Good Compact Digital Camera

[Balders]

Hi,

Can anyone recommend a good compact digital camera?

I've been looking at the Cannon Ixus 95 that is currently on Amazon for £175 but wondered if anyone had any other ideas of a good camera for around that money.

I'm going to be using it mainly for everyday stuff so nothing fancy so as long its got a fast shutter speed I'm not worried about all the other features as much.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated guys!

Thanks

Mike

[showtime]

have a good read of the reviews on DPReview -

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q408slimgroup/

not just this grouptest but other reviews too

if you're looking at spending £175 i'd stick an extra tenner into one of these -
http://www.camerabox.co.uk/product1....ProductID=4463

[ramdrive]

Have a look at the Fuji range, great low light performance.

My wife has the F30, great camera, not sure it is available anymore.

Originally Posted by Balders

Hi,

Can anyone recommend a good compact digital camera?

I've been looking at the Cannon Ixus 95 that is currently on Amazon for £175 but wondered if anyone had any other ideas of a good camera for around that money.

I'm going to be using it mainly for everyday stuff so nothing fancy so as long its got a fast shutter speed I'm not worried about all the other features as much.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated guys!

Thanks

Mike

[showtime]

this one comes in bang on budget (clearance price )

http://www.camerabox.co.uk/product1....ProductID=4726

retail of these was £329 not that long ago!
Jessops still want £258 for them as of 5 seconds ago

[Spoolio]

Not sure how obsolete it is but I carry a Sony DSC-W90 round as a backup shooter and it's ace. When I bought it, the main criteria was to get minimal shutter "lag" ie, time between pressing the shutter and the image being captured as this is one of the main areas where compacts are pretty crap (compared to an SLR). Is this what you mean by "fast shutter speed"? Outside in good light I can just get a half decent shot of an RC car at speed on the compact but only if I pan with the optical viewfinder as framing it with the screen is no good because the image disappears once you press the shutter so you have no idea if the subject is still in frame or not for the .2 second or so it takes to capture the image. Optical viewfinders are worth their weight in gold for this but they are now a rarity on compacts. The Lumix range are excellent cameras but I don't think any of them have optical viewfinders.

What about a bottom end SLR like a Nikon D40?

[ramdrive]

The camera is fine if you do not want to go over ISO 400, Pany's are notorious for heavy noise at higher ISO's

Maybe of interest:-

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Pa...20/noise.shtml

Originally Posted by showtime

this one comes in bang on budget (clearance price )

http://www.camerabox.co.uk/product1....ProductID=4726

retail of these was £329 not that long ago!
Jessops still want £258 for them as of 5 seconds ago

[showtime]

yeah i knew about the noise from the in camera processing but its not a problem for most people, bearing in mind the original posters must have feature was a "fast shutter speed" i doubt he's a pixel peeper!

nice link, i'll have a good nose round there cheers

i recommended the panny TZ5 for the decent optics & the versatility of a fairly wide lens with 10x zoom & decent video capture all at the price he'd mentioned
plus there should be even more/better deals now the TZ6 & TZ7 are hitting the shelves

the fujis were rcommended to me when i was looking & my mr likes hers i'm just not clued up enough on their range to be able to recommend one over the other

i went for the Panasonic LX3 which has been very good so far

[Balders]

Thanks for all your suggestions chaps, there is certainly a lot to look at there. I've never used a Panasonic camera before (even though I'm a big Panasonic fan what with TV’s etc) so hadn't really looked at them thinking the wide angle lens was just a gimmick but you all seem to rate them! The TZ5 does look veeeeeery innnnnteresting though.

That Camerabox website looks a good place to pick a deal, has anyone ordered from there before are they UK models or imports? (I know they are all imports essentially but for manufacturer guarantee etc)

I want the camera so I can take some half decent shots of our vintage nights we have at club as my old cannon ixus is almost as old as the cars we race and doesn't do them any justice! I don't want to go down the SLR route as that'd be another hauler bag to carry round with me!

Thanks again for all your suggestions, like I said I'll have a read around some the sites that have been mentioned and try and make a decission, not easy i know!

If you have any more helpful suggestions I'll be glad to hear them.

Cheers

Mike