The Best Compact Camera's?

[jamiestone]

Hi, I was just wondering what you all think the best compact camera is at the moment? I know your all used to talking DSLR, but I'm in the market for a compact around £150. Saying that it would be good to know what the best ones are at all price ranges?

Thanks :)

J

[chris321]

Arrghh, just wrote a long reply to this, then accidentally hit the refresh button! So sorry if this sounds a little short!

Basically, I found that at around £150, cameras are much of a muchness. I was looking at spending between £150 to £200, finally found one for £200 that I liked, then would have had to spend £30 on a Sony memory card (I had to buy from the shop as I needed it for the next morning)

So rather than spending £230 on a camera and card, I bit the bullet and spend £250 on a Panasonic Lumix TZ65, which could then use the abundance of SD cards I have lying around. I paid over the odds, but that'll teach me for leaving it till the day before I need it!

The camera is build like a brick, has an awesome lens, and I'm really happy with it! A lot of the ~£150 cameras felt really flimsy when I was trying them out, and although £250 is a lot of money, if your £150 camera breaks and you have to get a new one, you'll be saving yourself cash in the long run! I think the price has gone down a bit now as well.

These are just my views, but it's something to think about!

[jamiestone]

Thanks for your reply!

Thats what has happened to me, I had a cheap compact and it has just become useless. You can take 2 pictures in sucsession and one comes out great - the other terrible!

I have heard that the Lumix range is good - thanks for your input :)

J

[joodles]

..the TZ range is great - if you can pick up a TZ6 it will be cheaper than the TZ7 - the TZ7 has HD video, a 24mm(?around that..) wide angle with 12x optical zoom with a leicaa lens on the front of it - if you can then consider stretching your budget?
There's also the canon ixus range if you're looking for a small compact camera - there's the ixus 870 which has a 28mm wide angle but only around 3x optical zoom. There's also a lovely bright pink one - i can't remember the model number but it comes in a pink and a grey(blue) and is a lovely little compact that's easy to use and takes lovely pictures!

[jamiestone]

I'll certainly consider extending my budget - but i guess its always the case that if you pay more you get more (most of the time).

Thanks

[DizMatt]

big fan of the lumix here too
fx37 I think my mum has now...better wide angle (for touristy stuff) than most and meters very well

[chris321]

Just one thing about the Canon range, when I was looking at them they seemed very basic..... On, off, review kind of thing. If that's what you're after, then it'll be fine, but you don't seem to get much control over your images. The lumix range have loads and loads of scene modes, which is a little better, but they all seem to rely on this stupid "Intelligent Auto" thing now! I wanted manual controls, but couldn't stretch to the G10 (it was about £420 in-store!)

[jamiestone]

The basic/auto issue doesnt bother me personally. I will be using it when I dont want to carry my D40 around, just quick snaps etc. But worth investigatng if you are looking for that kind of functionality.

[Slimbert]

You could keep an eye on the Fuji refurb store (https://secure.fujifilm.co.uk/shop/consumer/digital/digital-cameras/view-all) to see if any bargains come up for sale?

I've always been impressed, value for money wise, with fuji compacts.......