Can anyone help me out?

[Eileen]

After my mothers estate is divided between my sisters and myself I will receive approx. £1,000.
As I don't want to keep the money for myself I was intending to buy my husband, Ian, who was her executor and did all the hard work involved in seeing to things, a camera to replace his 35mm Canon which is now virtually inoperable.

I know he'd like one with a good zoom facility, automatic focus and macro setting but haven't a clue where to start. I don't want a shop assistant fobbing me off with something he won't be happy with and I can't ask Ian too many questions or he'll get suspicious and I want it to be a surprise.

What camera would you recommend I get him please?

Mmmmm........just edited this post to say sorry. I should really have put it into the photography forum.

[fbcpmike]

Eileen,

Were you thinking of replacing with a film camera or a digital?.
(You will gather from the following I am a digital fan, I went to try digital 2 years ago and have not gone back to my 35mm since)

For my part I have both, an old 35mm with 210mm zoom and a newish Fugifilm S304 3m pixel with 6x zoom (roughly equal to the 210mm zoom), and I have to say I have not used the film camera since I bought the digital.

The S304 has the auto focus, macro and 6x zoom you are looking for, it's nicely sized and handles like a 35mm body, it gets my vote. I went for it after having seen a friends 2mb predecessor to the 3mb.

There are certainly other makes out there and good ones too, go for a high a pixel count as possible in your price range but with the other features (macro, zoom auto foucus) as well.

Points to watch out for -

Look out for the minimum distance in macro mode, the shorter the distance the closer you can get to the subject, but you will need a steadying device of some sort, but it can be as simple as a block of wood to rest the camera on.

Watch out for zoom "types" some cameras advertise "6x" zoom but this is made up of 4x optical and 2x digital. This camera will zoom to 4x getting you 4x "closer" but the remaining 2x is done by altering the captured picture size electronically, so the quality of the picture goes down, probalby not so important now the pixel counts are going up but worth noting. The S304 is true optical 6x zoom, go for true optical zoom first.

Get the largest memory card the camera will hold, S304 takes 128Mb giving over 100 photos at full resolution and upwards of 200, 350, 900 at lower reolutions or an hour of video !. A large card will be an extra to the one that comes as standard.

Get high capacity batteries, standard ones are 1000Mah or 1300mah, I got 1700Mah, but you can get 2000Mah and above, obviously they cost more but they last longer in use, and the damn things always run out at the wrong time !. Also get a 1 or 2 hour charger (with a car adapter for use away) saves waiting overnight for a 16hour charger. I paid £25 for the 1700Mah batteries and 1 hour charger, car plug and foreign plug adapters, a reasonable price.

Along the same power lines look out for a camera with power "save mode", helps to extend the battery life that bit more.

Very happy with the S304 and it does have a newer better replacement, I paid £350 2 years ago, but do look out for other makes, you can now get upwards of 5m pixels for the same money. There was a sort of rule of thumb that 3m pixel was equal to a 35mm when printed at 6x4, 5m pixel is going to be better.

Other comments / reccomendations anyone else ?, I'm open to suggestions too
.

[Eileen]

WOW Mike thanks for all the information!!

I think you've converted me to the idea of digital. I have a small digital camera myself as well as a couple of film ones. I have to admit that the ones that take films are gathering dust on a shelf now. It's just soooo easy to work with a digital isn't it?

Ian has always liked film cameras but nowadays with photographic printer paper and high resolution printers and scanners why wait for a lab to process a film and possibly lose it?

One last question - is £1,000 enough to buy the S304 camera you mentioned and is there a retailer you would especially recommend? (Oops, sorry that's TWO questions ) I don't know if I want to chance buying one over the net even although it may be cheaper.

Glad you are around to help me out.

[fbcpmike]

Hi Eileen,

I wasn't trying to do a conversion, but yes they are so much easier. Where I used to take a few pictures with the film camera and then find a few were not quite right, I do now find myself taking "loads" of shots and then selecting the best and throwing the rest away.

I still would not bother with photo paper and printers just yet, it is still worth getting the prints from somebody like Boots or Asda, most are running 10p a print offers and printing yourself runs about 30-50p a print, and the quality of print still has some catching up to do, give it a couple of years.

£1000 will get you a VERY good camera, the S304 got good reviews and cost £350 two years ago (even though out of date it's being offered at £120). Costs are coming down and specs are going up. It has been basically replaced with the S3100 (which has 4m pixels), the rest of the spec seems the same.

For example, a quick online check gives a price of $599 for the S7000 6m pixel camera (only x3 zoom though). Kellkoo are seeling it online at £415 with 512Mb card & 1 hour charger & batteries with a spare set of 2300maH batteries. To compare Fuji cameras see their site http://www.fujifilm.com.

If I was to buy again soon I'd probably go for the S5100 with 4m pixels and x10 zoom, but you must not let me sway you, Fuji are excellent lower cost cameras, if you plan on spending the full £1000 look at the others, Cannon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Etc.

Reviews at - http://www.dpreview.com/
http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/ (good site with guides, glossary and a learn from others mistakes section but its in dollar prices $1.45/£1 for rough exchange)

Dealers are harder to reccomend, see waht your local camera shop has but don't let them pressurise you. The "chain" stores (Dixons etc) are not bad for this sort of thing, at least you can browse without pressure and the range is usually up to date. The best deals will be online though, stick with the better known ones - Amazon (not always the cheapest), Kellkoo.

www.digital-cameras.com are in the Uk and show a Uk phone # for ordering, and address in Guldford - now THATs interesting just up the road from me.

Happy hunting.

[StuartDH]

I second the digital revolution!

I had been using a film Canon EOS SLR for about ten years but then 18 months ago I got a digital Canon 10d and life has never been the same since. I take it almost everywhere and snap about 100-200 pics every time I go out.

It's been updated now to the 20d and Canon have also released a lower cost model, that still takes great pictures, in the form of the 300d. The bonus of an SLR is that you can change the lens (mine has a 28-300mm zoom which covers just about all occasions) and 101 accessories to play with. However, the downside is that they're big and heavy.

If you're looking to use it for wildlife then you need to consider the response time of being able to switch it on and take your first photo, which can vary considerably for digital cameras. I had a Minolta F100 digital that took about 6/7 seconds...by which time the insect/bird/butterfly etc had disappeared out of view.

[Eileen]

Hi Guys,

I've decided to print out all the information you have given me and take it along with me when I go to check out cameras. I'll let you know next week what I've decided to get but I must admit I am leaning heavily towards digital.

I'll keep the response time in mind as the camera will be used mainly for wildlife shots. Thanks for the tip.

Mike, I'm still checking all the web sites you gave me but thank you so much for going to all the trouble you have on my account. It looks like I'll have to think of something else to spend the rest of the money on as I really don't want it for myself. Any suggestions?

[Tinkerbell]

Eileen, do consider the possibility of installing a board camera in a nesting box. They are pretty easy to fit and give so much pleasure as you see the nest being built, eggs being laid (a feat in itself - the bird up-ending as it does so), the chicks being hatched etc. Need to be quick though as the blue tits will be getting serious about finding a home soon. Incidentally, we got ours from Maplins should anyone be interested in sourcing.

[nightshade]

Eileen stick with canon if he has extra lenses they probably can be used with a digital
canon300d or canon 350d are v.good