Planetarion Forums

JC · 21 Sep 2005, 22:36

I'm thinking of buying my first camera in a long long time. I dont particularly have a large amount of money and i would like it to be as small as possible so i can carry it around in my pocket without much fuss. I'll basically be using is at birthdays/graduation/weddings that sort of thing to take probably drunken pictures of drunken people.

I'm not too fussed about having a camera that can zoom to see a man on the moon and take the perfect picture of him but i'ld rather not be ripped off at the same time. Hopefully GD (probably NM3 mainly) can help me out.

I've been looking around and found this. Its nice and small which is what i want but all the technical stuff about picture quality etc means nothing to me, so is it any good? How many pictures would that hold roughly? Would I need to add the price of some SD memory on to that and how much would i need?

If that's shit any useful tips on what i should be looking for would be handy.

NEWSBOT3 · 21 Sep 2005, 23:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by JC

I'm thinking of buying my first camera in a long long time. I dont particularly have a large amount of money and i would like it to be as small as possible so i can carry it around in my pocket without much fuss. I'll basically be using is at birthdays/graduation/weddings that sort of thing to take probably drunken pictures of drunken people.

I'm not too fussed about having a camera that can zoom to see a man on the moon and take the perfect picture of him but i'ld rather not be ripped off at the same time. Hopefully GD (probably NM3 mainly) can help me out.

I've been looking around and found this. Its nice and small which is what i want but all the technical stuff about picture quality etc means nothing to me, so is it any good? How many pictures would that hold roughly? Would I need to add the price of some SD memory on to that and how much would i need?

If that's shit any useful tips on what i should be looking for would be handy.

ok, the brand doesn't impress me, but that's not always an indicator.
the 8mb onboard is way not enough, assume it makes 1-3mb images (it wont, but you can't tell exactly due to compression.
EDIT : the dabs site tells you, lookunder specification. 6 images

SD cards are cheap (and i have a 128mb going spare cheap if you want)
The resolution (how many pixels the image is made of) is a bit low.

However, we must consider the price, which is rather cheap.

And , what you need from it.

It's got a flash, its got a USB 2.0 connector which makes it easy to plug into your pc, it's got auto-focus to use when you are drunk, and if you only really want it to piss around with, to be honest it's fine.

Ignore anyone recommending 2-300 priced things, for your requirements, that camera will do.

It's not the greatest in the world, but so what. over 50% of
http://newsbot3.deviantart.com/gallery/
was done with a camera that you can now get for 60 quid, has NO focus setting (fixed lense), 3 megapixel (same as above), and only 2 buttons.

If anyone tells you you need a higher spec to do what you want - they are wrong. You quite simply don't, and if the photos I can do with a WORSE camera
than that one doesn't prove it to them, they are clueless nonces.

edit : i also found
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/7421...88-silver.html
58 quid, better spec (just slightly) than the above, still tiny.

vampire_lestat · 21 Sep 2005, 23:17

I've got something like this, they're pretty good, and take memory cards.

Tomkat · 22 Sep 2005, 00:17

I recently bought a digital camera for the same reasons, on an impulse buy.

Quick easy shots, small camera so I can take it out with me, mainly going to be used to take pictures of my friends and that kind of thing.

I bought this one - it's only £33 (excl. VAT). It works fine, and it's very small (about 1.5cm thick, and credit-card sized length+breadth).

meglamaniac · 22 Sep 2005, 00:26

I have a Canon (Powershot A75).
I must admit I was biased towards the brand as my Dad owns an exceptionally nice (old, but good - no digital bits and bobs) Canon SLR with a variety of lenses, which I've used on a variety of occasions.

The A75 isn't particularly fantastic in terms of megapixels (3.2) but it's a year old now and higher numbers are the norm, so whatever Canon's current version of that model is will no doubt be better. The main advantages I think it has over other brands at the same pricepoint are
a) You can get "expansion" lenses for it - they lock on over the integrated lens. You can get a telephoto, wideangle, and a macro lens.
b) Control options range from full auto to full manual. In full manual you control shutter, aperture, focus, ISO, flash intensity, white ballance (including defining a custom one), light metering mode, etc etc.
c) It takes Compact Flash cards. While they are not the most long-lived of storage (they have a limited number of read/write cycles, but are still good for ages), you can get 512MB cards for about £30, so if it DOES eventually cop it you can afford another.

If you want to experiment with photography effects and settings, you can do a lot worse than something like that. It gives you the technical control of an SLR camera when you want to try things out, and full auto for when you just want to snap a photo of your Uncle in a silly hat at Christmas.

NEWSBOT3 · 22 Sep 2005, 00:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by meglamaniac

I have a Canon (Powershot A75).
I must admit I was biased towards the brand as my Dad owns an exceptionally nice (old, but good - no digital bits and bobs) Canon SLR with a variety of lenses, which I've used on a variety of occasions.

The A75 isn't particularly fantastic in terms of megapixels (3.2) but it's a year old now and higher numbers are the norm, so whatever Canon's current version of that model is will no doubt be better. The main advantages I think it has over other brands at the same pricepoint are
a) You can get "expansion" lenses for it - they lock on over the integrated lens. You can get a telephoto, wideangle, and a macro lens.
b) Control options range from full auto to full manual. In full manual you control shutter, aperture, focus, ISO, flash intensity, white ballance (including defining a custom one), light metering mode, etc etc.

If you want to experiment with photography effects and settings, you can do a lot worse than something like that. It gives you the technical control of an SLR camera when you want to try things out, and full auto for when you just want to snap a photo of your Uncle in a silly hat at Christmas.

dude did you even READ what his requirements are and what he's going to use it for ?

meglamaniac · 22 Sep 2005, 00:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by NEWSBOT3

dude did you even READ what his requirements are and what he's going to use it for ?

No I did not.

NEWSBOT3 · 22 Sep 2005, 00:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by meglamaniac

No I did not.

that explains you blathering on about things that aren't going to be relevant to him then

JC · 22 Sep 2005, 09:26

Thanks for the advice guys

.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tomkat

I bought this one - it's only £33 (excl. VAT). It works fine, and it's very small (about 1.5cm thick, and credit-card sized length+breadth).

That looks pretty good and has twice the amount of memory.

Assuming i got one with similar sized memory thats going to take 10-15 pics max i'll need some SD memory. Is it just a case of plugging this in to the camera, taking photos and it will save straight on to that or do i have to go back to my PC transfer from the camera to SD memory, wipe the camera memory and then go to take more photos? Basically i would like to be able to take maybe 30 photos at a time just in case i get excited and need to. I'm a noob at this so sorry about the stupid question

.

pyirt · 22 Sep 2005, 10:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tomkat

I recently bought a digital camera for the same reasons, on an impulse buy.

Quick easy shots, small camera so I can take it out with me, mainly going to be used to take pictures of my friends and that kind of thing.

I bought this one - it's only £33 (excl. VAT). It works fine, and it's very small (about 1.5cm thick, and credit-card sized length+breadth).

Wow! That is a good camera for the price. I bought one of these http://wwwuk.kodak.com/global/en/ser...l?pq-path=1113 a year and half ago for about £80. The price and camera where good at the time, but clearly not anymore :/ It`s a good point and shoot camera thats easy to use, and with a few niffty menu features.

NEWSBOT3 · 22 Sep 2005, 10:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by JC

Assuming i got one with similar sized memory thats going to take 10-15 pics max i'll need some SD memory. Is it just a case of plugging this in to the camera, taking photos and it will save straight on to that or do i have to go back to my PC transfer from the camera to SD memory, wipe the camera memory and then go to take more photos? Basically i would like to be able to take maybe 30 photos at a time just in case i get excited and need to. I'm a noob at this so sorry about the stupid question

.

ok sd cards are just memory things. You plug them in and it'll save to it by default (almost all cameras do, if not in the menu you can make it).

a 128mb sd card will hold more like 60-100 shots, depending how big it makes them

noah02 · 22 Sep 2005, 10:59

Just remember not to go to small and to light othewise you are going to forget about it in your pockets and smaller things are the easier it is to loose an break.

Nothing worse than looking for something and then hearing the washing machine doing its final spin thinkig about putting it in the drier, feeling that hot flush on your face as you realise the excact time you put it in your pocket and then remembering just throwing your clothes in washing machine in a rush to <Insert place>.

*sigh* thank god i dont depend on my memory stick.

Dante Hicks · 22 Sep 2005, 11:13

I would recommend not getting one with an extendible zoom thingie like a lot of the Kodaks.
I had one and used to find I'd accidently extend it in my pocket / bag. This didn't become a problem until I fell over drunk one night, and smashed the thing completely.

pyirt · 22 Sep 2005, 11:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

I would recommend not getting one with an extendible zoom thingie like a lot of the Kodaks.
I had one and used to find I'd accidently extend it in my pocket / bag. This didn't become a problem until I fell over drunk one night, and smashed the thing completely.

Thats a very good point. I guess if you want lots of zoom, best to get an SLR digital camera (though they cost more).

pyirt · 22 Sep 2005, 11:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by noah02

Just remember not to go to small and to light othewise you are going to forget about it in your pockets and smaller things are the easier it is to loose an break.

Nothing worse than looking for something and then hearing the washing machine doing its final spin thinkig about putting it in the drier, feeling that hot flush on your face as you realise the excact time you put it in your pocket and then remembering just throwing your clothes in washing machine in a rush to <Insert place>.

*sigh* thank god i dont depend on my memory stick.

My memory stick went through the washing machine once. Seemed to cope alright, though I had to really shake the water out of it over a period of time, and then place it on a warm radiator for a few hours.

noah02 · 22 Sep 2005, 12:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by pyirt

My memory stick went through the washing machine once. Seemed to cope alright, though I had to really shake the water out of it over a period of time, and then place it on a warm radiator for a few hours.

Mine died a death

JammyJim · 22 Sep 2005, 12:04

Incidently should you want some place to store your photos so others can see it i heartily recommend www.zoto.com

its 2 gig of free storage (and if you run out just make another account)

Im currently uploading some pics from my trip to hungary last week and the boatshow last weekend. (Had to run them through PS to reduce them in size a bit from 2meg a pic to 500kb a pic ish)

http://jayjay.zoto.com

Minty · 22 Sep 2005, 13:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by JammyJim

http://jayjay.zoto.com

Should I click this link?

Will I find 200 screenshots of your desktop?

Edit: I love the dark landscape photos.
I assume they are in Hungry, which is now highly ranked in my opinion

vampire_lestat · 22 Sep 2005, 14:25

http://jayjay.zoto.com/no_support

Its shit, it doesn't like opera.

JammyJim · 22 Sep 2005, 14:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Minty

Should I click this link?

Will I find 200 screenshots of your desktop?

Edit: I love the dark landscape photos.
I assume they are in Hungry, which is now highly ranked in my opinion

I havnt uploaded the better ones. Give me a mo. The laptop crashed heh

Tomkat · 22 Sep 2005, 14:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by JC

Thanks for the advice guys

.

That looks pretty good and has twice the amount of memory.

Assuming i got one with similar sized memory thats going to take 10-15 pics max i'll need some SD memory. Is it just a case of plugging this in to the camera, taking photos and it will save straight on to that or do i have to go back to my PC transfer from the camera to SD memory, wipe the camera memory and then go to take more photos? Basically i would like to be able to take maybe 30 photos at a time just in case i get excited and need to. I'm a noob at this so sorry about the stupid question

.

Well there was some offer on when I bought mine - if you look on the right of the ebuyer purchase screen you can "bolt on" a memory card for not-very-much money. I think mine was £8 or so, it just slots in the side and the camera does the rest.

I've copied some pics onto my computer and uploaded them now, they're here if you want to see the quality of pics etc.

(plus I get to show you guys the pictures of my school and classroom in the process <3 )

NEWSBOT3 · 22 Sep 2005, 14:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tomkat

Well there was some offer on when I bought mine - if you look on the right of the ebuyer purchase screen you can "bolt on" a memory card for not-very-much money. I think mine was £8 or so, it just slots in the side and the camera does the rest.

I've copied some pics onto my computer and uploaded them now, they're here if you want to see the quality of pics etc.

(plus I get to show you guys the pictures of my school and classroom in the process <3 )

pro tip : resize your ****ing images you nonce.
I'm not looking at half a meg files.

JC · 22 Sep 2005, 14:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tomkat

Well there was some offer on when I bought mine - if you look on the right of the ebuyer purchase screen you can "bolt on" a memory card for not-very-much money. I think mine was £8 or so, it just slots in the side and the camera does the rest.

I've copied some pics onto my computer and uploaded them now, they're here if you want to see the quality of pics etc.

(plus I get to show you guys the pictures of my school and classroom in the process <3 )

Seems like the sort of thing i'm after. The pic quality seems alright, all i want is to just point, shoot and get a half decent photo.

JammyJim · 22 Sep 2005, 14:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by NEWSBOT3

pro tip : resize your ****ing images you nonce.
I'm not looking at half a meg files.

Thats the great part about Zoto
it resizes everything automatically and gives you a choice of sizes to view it at.
GENIUS!

Tomkat · 22 Sep 2005, 17:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by NEWSBOT3

pro tip : resize your ****ing images you nonce.
I'm not looking at half a meg files.

I will when I stick them all on a webpage (planning on doing a "what I'm up to now" with pics for my friends etc). I just threw those up on my webspace and left it.