Model Boat Mayhem

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length.
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA  (Read 5346 times)

Roger in France

  • Guest
BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« on: July 25, 2007, 06:30:17 am »

I have owned an Olympus MJU 400 for several years and like it very much. However, as I am about to visit the Caribbean to see our first grandson I want to ensure I capture some great photos. and the camera does not let me down. My wife also wants her own camera. So, I am in the market for another camera.

As so many of you on here appear to be dab hands at taking photographs I thought I would ask for your recommendations.

My specifications are:

Compact
Uses XD Memory Cards (I have many of them!).
As large a screen as possible.
Control buttons not too small (my wife has deformed, arthritic fingers).
Not too complex as I am just a "point and shoot" photographer.
Quick start up (the MUJ 400 is very slow and you easily miss that special moment).
Price range up to 300€.

All advice will be much appreciated.

Roger in France.
Logged

kendalboatsman

  • Guest
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2007, 07:09:17 am »

Hello Roger,

The wife and I both own a Fuji S5600 compact slr style camera each, they  use XD cards and are easy to use. Must be if the wife uses it ;D as she doesn't do gadgety things and that is her quote.

You might need to shop around for one as it is last years model. General opinion amongst users of this camera is the S5700 that replaces it isn't as good features wise and it uses a SD card now.

Anything from Nikon is usually a good bet, out last camera was a HP but it does have limitations in certain photos especially macros.

Clive :)

Logged

DickyD

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 9,423
  • www.srcmbc.org.uk
  • Location: Southampton UK
    • SRCMBC
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2007, 08:56:19 am »

Hi Roger
I' ll go with Clive on this. I too have a Fuji S5600 with a 10x optical zoom and uses the XD cards.
I use it as a point and click but the other half uses the gizmoes and takes some wonderful photos.
Logged
Richard Solent Radio Controlled Model Boat Club http://www.srcmbc.org.uk

tolnedra

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 253
  • Location: North Dorset
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2007, 09:20:57 am »

Hi Roger

Check out the Ricoh Caplio range. I was recommended these cameras by a professional photographer friend of mine, and purchased R4 last year, and have been very pleased with it. After many years with 35mm SLRs (I still have a Minolta) my Ricoh goes everywhere with me now

Good luck in your search!

Danny
Logged

HS93 (RIP)

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2,922
  • I cannot spell , tough
  • Location: Rainhill UK
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #4 on: July 25, 2007, 09:30:57 am »

Roger what size xd cards have you got , the reason for this is that I too have a fuji camera and have just renewed it for a e900 compact Fuji because of the xd cards but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, most of my cards where about 128 mb cost about £ 2 29+vat and a 2 gb at about £21 its not worth limiting your choice ,because some of the other card formats are a lot cheaper even Sony are cheap if you look about . I know its hard to think If like me you paid a fortune for cards if you put a 128 or 256 in a 9mb camera you only get about 15 or 30 shots ( i don't know about anyone else but mine is always set to max) because you cannot go back and take that good one again. another thing to think about is some new compacts take screw on lenses ,mine came with a long telephoto and a very wide one  that you can add on when req and it still fits in the missus bag.

Peter
Logged

Bunkerbarge

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2,510
  • Location: Halifax, UK
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2007, 09:52:17 am »

I have been very happy with my new Olympus Stylus 770 SW.

It uses xd cards but, as quite correctly pointed out, this shouldn't be a reason for choosing a camera as memory is so cheap nowadays. The first thing I did was to buy a 1 gb card for it which gives me about 290 shots at max resolution so I can forget about storage and cost me about 50 bucks.

It is also waterproof to 10 feet, shockproof from a 5 foot drop, iceproof (?) and 7.1 MP, nice big screen etc.
I like it because it is a nice quality feel with a stainless steel body and the buttons all stand proud on the rear.  The typical circular navigating control may prove to be a challenge though to arthritic fingers but you are going to find that on a large number of camera's nowadays.

Picture quality is excellent as long as you take it out of fully automatic and prevent the thing from choosing it's own ISO number.  High ISO's get a bit grainy in the shadows but you can use the program mode, set the ISO to what you want and then let the camera do the rest for you.
Logged
"Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, Butting through the Channel in the mad March days"

wombat

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 625
  • The view from the shallow end of the gene pool
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2007, 10:25:14 am »

SWMBO had an IXUS-750 - very good for general snapping, though I think it has been replaced by the 900 now.

One thing that we felt important on the specs is an optical viewfinder, rather than relying on the LCD - much easier especially in bright sunshine when the displays tend to wash-out.
Logged
The prat in the hat - www.floatingwombat.me.uk - Have look & say Hi

HS93 (RIP)

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2,922
  • I cannot spell , tough
  • Location: Rainhill UK
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2007, 12:16:55 pm »

  There is a simple test I would do before buying any new camera . That is to set it on max dpi and take some pictures of moving objects , as well as in poor light . one of the first digital camera I bought a fuji S304  was hopeless at taking pictures of moving models as the first few times I ended up with pictures of wash or the last six inches as it was that slow between pressing the button and the picture being taken ,even in sport mode. But the Makro on the camera is very good and will work in low light.

Peter
Logged

Captain Povey

  • Guest
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2007, 12:47:18 pm »

Hi Roger, I have got a Nikon Coolpix that has a macro facility, great for model close ups etc but lacks a view finder and I agree with Womabat that this is important in bright sunlight so my wife swears by her Canon Ixus 50. This is a general all rounder but still has all the gizmos and came with a printer so she does not have to bother with the computer. Worth a look for the price and simplicity if nothing else. Cheers Graham. :)
Logged

tobyker

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,311
  • Location: Scotland - West Coast
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2007, 09:02:38 pm »

I've also got the Fuji 6500 - the casio Exilim P600 which I've had for a while is an  excellent camera but the 10x zoom on the Fuji lets you frame every shot and get close up to the grandkids withiout putting them off. Amazon were doing some great prices on them and i got a 1G card with it for about a fiver which gives me 800 shots at 5.1 Mps. It also seems to do a lot of awfully clever things. I used the low-light button and got some very good pictures of the burning Wickerman last week. One thing I really like about it is that you can switch fron screen to viewfinder, so its easy to track moving things, and the picture you get in the viewfinder is the digital one, not optical. So you can see exactly what you are going to get with no parallax problems on the zoom.
Logged

Peter Fitness

  • Global Moderator
  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7,376
  • Location: Wyrallah, near Lismore NSW Australia
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #10 on: August 04, 2007, 03:14:02 am »

Roger, I have just bought an Olympus Mju 780, to complement the Olympus C50 my wife has had for over 4 years. I too wanted to be able to use the xD cards we already had. We have just returned from a trip to Melbourne where I gave the 780 its first real work out, and I was very happy - 7.1 megapixels, 5x optical zoom, and on SHQ with a 2mb card, over 1100 photos. The quality of the photos, to my mind, was excellent. We are very satisfied with it.
Peter.
Logged

Roger in France

  • Guest
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #11 on: August 04, 2007, 06:46:20 am »

Thanks for all the advice from Forum Members.

Peter, I too settled for the Olympus Muj 780 and I am very pleased. I find the internal memory (without XD Card) a bonus and the speed of operation is great. The LCD screen is good and the size and weight quite amazing. I got the camera (in black); charger; leather case; spare battery and 1gb XD Card for just under 400€ delivered.

In September my wife and I are off to Dominica (NOT the Dom. Rep.) to see our new grandson. On the island they build small fishing boats by digging/burning out a large log and then raising the sides with planks. I will "exercise" the new camera and post some pics. on the Forum.

Once again, thanks to all.

Roger in France.
Logged

Peter Fitness

  • Global Moderator
  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7,376
  • Location: Wyrallah, near Lismore NSW Australia
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #12 on: August 05, 2007, 12:43:43 am »

Thanks for all the advice from Forum Members.

Peter, I too settled for the Olympus Muj 780 and I am very pleased. I find the internal memory (without XD Card) a bonus and the speed of operation is great. The LCD screen is good and the size and weight quite amazing. I got the camera (in black); charger; leather case; spare battery and 1gb XD Card for just under 400€ delivered.

In September my wife and I are off to Dominica (NOT the Dom. Rep.) to see our new grandson. On the island they build small fishing boats by digging/burning out a large log and then raising the sides with planks. I will "exercise" the new camera and post some pics. on the Forum.

Once again, thanks to all.

Roger in France.
Roger, glad you like the Mju780. As I said, I am very pleased with ours and like you, find the size and weight, or rather lack of both, excellent. It fits easily in my pocket, and is quick to start up, unlike the old C50. BTW, the card is a 2gb, not 2mb, a slip of the keyboard. Ours cost under $450 Australian, about 290 Euros, with soft, not leather case, charger, spare battery and 2 x 2gb xD cards. We bought online, and saved well over $150, even allowing for postage. The RRP of the camera alone is AU$499, and the cards retail for about AU$50 each, so we did well. Some of my first shots were taken of shipping in the port of Melbourne, on our trip there last week, including some of the ocean going tug "Keera", which featured prominently in the salvage of a bulk carrier, "Pasha Bulker", which was blown aground on a Newcastle NSW beach some weeks ago, during a violent storm. It was eventually refloated, and has since been towed to SE Asia for repairs.
Peter.
Logged

Roger in France

  • Guest
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #13 on: August 18, 2007, 07:04:10 am »

Just an update on using the Muj 780.....

Find it excellent to use and that it gives good quality results.

However, I must say that the lack of a view finder is a minus point because in bright sun the LCD is difficult to see. I know somebody on the Forum mentioned "get a camera with a view finder" for that reason but I did not realise how poor the screen alone would be.

Roger in France.
Logged

Captain Povey

  • Guest
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #14 on: August 18, 2007, 09:14:25 am »

Hi Roger, The only thing I can say about not having a view finder is that with practice it seems to get easier to see what you are getting on the screen. Cheers Graham
Logged

Colin Bishop

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 12,171
  • Location: SW Surrey, UK
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #15 on: August 18, 2007, 09:27:09 am »

Roger, you can buy third party "hoods" which attach to the back of the camera and fold out to shade the screen to improve viewing. Have a look here: http://www.jessops.com/Store/c537/1-132-496-537/Home/Accessories/Digital-Accessories/LCD-Screen--and--Viewfinder-Accessories/details.aspx

You can also ramp up the screen brightness through the menu system but it does knock the battery life down.
Logged

Roger in France

  • Guest
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #16 on: August 18, 2007, 05:38:58 pm »

Thanks guys. I tried shading the screen with my hand and with a card but it seemed to make little difference.

I will try enhancing the brightness and explore hoods.

I used the camera recently to shoot boating shots in St. Nazaire. I am quite pleased how they came out. As it was such a bright, hot day I could see next to nothing on the LCD screen so I just pointed the camera and hoped. I will leave you all to judge if the photos. are any good when I eventually get around to captioning them and sending them to Martin for publication on the Forum.

Roger in France.
Logged

Colin Bishop

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 12,171
  • Location: SW Surrey, UK
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #17 on: August 18, 2007, 05:55:13 pm »

Roger, try making up a test hood from card as shown in the illustrations and paint it matt black inside. Then you can judge whether it's worth buying a folding one. These days screens are quite bright so you may find that adjusting this will help. I have a viewfinder and a screen on my small digi camera but I find I don't usually need to use the viewfinder very often. However, the fact that these hoods are commonly available does suggest that a lot of people have the same problem as yourself.
Logged

dougal99

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3,326
  • Huntingdon, Cambs, England
  • Location: Huntingdon, England
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #18 on: August 18, 2007, 06:12:20 pm »

I use the viewfinder all the time. The screen is unusable, for me, in anything but twilight plus I find framing the picture difficult.

I use a Kodak Z740 - great for taking piccies of model boats as it has a 10x optical zoom.

cheers Doug
Logged
Don't Assume Check

Peter Fitness

  • Global Moderator
  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7,376
  • Location: Wyrallah, near Lismore NSW Australia
Re: BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA
« Reply #19 on: August 19, 2007, 12:47:00 am »

Roger, I agree with you about the lack of a viewfinder on the Mju 780, particularly in strong light. However, I find that I am able to see enough to successfully frame the shots I am taking, and in fact yesterday I took the camera with me on my morning walk along our local beach, and managed some good shots, despite the LCD being hard to see. I was able to see enough of the scene in the screen to enable me to get the shot I wanted. It is not ideal, but I manage - a viewfinder would have been much better. I notice that many compact cameras currently on the market do not have viewfinders.
Peter.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.089 seconds with 22 queries.