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rosie

Digital camera recommendations, please

By rosie, in The Nesting Box

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rosie Chicken Eggspert

rosie

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My 18 year old daughter is off to work at a ski holiday resort in the French Alps in a few weeks. She has asked for a camera to take with her. She needs something not too complicated, light weight and not too expensive-in case it gets lost or dropped. Has anyone any ideas or recommendations? At the moment I'm looking at a Samsung ES55 which is about £65 on ebuyer. Any ideas, anyone?

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docsquid Chatty Chicken

docsquid

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If you can, then go with anything from the Panasonic Lumix range. They are excellent cameras because for most of the range the optics are by Leica. They are a bit more expensive starting just over £100 but they are absolutely top notch quality.

 

I produced a photographic calendar this year and although most of the pictures were with my Canon SLR, there were a couple in there using my Lumix compact camera and it wasn't possible to tell which were which! They are very easy to use as well.

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docsquid Chatty Chicken

docsquid

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FUJI Finepix S1500, excellent camera.

 

It may be a good camera BUT it is much too big to carry on a ski trip. I would say go for something you can slip into your pocket, and even take moving video on while you are skiing, that's why I recommended the Panasonic, but there are other makes that do super compact cameras. However the super-compacts tend to have relatively poor lenses compared to the Finepix S1500 and similar. The Panasonics have Leica Lumix lenses and are therefore at the very top end in terms of optics in this category. It is worth getting good optics when trying to take photos of snow, because aberrations will really show in this environment, more than in any other.

 

I would NOT go for a Nikon coolpix - they are very slow at storing images and very bad at "purple fringe" effect on the photos.

 

Anything by Canon will also be good.

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docsquid Chatty Chicken

docsquid

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Does anybody know a model with a viewfinder?

 

You can either have a relatively large camera with a viewfinder, or a compact one without. The "viewfinders" are all small digital screens and therefore of relatively low quality compared to the larger screens on the back. They are not optical viewfinders. The only cameras with true optical viewfinders are the much larger SLR cameras.

 

It really isn't difficult to do without the viewfinder once you get used to it, and you get a much better idea of what the shot will look like by using the screen.

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laurmurf Chatty Chicken

laurmurf

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i would support Panasonic Lumix choice: hellymisscloud is doing a photography A level and she wanted excellent quality but very little. OH is an aerial photographer and he recommended it as the best she could get (and he loves the lens too!). she takes it everywhere with her as it's so dinky (definitely pocket sized). She's got the Lumix DMC FS5

 

I'm with you OSH, I can't cope without a viewfinder, so I've got a bulkier Canon Powershot A710.

 

edited to say:

just spoke to OH: he found this on ebay, I didn't know that Argos sells their clearance items through ebay now and they have this wee camera for sale there for £80 (it's £119 on amazon)

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330324958004&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

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bluekarin Golden Egg

bluekarin

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FUJI Finepix S1500, excellent camera.

I would NOT go for a Nikon coolpix - they are very slow at storing images and very bad at "purple fringe" effect on the photos.

 

I agree do not go for a Nikon coolpix. I have the 3700 and am very disappointed with the settings and can rarely get a good photo. I use the one we got for our son a couple of Christmases ago. Its a Kodak and was around £50 but has a children's setting on it which means you can take clear photos of kids even when they are moving.

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bluekarin Golden Egg

bluekarin

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i would support Panasonic Lumix choice: hellymisscloud is doing a photography A level and she wanted excellent quality but very little. OH is an aerial photographer and he recommended it as the best she could get (and he loves the lens too!). she takes it everywhere with her as it's so dinky (definitely pocket sized). She's got the Lumix DMC FS5

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Is it anything like this one? Oh, and thank you for the link to the Argos clearance ebay shop. I didn't know that either! Another one to add to fave sellers :D

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PurpleTree Chatty Chicken

PurpleTree

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We've got a Pentax Optio S30, it's a lovely little camera, we bought it about 4 and a half years ago, and it's still going strong. It's also got a viewfinder aswell as the screen. Unfortunately you can't buy the exact model anymore, but my grampy's just bought the newer version, and he's getting on fine with it. Only obvious difference is that it no longer has the view finder.

 

Oh and it's small enough to fit in my pocket :D

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