Which camera?

[divegirl]

Hi, can anyone please recommend a decent but cheap digital camera? I get sooooo confused with zooms and mega thingy's!!!!! Are any of the ones on Ebay any good? Links would be much appreciated.

Lisa xxxx

[abstibus]

I have a Canon Ixus 70 and love it. Like you, I want something simple and easy to understand.
It has an optical viewfinder (I think that's what it's called) so that you can look through it and don't have to rely on the screen, particularly in bright sunshine. Lots of others don't have this.
Pictures are really sharp, it's very easy to upload them onto the computer, it's small and easily fits in a handbag or pocket.
I see Jessops are doing a deal at �143. I bought mine via Amazon in February and it was much more expensive; prices are coming down all the time.
Only thing is you should buy a memory card, maybe 2 gig, as the one with it holds practically nothing, and a case - Canon make one especially for it. Don't have a link, but you can start looking now.
Good hunting.

[wildwood]

Some basics cause there are far too many breeds to mention.

5 Megapixels will give you an image which can be printed out in A4 size at an excellent quality setting. Anything more is wasted for general photos.

Zooms are important. Digital zoom is useless - it just focuses on a small part of the image. Optical zoom however is very useful as that actually gives a clear photo of a distant object, within reason.

Most other camera features are confusing and not that important for general use. red eye, colour enhancing, cropping and resizing etc. is a lot easier when it is done with a basic computer program usually included on the camera's driver CD.

Be careful if you use Ebay for buying a camera. A lot of electronic stuff is send direct from China. There can be many dificulties with warranties etc.

[netibiza]

I bought a Vivitar from Argos in August, it cost �60 plus I bought a memory card. It is excellent and really slim, it has a rechargeable battery. Had no trouble whatsoever and the photos are ace. Comes with all accessories to download onto computer. My daughter on the other hand bought a Panasonic Lumix and it keeps sticking and she can't use it.

[tboo]

I bought a 7.0 megapixels camera called Technika from Tescos for less than �50, its really compact and will do quite a lot for a reasonably priced camera eg red eye reduction, different scene modes etc It has a large screen but no viewfinder , internal rechargeable battery and its really easy to download pictures onto your computer
Happy hunting and future snapping

[ACtheTROLL]

September Computer shopper
recommended the following cameras - all under �100
In the order they ranked
best
Fuji Finepix f20 - �99
best budget
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS60 - �85

also 5 star
Sony cyber shot DSC-W35 - �109
4 star
Canon Powershot A550 - �102
Nikon Coolpix L10 �66

but there are soooooo many
stick with "known" makes
nip down to supermarket and look at the what camera - digi photograper ..... see what they recommend

[plowter]

Don't buy electronics from eBay - you've got very few rights if something goes wrong.

Narrow down your search to a few brand names. Many consumer magazines offer product reviews of the latest models. Use high-street stores to check the look and feel. Use Amazon to double-check user reviews.

A useful review site is DP Review.

[goanlin222]

I have a Sony cyber-shot digital excellent camera mine is a 6 mega pixel but you can buy the 7 1/2 megapixel sony cyber-shot for �130 from pc world excellent buy as i paid �200 for mine.