Budget Compact - Bottom Of Barrel?

Flying Penguin

Flying Penguin

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Jamie
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Hi all,

Does anyone have any suggestions of any compact cameras which are acceptable (I'm not expecting good) at or under the £130 mark?

I know this is very much scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as cameras go, but I've been asked to recommend one as a present for someone else and I'm struggling. As the budget isn't mine, it's not really flexible :(

Any input greatly appreciated :)

Cheers,

Jamie
 
It all depends what you mean by acceptable. I have just bought my mum a Fuji AX510 and the images it produces are very acceptable to me. Nice clear 2.7 inch screen, 5x zoom and very small and light. It also has a good auto mode with auto scene, face detection and so on and the AF speed is on a par with the X100 I used to have (but don't go into that!)

The price - £39
 
Thanks all. I know 'acceptable' is very subjective, and I'm sure any camera at this price point is going to be acceptable to a non tog, I guess 'most capable compact in terms of iq at the price point without being absurdly complex' is my criteria for recommending. They know what they want to spend, I just don't want them to buy a lemon :)

Cheers,

Jamie
 
Stick to main brands and you won't get a lemon. £130 is not a low amount of money for a simple compact. I think you may be dismissing them a bit too quickly.
 
ernesto said:
Stick to main brands and you won't get a lemon. £130 is not a low amount of money for a simple compact. I think you may be dismissing them a bit too quickly.
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I just remember the last one I got (a Nikon) at that price point as a second camera was a complete and utter lemon. Fortunately it died an early death at a wedding at the hands of the bride's little nephew.

Once bitten, twice shy etc :)
 
As said earlier, go for a Canon. The PowerShot series is excellent and very affordable.
 
Thanks all, I put over a few options and will see what they go for, although they were initially quite keen on the S8200.

Cheers,

Jamie
 
For what it's worth, the S8200 got a good rating in a recent Which? magazine test apparently, while the Panasonic SZ1 got a 'best budget compact' award from ephotozine.

I am also a little wary of Nikon compacts having got a bit of a lemon a few years ago - it wasn't awful but the Fuji F31 I replaced it with was in a different league. To be fair that was 5 years ago and I am sure all brands have good and not so good models. Another one to throw into the mix is the Sony WX100 - £119 after cashback:

http://www.ukdigital.co.uk/sony-cyber-shot-dsc-wx100-black-camera.html
http://www.reevoo.com/p/sony-dsc-wx100
http://www.ephotozine.com/article/sony-cyber-shot-wx100-review-19992

Sony have a few nice little in camera features like handheld twilight (takes 3 consecutive pictures of a low light scene and combines them into 1 jpeg to reduce noise and increase sharpness - it works best on static scenes though to avoid motion blur) and also probably the best panoramic mode of any of the compact manufacturers. Sony along with Panasonic have a reputation for better than average video. Olympus have a good reputation for jpeg quality (although I am not familiar with their current range of cheaper compacts).

So it depends what they want to use it for as well...
 
From my experience working at Park Cameras the Panasonic's are the best value for money and which Magazine wrote that they are probably the most reliable cameras which I tend to agree with as I look after the repairs that come into the shop. We get very few Panasonic's in!!
 
I know I've been slated already for loving my TZ-8, but Panasonics give very good, rich, deep colours. They are quite good in low light, the noise isn't too bad, the one area where it can be lacking, due to the size of the sensor (same as the majority of compacts) is with the jpg compression. It can (ever so slightly) smear things, but this is only noticeable at all on a 100% crop. On a pc screen you can't see it at all. And for the price you are getting a Leica lens, in my mind that's one of the best optics you can get.
 
JayD said:
I know I've been slated already for loving my TZ-8, but Panasonics give very good, rich, deep colours.
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no, you're kidding :)

Agree though, Panasonics have got a good rep.
 
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