Anyone's opinion welcome so long as its too the point.

I'm looking to purchasea digital camera (new).

Budget is up to £120.

It will be used mostly for family pics and odds and ends on to Ebay.

Any suggestions of where to shop, and which model/maker to go for.

Cheers


Jim:thumbsup:

PS Is there anything I should be looking out for in particular?

You won't get a very good one for £120. I know it's your first one, but you really should consider pushing your budget up to £200 at least.

Go for something like THIS (http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/157739/art/pentax/optio-s6.html)

It has a very good lens (trust me, this is important!), decent resolution and pentax cameras are always very user friendly (trust me, if my mum and brother can use them, anyone can!).

The particulars you want to look out for are

resolution-. (5 megapixels or above if you want decentish enlargements upto A4,

optical zoom (not digital zoom). At least 3x optical zoom is a good bet.

Memory card type. Some memory card formats are cheaper than other. A good format is SD card, as this is highly supported by everything from cameras to phones to some new digital televisions and camcorders! Memory cards are cheaper online, as a rule, so buy a decent sized one when you buy your camera (512mb at least!)

Good sized lens (smaller lenses will tend to be not as high quality). This should be a consideration after all the others, and not the first thing you look at.

It's easy to get swamped under a load of specifications, but the first three things on the list above are a good starting point. £120 will get you a very low specification and low resolution camera, which will never give you satisfactory photos.

My first camera (5 years ago!) was £550 and 3.3 megapixels. The lens was tiny and sucked, the quality of the photos was dubious at best (could really enlarge them that far) and the flash just made everything white! Not a great start.

It's about the same spec as the current "budget" cameras around at the moment, so I'd steer clear of them!

Hope this helps. Feel free to PM me

In my opinion, the most important aspect of a digital camera is the time it takes to take the photograph from clicking the button.

Do a bit of research into this, and I guarantee that you'll find what you are looking for, for £120.

Edit - I know this to be a VERY decent camera - 5mp

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=63515

EDIT - Kodak, free 128mb card, free charger, and 5 million pixels!
3x OPTICAL ZOOM also!

Oh yeah - and its LESS than your budget

Fuji do some decent budget cameras. If all you're doing is

It will be used mostly for family pics and odds and ends on to Ebay.

then you don't want features you'll never use. a 4 or 5 megapixel camera will be suitable for photos you could get 10x8 prints at Max Speilman or Asda, and there's a limit to photo sizes on Ebay anyway.

I bought my first camera to use for exactly the same sort of things you want to use one for. I did get a bit bogged down in specifications but one that I found important was the size of the display window. Some of the models I looked at had such tiny one's it was difficult to see the subject and also in bright sunlight they were almost impossible to see.
My camera doesn't have an optical zoom although that may of been a mistake but then I'm not heavily into photography and the display window is about two inches by an inch and a half.
I got mine from Staples it is a completely unknown make and cost two years ago about £90 but it works well and does what I want it to do.

If it's you rfirst camera and your not bothered about pumping the photos into a1 size monsters and you want somthing easy to use have a look a this:-

http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpresentation/index.php?product_id=CANA410&nbs_search=K%3Dcanon%2Ba410

I would take a look in the sales quick! You will predominatly be paying for the name and optics as there are very few makers of CCDs so they are pretty much all the same. My first digital camera was a samsung (no longer made but like this (http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/digimax350.html)) which gave fantastic results and I was very happy with, my second (after a burglery :( ) was a pentax optio (http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/pentax330gs.html) which I'm rather less happy with (it does excelent macro shots but the portrait and landscape stuff is rather poorer) and have just bought myself a panasonic lumix fz20 (http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/fz20.html) at half price from Jessops :)

How about something like this (http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5603251/Trail/C%24cip%3D29388.Photography%3EC%24cip%3D29389.Digi tal%2Bcameras%3EFC%24Brands%3DSamsung.Samsung.htm) as a starter camera?

This is what I have - an Olympus C310Z (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001KNRU4/ref=br_lf_ce_14/203-9974963-5952741)

However, I'm not an expert at photography - that does seem to do the job.

But if you zoom, in it looks like the picture has goosebumps.

There many cameras used over the festive period to take our pictures.

An Olympus C450Z (http://adfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/ck/710-29256-8196-0?loc=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.co.uk%2Fws%2FeBayISAPI .dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D7577889356) (4mp) - pictures look horrid after around 6 scrolls.

An Olympus C310Z (3.2mp) - pictures look horrid after around 4 scrolls.

A Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz5/) (out of the price range)

An Olympus E 500 - looks good after 7 scrolls) (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000BKVJCW/203-9974963-5952741) (out of the price range)

Plenty to read through, thanks for the responses so far.

this (http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=3801&langId=-1&searchTerms=5603684&go.x=0&go.y=0)
is a good one, in your specified budget. not in stock at angel street
or the moor but is 'available for home devlivery'.

i got this camera for christmas, tis a very good one.

BIAB

the canon powershot cameras are excellent for the money

Something I always say on these threads,AA batteries are also a plus,easy to buy almost anywhere or easily re-chargeable.

Maplin have a sale. Usually don't buy from them, but I'd say it's worth a shot (http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?C=Newsletter&U=06P1-2&ModuleNo=46642&T=11046593)

Originally posted by kentboy119
[B]This is what I have - an Olympus C310Z (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001KNRU4/ref=br_lf_ce_14/203-9974963-5952741)

However, I'm not an expert at photography - that does seem to do the job.

But if you zoom, in it looks like the picture has goosebumps.


I have this camera and I print 10x8 on an epson R800.
The pics are just incredible.
don't use the digital zoom thats what gives the "goosebumps"
For £100 you can't go wrong

Originally posted by surfinjim
Anyone's opinion welcome so long as its too the point.

I'm looking to purchasea digital camera (new).

Budget is up to £120.

It will be used mostly for family pics and odds and ends on to Ebay.

Any suggestions of where to shop, and which model/maker to go for.

Cheers


Jim:thumbsup:

PS Is there anything I should be looking out for in particular?

Don't buy anything from Dixons, PC World or Curry's or you'll get flamed to hell on here, the major opinion on here regarding those shops is that they're overpriced and staffed by muppets.

I have this one (http://www.dpreview.com/news/0502/05021707oly_d545z.asp) and it's ace. I think it may have come down in price now but it does the job no problems and is really easy to use.

Ended up with HP photosmart E317, upgraded memory card and HP Photosmart printer.

The camera is 5mill. pixel. Not too many gadgets and I've managed to get it up and running in 5 minutes. (I'm not that technically minded!!!!)

It was on offer in the sales as a bundle and would have cost £240 as a package. I said budget was important and had small change out of my £120!

Thanks for everyone who replied though.

Cheers

Jim:thumbsup:

Originally posted by Rich
Don't buy anything from Dixons, PC World or Curry's or you'll get flamed to hell on here, the major opinion on here regarding those shops is that they're overpriced and staffed by muppets.
Not wanting to start this argument again,but do not rule them out.
If you have checked prices etc and have chosen the camera for you compare prices you may be surprised.Dixons have been selling the Canon A80 for £120 on the odd occasion,this is an excellent price for the best camera in the range (a bit out of date but still the best).