Grow Your Own Magazine

My 6 year old camera is playing up, it's testing my patience ! For under £100, can you get a decent camera with decent picture quality? Having paid £300 odd for my old camera, can I expect similar picture quality for a camera under 100 (assuming technology have caught up) or should you still be lookng for under £150 price range.

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Food for Free

Try this site they usually have some good offers.
Digital camera, camera, digital dv camcorder and accessories - Jessops

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Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.
Brendan Behan

I paid a tad over £500 for mine (Nikon D50) but the quality?(Great)& comes with an editing programme.
The cheaper cameras have fewer pixels & you can't change the lenses( picture quality still OK)
But I hope Jessops site is of use.

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Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.
Brendan Behan

Depends what you call decent...
I take my photos for the Grapevine on a £70 Vivitar from Asda. Its fine for general purpose, not so hot on close-ups though

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~ "I would rather do a good hours work weeding than write two pages of my best; nothing is so interesting as weeding" ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I promise not to mention the rather excellent Search function again. Feel free to slap me if I do

Buy a 7 mpixel phone and camera...

Disagree with that no focusing, can't change the aperture,limited flash use(batteries go flat too quick)& no zoom.

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Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.
Brendan Behan

My Daughter has a Samsung I6 but you can get the newer one the NV3 for about £97 off Amazon.

Try your Local ASDA as ours has some really good point & press ones for around the £100 mark.

If you can stretch a bit further then some of the bridge camera's are good I've got a Fuji S9600 and it has a 10x fixed lens that covers up to 300mm roughly, and is very easy to use. That was about £200 but the S8500(?) is a lower pixel count but should be as good. and the beauty of the Fuji is it focuses down to about 1/2" in Macro mode !

I won't get rid of mine and carry it in the bag with the Canon DSLR ( and a Nikon P5100 )

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

The Canon A560 looks a cracking camera (at £96 from Amazon). It has a x4 optical zoom 35-140mm equivalent and decent macro (5cm). Also depending on whether you're bothered it has a viewfinder, lots now don't they use the rear lcd (I can't get on with that!). It takes 2 AA size batteries and has lots of shooting modes. I've been recently researching as I'm being bought a Canon A720IS for Christmas!

Canon UK - PowerShot A560

Canon Powershot A560 Review

Amazon.co.uk: Canon PowerShot A560 Digital Camera - Silver (7.1MP, 4x Optical Zoom) 2.5" LCD: Electronics & Photo

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Manda.

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower

Go retro ! Get an excellent old SLR for £25.

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http://www.greenlung.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/rolandfrompoland

Trouble film is more expensive a bad shot on film is a shot wasted a duff shot on digital.................delete.
No developing or printing costs with digital.
you can edit take bits out put things with digital.
slightly under/overexposed can be corrected with digital.
Some digital cameras come with an editing programme
Sorry but for certain circumstances film has had it's day.
Oh! by the way I'm a recent convert to digital (18 months)

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Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.
Brendan Behan

You can do monochrome & colour by using edit programme(& even sepia)
you can vary ASA setting so you can shoot in bad light & still use a fast shutter speed 1/4,000th sec on my camera.

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Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.
Brendan Behan

I said I'd never go digital, never stop using my Pentax SLR ... guess what?
I now don't have to wait to develop a film, don't have to pay for prints, don't waste any shots ...
However, for 'arty' or portraits, I'll still use the SLR.
Until I can afford a digital SLR

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~ "I would rather do a good hours work weeding than write two pages of my best; nothing is so interesting as weeding" ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I promise not to mention the rather excellent Search function again. Feel free to slap me if I do

Then save & afford it Two Sheds it's well worth it.

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Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.
Brendan Behan

And you can't post pictures on the vine with film

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Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.
Brendan Behan

I took 200+ shots today Two Sheds ...... I don't think I could afford the film !!!

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

What lens were you using Nick?

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Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.
Brendan Behan

Didn't know you were a twitcher, Nick?

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

A glass one Canon EF 100mm-400mm L IS


I'm not Snadger, I just like watching Birds/Wildlife ... I took this today as well

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

We seem to have come to the same conclusion narrowing down to Canon Powershot A760IS, around £20 more than I had originally budgetted for. It has more goodies than Canon IXUS 70 but I gather I can miss its compactness that you pay for. I heard that Canon does good quality lens if that's still applicable to their digital cameras .

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Food for Free

Quite a few of the compacts have really good little lenses Veg, Canon, Fuji, Panasonic, and Sony have good ones maybe not as good as an SLR but there again then are probably 1/5th of the price

The Powershot range are popular. Have a look and see if they take converters, some of them you can buy a converter that fits to the front of the lens to increase the magnification, that will give a little more flexibility.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

NTG,

My existing camera can take converters I think but my DH says they're very expensive accessories and besides I don't normally use camera at your skilled photography level (love your bird shots, excellent), I'm mostly point and shoot, I'm afraid .

Unrelated picture attached for testing only taken from my existing camera Canon G2. Hope it sticks!

Attached Thumbnails

 

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Food for Free

I'm in a similar position looking to get a new camera and the research I've done suggests the differences come down to the quality of the sensor. I think lenses on most cameras are now very good and more often than not the sensor is not up to the quality of the lens. Thats not to say the senor is no good just the lens is no longer the limiting factor. There are some excellent compacts with zoom if you up the budget by say £50 and shop from reputable online sellers. For instance Panasonic TZ3 (one I've been looking at) has 10x zoom plus other features.

I'm in a quandry though. My alternative option is a Nikon D40 DSLR. I recon I can get body and lens for £250 max which relatively speaking is very cheap. This has a lower mega pixel count than the panasonic but a much better sensor of DSLR quality and hence sharper pictures. Problem is its much bulkier than a compact. I also wonder if I'll ever really get into manually arranging shots thata DSLR allows. I think I'd like to but something in me knows 99% of pictures would be on auto mode. Is it worth the hassle of carrying it and extra expense???

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http://plot62.blogspot.com/

I used to have an OM10 SLR and the belief that I would one day take 'arty' photos. TBH in the end I never could be bothered with all the manual stuff but still looked 'down' on auto cameras.

When we got our first digital camera, a point & shoot, I found greater freedom in being able to take LOTS of photos and 'use' them immediately. On the whole the pictures we take are either for reminders of holidays or used in Powerpoint presentations and until recently our 1.3mp x3 optical zoom Olympus C960 has been all that we needed.

The Canon A720IS xmas pressie (to be) will replace the old camera, it has a x6 optical zoom (35-210mm) and 8mp (for when I want to print pictures to wallpaper the living room with!). A macro down to 1cm and lots of 'modes' and suchlike, oh it also takes movies! I would have preferred a 28m lens, but you can fit extra lens/adaptors on the Canon (but I imagine I never will). Oh and I wanted a camera with a viewfinder, old-fashioned I may be but I prefer to compose pictures that way - that really narrowed the £100(ish) p&s choices down

Last weekend there was a cash-back offer on Powershots and so with a 2-year warranty it will have cost £118! I looked at dslr's but decided I probably wouldn't ever use it out of auto mode! If I want to be 'arty' well then I can use Photoshop.

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Manda.

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower

I always buy Sony cybershot DSC P73's off ebay. They are dead easy to use including the software, fit into your pocket and you can get macro or convertor lenses that fit.

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http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Wednesday 11th February "Spring onions"

Do you throw them away when the memory stick is full? You make it sound like they are disposable

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

Can you help a friend raise money for British Heart Foundation please. He is climbing Machu Pichu later in the year and needs to make all the dosh he can for a good cause. www.justgiving.com/simonquinn2010

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

I would have thought that these days you can get manual modes on cheaper models like the Canon A570IS (sorry, my mistake not A760IS in earlier post) I'm looking at. On my G2 with all the manual goodies, I rarely did/do. It seems like you're always in a hurry because you were more worried about losing that rare pic opportunity e.g. your subject had moved away while you were busy fiddling with the settings ! Depends on what you're like but I'm too slow (& lazy of course ) and my pics in auto mode have been generally better than manual mode so I let the 'computer' do the work.

I don't know but I think I tend to take better picture using viewfinder than screen as I'm less likely to be lazy & unimaginative (and less battery usage is always handy).

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Food for Free

I was tempted to save money and go for the A570 rather than the A720, the zoom isn't too bad at 35-140mm and it has lots of 'bells and whistles'!

Canon UK - PowerShot A570 IS

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Manda.

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower

I would personally recommend a sony p100, I've had mine a couple of years now and literally just upgraded to a Canon 400D. The sony was reliable and pictures were fantastic (and I'm a techy). Good luck with the purchase.

Dave

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Good news! I still managed to get the A570IS for under £100 which means Amazon is not the cheapest but there is no change in price for the A720 model though.

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Food for Free

Just for anyone interested the Fuji Finepix F45fd has been reduced from £199 to £89 at argos until Tuesday 11th Dec.

A snip of a buy I would guess

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

Try Ebay. I bought 2 Olympus compacts, 1 for me and 1 for my 8 yr old son. 1 cost £17 (used- retails for £85) and my son's is an older model cost £21 (same as my wife has, which cost £79 on special from Boots, but seller left receipt in box and it had cost him £240 brand new!).
Postage was about £6.50 each, I know there's always an element of chance buying unseen as seller might not be 100% honest but there are bargains to be had.
Best read reviews of cameras you fancy- Canon, Olympus, Sony seem to be good and are popular so appear frequently, sometimes for bargain prices as people upgrade. I had a Ricoh capoli(?) which I wouldn't recommend.
Also try Adtrader.co.uk might get something local.

I have two expensive Canon cameras for work, but I'm tempted by Aldi's £59 Traveller camera (if they still have any) for when out and about with family. I think the quality of most digitals is pretty good these days.

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All at once I hear your voice
And time just slips away
Bonnie Rait

I saw a Hitachi camera advertised on telly last night for about £60 I think and it was about 8MP (only saw it fleetingly).

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A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/
Updated with more pleas for money

Yep, I've signed up for the London to Brighton Bike Ride
http://original.justgiving.com/HeyWayne

Practise makes us a little better, it doesn't make us perfect.

I bought an IMMACULATE Fuji Finepix F420 plus docking station and all accesories for £45 on ebay. It's only 3.5MPxls but super photos and a nice strong all aluminium case.

New all in list: £160.

My family only buy their digital stuff from ukdigitalcamera website, they are fantastic and do good deals and very helpful