Recommend a digital camera in the following price ranges.

[exosculate]

1) Under £400

2) £400 - £600

3) £600 - £800


Basically I'd like people to express opinions on what they feel are the best all round cameras in each price notch.

Then I want to compare them and work out which camera I should buy.

With Thanks

 

[alef]

Surely you need some constraints or preferences? Different types of photography require different priorities.

Does having a useable built in flash matter to you? Range of zoom vs speed of lens? Lots of features vs simple and solid? Etc...

 

[editor]

1) Under £400

2) £400 - £600

3) £600 - £800


Basically I'd like people to express opinions on what they feel are the best all round cameras in each price notch.

You're going to have to help us out a bit here!

What are you going to be using the camera for, is a long zoom lens important, do you need wideangle capability, external flash, long battery life, compact size, sports capability etc etc

But, off the top of my head:
1) Under £400
Sony V3 (£340)

2) £400 - £600
Olympus E-300 Digital SLR (£600)

3) £600 - £800
Nikon D70 18-70mm

 

[General Ludd]

Nikon D70 with the 18-70mm lenses for your 3rd price category. Don't know about the other 2.

 

[jeff_leigh]

you could probably find the Canon EOS 300D ( body only) in the £400 - £600 bracket if you googled around

 

[exosculate]

Surely you need some constraints or preferences? Different types of photography require different priorities.

Does having a useable built in flash matter to you? Range of zoom vs speed of lens? Lots of features vs simple and solid? Etc...

You're going to have to help us out a bit here!

I suppose I meant considered good in an all round sense as a leader overall in its price bracket.

Things that spring to mind that I would like to see though would include :


1) As short a delay as possible from pressing button until shot taken.
2) A camera that deals well with white balance issues
3) A camera that charges such that the camera has a good use cycle between one charge and the next
4) A camera that uses compact flash
5) 5+ magapixels, I'd like to print to A3 size - not sure how much megapixel is needed for that.
6) Night shooting capability would be a plus too.
7) Potential for different types of lens use would also be good.

 

[exosculate]

Nikon D70 with the 18-70mm lenses for your 3rd price category. Don't know about the other 2.

I've heard this camera mentioned alot, is it best in its price range? I looked up the review on 'digital camera review' and it looked good, but I'm not sure how it compares to others at similar price.

 

[exosculate]

you could probably find the Canon EOS 300D ( body only) in the £400 - £600 bracket if you googled around

I do like Canons, I've heard this mentioned before too, any ideas on what its real competition is?

 

[alef]

5) 5+ magapixels, I'd like to print to A3 size - not sure how much megapixel is needed for that.

Feel like having a go at the maths...

A3 is 420mm x 297mm

If you want a 300dpi then that's 11.8 dots/mm (1inch=25.4mm), so for A3 you need about 5000 x 3500 pixels = 17.5 megapixels.

But you're going to have margins and can often get away with 200dpi. So say you're happy with 400mm x 270mm --> 3150 x 2100 pixels = 6.6 megapixels.

Rough conclusion: 5 megapixels will start to look a bit jagged up close for some diagonal lines but you can probably just about get away with it a lot of the time. Seem to remember that Senior Editor has a webpage with a chart for these.

 

[editor]

Seem to remember that Senior Editor has a webpage with a chart for these.

Indeed I do: http://www.urban75.org/photos/print.html

 

[exosculate]

Indeed I do: http://www.urban75.org/photos/print.html

That is an excellent chart. Thanks alef and editor both.

 

[exosculate]

Feel like having a go at the maths...

A3 is 420mm x 297mm

If you want a 300dpi then that's 11.8 dots/mm (1inch=25.4mm), so for A3 you need about 5000 x 3500 pixels = 17.5 megapixels.

But you're going to have margins and can often get away with 200dpi. So say you're happy with 400mm x 270mm --> 3150 x 2100 pixels = 6.6 megapixels.

Rough conclusion: 5 megapixels will start to look a bit jagged up close for some diagonal lines but you can probably just about get away with it a lot of the time. Seem to remember that Senior Editor has a webpage with a chart for these.

Thanks alef, have you ever done an A3 print from a digital image?

 

[alef]

Thanks alef, have you ever done an A3 print from a digital image?

Nope, only got an A4 printer. Just about happy with prints from 3 megapixels with no cropping, but it's really pushing it. If you resize in photoshop you can cheat the resolution to looking a bit blurred rather than jagged.

A3 is twice the area so need twice the pixels.

(Geek alert: the ratio of the sides of A4, A3, etc is exactly 1 to the squareroot of 2, approx 1:1.41!)

 

[spyda]

300d price drops

you could probably find the Canon EOS 300D ( body only) in the £400 - £600 bracket if you googled around

Just got an Email from www.7dayshop.com they have an offer on the 300D body & 18 - 55mm lens for 450 quid

 

[Paul Russell]

That is an excellent chart. Thanks alef and editor both.

Worth bearing in mind that there are pixels and there are pixels.

The best quality pic from a 6 megapixel digital SLR will probably go larger than the best quality pic from a 7 megapixel compact.

I believe. I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm talking bollocks.

 

[spyda]

Worth bearing in mind that there are pixels and there are pixels.

The best quality pic from a 6 megapixel digital SLR will probably go larger than the best quality pic from a 7 megapixel compact.

I believe. I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm talking bollocks.

Not bollocks. That is what i have heard as well. Something to do with SLR's better (??) ccd sensor and how it records / saves / processes the data.

I didn't have the confidence to say so however cos i'm still a digital vigin!!

 

[alphaDelta]

As I understand it this last point is true because of the physical size of the CCD; you can cram even more pixels into the same tiny area on a digital compact but after a point, the problems created by this outweigh the advantage of the higher resolution.

 

[General Ludd]

Not bollocks. That is what i have heard as well. Something to do with SLR's better (??) ccd sensor and how it records / saves / processes the data.

The superior lense you'll have on an SLR (probably) will also increase the image quality per mega pixel. You pay in terms of sheer bulk but for image quality and flexibility (in terms of creative options) SLR's are still unrivaled.

 

[Higbo]

Do we like the Pentax ist DS ? I heard good things of this and whereas body only is £700 alone here can get from US for about $800 with lens !

Shall I get out the overdraft when I go New York next week ?

 

[jeff_leigh]

Just got an Email from www.7dayshop.com they have an offer on the 300D body & 18 - 55mm lens for 450 quid

thats an excellent price although i think i'll wait till i've got the money to go for the 350 model

 

[blueAsbestos]

on the subject of dslrs versus compacts... I have a 5mp olympus c5050 compact and a 6mp nikon d70. The quality of the images from the d70 are noticably better but not awsomely better. I suspect you would have to spend a hell of a lot more money than i did to get a big improvement (im talking about image quality here not camera performance). If anyone is at the 5mp mark for a compact or at the 6 for a dslr I'd wait for a doubling of the resolution before I upgraded, although I suspect the compacts won't go above 8 for a couple of years due to the large amount of noise at currently occuring at this sensor size.

 

[blueAsbestos]

actually, while i'm on the subject of compacts. I really hope these cameras dont die out. I'm not talking about bridge cameras but proper compacts like the canon g5, olympus 5070 (or whatever it is now). I'm talking about the sort of camera that will fit in an overcoat pocket if not a shirt one, that will take bloody good photos. Do you think dslrs will kill them off?

 

[5T3R30TYP3]

Just got an Email from www.7dayshop.com they have an offer on the 300D body & 18 - 55mm lens for 450 quid

If you need better features and already have a canon (or third party) lens you can use, or can afford a used wide angle lens, it might be a good idea to look for a used 10D - theyre going for about £499 in most places I've looked. Just a thought.

 

[Passepartout]

I've been very happy with my Nikon Coolpix 5400... it's somewhere in between an SLR and a compact. It's got 5 megapixels, full control over shutter speed and aperature, and a variety of options for autofocus and metering.

 

[Pie 1]

Don't take this the wrong way folks, but there are currently no less than 8 'what sort/recomend me a digi camera' threads on the Photo forum.
Would an ongoing sticky type thread be an idea so that this sort of thing can be discussed in an ongoing manner? Not unlike the what dvd/video thread or the whats on the cd player thread.

Just wondering like.

 

[exosculate]

Don't take this the wrong way folks, but there are currently no less than 8 'what sort/recomend me a digi camera' threads on the Photo forum.
Would an ongoing sticky type thread be an idea so that this sort of thing can be discussed in an ongoing manner? Not unlike the what dvd/video thread or the whats on the cd player thread.

Just wondering like.

They are all asking specifically different questions though to be honest, and an all encompassing thread would confuse that.

 

[alphaDelta]

They are all asking specifically different questions though to be honest, and an all encompassing thread would confuse that.

Nah, I reckon it could be done. It seems to me that the primary consideration would be price - people have limits/ranges regardless of what they're after - and then stronger points on each such as macro quality or night shooting.

 

[alef]

Just got an Email from www.7dayshop.com they have an offer on the 300D body & 18 - 55mm lens for 450 quid

I also came across good deals on 7dayshop, but then I read some external feedback horror stories...
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews-all-3802.html

Also couldn't easily find a phone number on their site.

However, I have just today ordered from http://www.pixmania.co.uk who have thousands of good reviews. Will post a report when the camera arrives. I've joined the U75 bandwagon and bought a Sony V3, costs £334 plus £9 courier delivery.

 

[snadge]

1) Under £400

2) £400 - £600

3) £600 - £800


Basically I'd like people to express opinions on what they feel are the best all round cameras in each price notch.

Then I want to compare them and work out which camera I should buy.

With Thanks

1. Canon EOS300D with kit lense, ebay from canada with Kit lense
2. Canon EOS350D as above
3. Nikon D70/ kit lense or Canon 20d/ kit lense from ebay my choice is the 20D

please note the canada ebay items have a 3year mack warranty which is cool