

If someone was willing to offer me something suitable on a 'try-before-you-buy' sorta deal (and at the right price etc) I would consider it though .. ;-)

All the best .. and thanks Chris ..

T i m

[T i m]

Ok, good news then. Tho I have fallen for 'this is the same as the last model' and it's completely different (and a lemon) ? ;-( (not suggesting this is the case here John).

Especially good news. Both the life span and the AA thing (I have them in everything and by the bucket load) :-)

I think that is the killer on her little F420. Not sure if you can disable the screen and just stick with the optical viewfinder (I think the LCD reverts to 'on' on each power up). And being a 'viewfinder' rather than duplicate image on a tiny eyepiece mounted LCD, you are never sure how the framing went till you turn the LCD on to .. doh!

Yup, probably a similar role I see (hope) it being put to with my daughter.

Question then John, if you were to 'upgrade', is there anything on yer wish list ..?

All the best ..

T i m

[T i m]

Ok, thanks for that .. not sure if this helps .. . Also not sure how much 'action' work she's likely to do but it's good to have something fast in any case ..

I can't begin to count the number of

LOL. I know what you mean .. frustrating eh! Yeah, now you mention it, that must be why all my pictures are crappy! ;-)

All the best and thanks David ..

T i m

[Eric The Viking]

I've got a Canon Ixus 50 which I like.

The main thing for me was its size - dead easy to slip into your jeans or shirt pocket. My old Cybershot was too bulky and I hardly used it as it had to be 'carried' around.

Has a 3x optical zoom and the Macro is good for close up work. Has a decent LCD screen and an optical viewfinder.

Comes with a rechargable battery that gives a fair amount of usage between charges.

Controls are easy to use but there are plenty of options and settings if you're into that sort of thing.

Expansys are doing them for around £170.

-- ETV

[PeTe33]

I have the Ixus 400 (going on 3 years now) I love mine a huge amount still!

That's why I went for it. features are pointless if you don't ever have the thing handy.

I found having a 2nd battery invaluable though even though re-charge is less than an hour, a 2nd one ready charged covers those un-expected "red battery of death" type moments.

Yup. Never used more than about 10% of available features as it handles most things fantastically on default.

And I got a good deal at the time from Amazon.... Best part of £400 ! Shan't be "upgrading" it for a very long time as it's still fantastic.

[Alan]

In message , T i m wrote

One thing you may want to consider is the ability to have uncompressed data (raw images). For these you need to consider 1/2/4Gbyte + cards.

Why should you need a repair department?

See the 'Our Reviews' section at

It's a 10 page review of the camera

[Alan]

In message , Alan wrote

See also

For other camera reviews

[Stuart Noble]

I spent ages frigging about trying to decide on a camera for 7 x 5 prints. Ended up with the Minolta XG which is very fast, has an internal optical zoom, and a battery I hardly ever need to charge. Very cleverly designed little camera for £70.

[T i m]

Well, if (say) you get your DX5 knocked out of your hand by mistake ;-( The insurance paid for the repair and it was fine for a while then started doing strange things. I sent it back and they 'upgraded' it to a DX7 (foc). That developed a similar fault after a few months and they upgraded that to a DX10 (again foc). When that died a couple of years later (pretty heavy use, regularly carried on cycles / motorbikes / camping etc) and they couldn't repair / replace it they let me have an F420 for half price (and it was a brand new model at the time, that day in fact!). Now this all came from a 640 x 480 digicam that took SmartMedia, 4 x AA, had no TFT but produced remarkable pictures at the time, even against cameras costing 3 x the money (it was £275 and editors choice Digital Camera or summat) ;-)

No arguments or aggro .. nice feeling ;-)

Don't think it's on there Alan ;-(

Yeah I found that and believe they are similar (5200 / 5600) but is it the same (guts / firmware / lens wise)?

All the best ..

T i m

[T i m]

Again, I think I saw *an* Ixus when I was looking myself and ended up with the Fuji F420 ..

think it was sub 200 when I bought it and apart from the battery issue has been brilliant. And talking of batteries that was one of the big issues re most of these compact cameras .. they take an expensive special rechargeable battery, no good on a cycle camping holiday. The F420 takes a Fuji battery (made from two AAA's stuck back to back) so will also take loose AAA's, rechargeable or primary.

This is pretty small but still feels solid.

I have used Macro mode quite a bit for eBay bits and it's pretty good .. as long as you get the light / position ok ..

Ah, that's where it wins over the 420 then. Mind you, you can buy AAA Duracells everywhere (even in the various souvenir shops at the Zoo, top of the mountain, top of the mineshaft etc etc) ;-)

I don't mind 'some' extra functions but am generally a 'reference shot' engineering type ;-) Like when I disassemble something I take shots as i do so. Might not need them but .. ;-)

Seems pretty good spec for the price .. mind you, all this stuff seems to be getting cheaper by the day ...

All the best .. and thanks for your feedback ..

T i m

[Guy King]

The message from Stuart Noble contains these words:

Did you know Minolta have just withdrawn from the photographic market?

[T i m]

A rare digital beast indeed! ;-)

Bargain! I think Minolta have been taken over by Sony?

the best ..

T i m

[John Cartmell]

My son-in-law has the S5600 and I think it's very similar to mine.

I have a couple of sets of rechargeables and carry a set of non-rechargeables with me. I've only once had to change batteries during a 'shoot' - and I certainly don't remember to put in a new/recharged set every day!

I have mine set for eyepiece for taking photos and screen for displaying shots.

My daughter's Konica Minolta A2. ;-)

[John Rumm]

I use an old Nikon E950 - one of those with the articulation in the centre so that the bit of the body with the LCD can rotate against the bit with the lense in. Not very high resolution by todays standards, but solidly built (like most Nikons, it has a magnesium alloy body), and very good for getting shots from odd positions and angles. You can get these on ebay for £50 these days. The higher res 4500 however is still quite sought after since it is the ideal digiscoping camera.

Not a particular recommendation (but may as well mention anyway), another couple of cameras I have had lots of dealing with is the Canon Powershot S60 and S70. We have bought quite a few for some clients (Estate agents). These are notable since they are one of the very few cameras that have a decent wide angle capability out of the box (the equivilent of a 28mm lense on a SLR - most compact digitals only go to about 35mm)

FiL used to use a Fuji digital (6900 IIRC) before moving to a Canon dSLR), seemed ok, but left quite a bit of chromatic noise in the pictures - especially shadow areas (this is a common failing of CCD sensors, but seemed worse on the Fuji)

I think you need to break down the requirements to specifications related to cameras first... i.e. range of focal lengths needed, do you need add on lenses? Low light capability, Macro mode, variable sensitivity settings (i.e. ASA/ISO settings), exposure compensation, battery life, full manual mode etc and decide which are the important ones.

[Warwick]

Personally I have an Olympus E300. Nice and well above your budget (I=20 couldn't afford it myself but it was a reward for getting a huge project=20 in on time and under budget).

The more glass on the front the better. Manual settings for everything a=20 must. Something as close to a dSLR as possible then.

That's pretty close.=20

There's a huge review site at=20

We have had Fuji cameras (so have 128/256M xD cards we can use) since

The newer ones are coming with much better battery life. My E300 has an=20 LCD which displays all of the current settings and gives playback of=20 pictures taken (no preview since the E550 is the only one that can=20 currently do that). Even with a motor moving a mirror and an actual=20 shutter along with the LCD, I'm getting months of use between charges.=20 Given that I only stick about 10% of the pictures I take on my website=20 and there are 225 on there for this year so far I'm pretty happy with=20 battery life.

If I were you I would reconsider the idea of a second hand Canon 300D.=20 It'd get you straight into SLR territory. They don't go wrong easily and=20 the basic lens that they come with is pretty cheap to replace if someone=20 has banged the optics around.=20

=20

Originally when my boss told me to pick a camera he offered 3=20 suggestions and didn't tell me what the camera was to be used for. He=20 wanted to pick my brains without letting on. I got obstinate because it=20 all depended on wht the person wanting a camera would be using it for. I=20 downright refused to recommend any of the options. Then he told me. I=20 decided that the highest resolution SLR body was optimal so that I could=20 upgrade the optics and opted for the camera I got. Going straight to SLR=20 has meant a much better performing camera.=20

If you can't, then the best optics you can get on something that doesn't=20 lag to hell and back.

Warwick

[Chris Bacon]

Have you posted to uk.food+drink.misc? Austin.autos? Uk.telecom.voip? Uk.legal? Why not?? I bet some "guys (n gals) are into everything" on those groups. Perhaps you should try *news.newusers.questions*. Of course, the group rec.outdoors.fishing.saltwater *does* contain an appropriate string. I direct you to it.