Digital cameras

[Greedyfly]

Hi, I know absolutley nothing about cameras/digital cameras. I want to buy one for my sister for her birthday - she is nearly 16 and is going on holiday soon and wants one to take with her.   I want one for around �200-�250 and I just want the best I can get - as I know nothing I was hoping you guys could help.

http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/29_mju-mini_DIGITAL.ht m#

I have found this one which I like (its pretty, sis would love it) but is it good?, are there better for this price bracket? etc... thank you

[Phantaxus]

try pricerunner for a start

http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/photography/digital-cameras/browse?search=&a_711=&sort=7&a_705=&a_716=&a_700=&a_717=&a_712=&a_701=&a_3205=&price_max=250&a_713=&price_min=200&a_715=

[Phantaxus]

that list is sorted by the professional reviews category

[clarabel82]

I found this on pricerunner which is slightly better in specification than the one you chose http://www.cameradepot.co.uk/mall/productpage.cfm/Camera Depot/COMDIG%2D722/53911

[Mattk]

a 5megapixel camera for 217 quid ?

an amazing deal ! i bought mine only a year or so ago for roughly that amount but mine is only 3 megapixel !

[Ewood27]

Also have a look at http://www.unbeatable.co.uk/CatalogueItem_16209.html

 

There's an Olympus Mju-410 there for about the same price.  I have an older Mju-300 and am very pleased with it - and I have a fair amount of experience with cameras.  Get a bigger memory card as well,  The one they supply doesn't hold that many pictures.  It's easy enough to download them from the camera to a computer and re-use the card, but you don't want to spend your holiday e-mailing pictures to yourself from an Internet cafe!

[brachiopod]

I have a Mju-300 too - cost about �230 quid a year or so ago. I would 'buy it again' (or rather the Mju-410).

Many 'cheaper' cameras may have all the wizzy bits ( "X million pics, this function, that function etc) but are let down by a poor quality lens. So no matter how many super-dooper features your camera has, your photos are slightly blurry because of the lens.

For the same price, I would go for a "4 Mpixel with 4x optical zoom" camera by, say, Olympus, Nikon etc, rather than a "6 Mpixel with 10xdigital zoom" by 'Hokkaido Electronics' (made-up name) any day.

Incidentally, in case you were wondering, an 'optical zoom' is a true image with the lens magnifying the image as in a 'telephoto lens'. A 'digital zoom' just enlarges the pixels, and therefore loses image quality (to demonstrate this, select a tiny thumbnail image from a web-page, right-click, and click 'set as background'

[brachiopod]

I have a Mju-300 too - cost about �230 quid a year or so ago. I would 'buy it again' (or rather the Mju-410).

Many 'cheaper' cameras may have all the wizzy bits ( "X million pics, this function, that function etc) but are let down by a poor quality lens. So no matter how many super-dooper features your camera has, your photos are slightly blurry because of the lens.

For the same price, I would go for a "4 Mpixel with 4x optical zoom" camera by, say, Olympus, Nikon etc, rather than a "6 Mpixel with 10xdigital zoom" by 'Hokkaido Electronics' (made-up name) any day.

Incidentally, in case you were wondering, an 'optical zoom' is a true image with the lens magnifying the image as in a 'telephoto lens'. A 'digital zoom' just enlarges the pixels, and therefore loses image quality (to demonstrate this, select a tiny thumbnail image from a web-page, right-click, and click 'set as background'

- this

[brachiopod]

(woops, hadn't finished)

Anyway, your choice appears pretty sound. I haven't seen or used the Olympus mini-Mju, but have used quite a few other makes, and for quality of results for the same money, I would tend towards the brands renowned for cameras!

Cameras made by companies more famous for their electronics, also produce certain models that feature lenses by a renowned opticals manufacturer. These too, are worth investigating.

Don't forget to 'try before you buy' - go down to Trixons or Jessies and try a few out, see how they feel, check their ease of use etc. take some pictures in the shop and ask them to download them to a computer so you can see the quality of the results and help you decide the one you want. (You can always say "I'll have a think about it" and then go and find it cheaper on-line)

Best of luck, anyway. I'll sign off before I ramble on forever...

[SteveD]

Check this site for camera comparisons:

 

http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html

 

(No relation, by the way).

[ian.miller]

Personally I love the Nikon range, great lenses, great ease of use, ability to use AA batteries in a pickle without being bulk y and all at stunning prices.

I took a one on a round the world trip and was most impressed with results.

[Greedyfly]

Thanks guys

[trendypaul]

I have just bought an Olympus Mini Mju and it's great!  It takes good pictures and has all the features you could want.  The only downside is that it can be a bit bad at producing red eye when using the flash.  It looks cool and is really easy to use.  As previously stated the card that comes with it is quite small but if you set the picture size to smaller than the highest quality you can still get about 40 pictures out of the 16Mb card (try using 1024X600? resolution, I can't remember what the second number was but it will be obvious).  If you want a new card Amazon or Crucial.com have the 256Mb card for about �30 pounds which is about �50 cheaper than on the high street

[verrecchia]

I bought this one for my son last year, and its one of the best Digital compacts I have ever seen,  FUJIFILM FINEPIX S3500 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA 4.25 around �190, or the megapixels and a great lens, the next model up is the S5500 at about �280, you will not find anything that comes close to these two camera's for those prices. and with the big lenses.