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View Full Version : Novie seeking help in choosing a new camera


charlie boy
09-30-2005, 12:05 PM
Greetings all, I'm currently looking for a new camera but I'm really not sure what I should be spending my money on. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated! My current camera (which I've had for nearly three years now) is an Olympus C-350.

Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible.

About £250 ($500), give or take.

Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?

Reasonably small, but I'm not too fussy. Smaller than my current camera.

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you?

Minimum of 4.

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify)

I'll settle for 3x, but 4x would be a bonus.

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)

9-10

Do you care for manual controls?

Not especially, I'm more the "point and click" type.

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?

General use, i.e. holidays, family gatherings etc. A variety of situations, but nothing out of the ordinary.

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?

Probably not, but who knows?

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?

A lot of indoor photos I guess.

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?

Possibly, but not a lot.

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate?

It would be handy to have something that is XD compatible so I can stick with my current memory cards, but it's not essential.

Are there particular models you already have in mind?

I've heard many a good thing about the Fuji FinePix F10. But should I be concerned about the low res LCD? Is it worth holding out for the F11 considering I probably won't need the extra manual controls? I'm open to any suggestions.

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)

Not too sure about any of the above, but I'm looking for a camera that has a decent movie mode.

Cheers!

JTL
09-30-2005, 12:59 PM
Greetings all, I'm currently looking for a new camera but I'm really not sure what I should be spending my money on. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated! My current camera (which I've had for nearly three years now) is an Olympus C-350.

I've heard many a good thing about the Fuji FinePix F10. But should I be concerned about the low res LCD? Is it worth holding out for the F11 considering I probably won't need the extra manual controls? I'm open to any suggestions.

Cheers!Since you're in the UK you are in luck! The newly announced Fuji F11 now has a hi-res LCD screen and a slew of new and imporved features. This is just about the perfect P&S camera at this point. According to dpreview "The FinePix F11 Zoom will be available from UK retailers in November 2005. Pricing will be announced nearer to the date of retail launch." So I'd wait if I were you....

Find the complete write-up here: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0509/05092901fuji_f11.asp

charlie boy
10-01-2005, 12:12 PM
Great! I've been leaning towards the F10 and since I'm not in any great hurry to buy I can definitly wait until the F11 comes out. Are there any other cameras I should be considering though?