Digital Cameras?

Question

Mum recently bought a Polaroid i532 camera but took it back to the shops 24hrs later because the batteries were showing full power but the camera kept switching off and saying they were empty. We hadn't used the camera a lot, only took a few pics and changed the setting, maybe had it on for a total of 30 mins max!
That wasn't the question though

She now wants to buy a new one, one that's good for beginners (someone who's never had a digital one before), a good sized screen, good battery life (lol) - preferably rechargeables, doesn't necessarily have to take videos but should have a good zoom on it, should cost under €200 and is not from Polaroid.
Can anyone suggest any good ones?
Thx

Answer 1

I just bought a Casio EX S600- Exlim It is unbelievable. It is small (credit card size) 6.1mega pixels and has 3x optical zoom. It has a lot of features and can take still and motion pictures. It has a bttery life of about 30 hours. It uses a SD memory card. Please do go to the site and read about it . You will be surprised and your mom will love it. My 13 year daughter got a handle on using it and its multitude of features within 30 minutes. It charges to a full power within 2 hours. Among othe features, I like the lag time feature that allows you to click and shoot with 1/100th of a second and be ready to shoot again. You do not lose some fun moments.
The cost of the camera was USD $250 and I bought a 1 gigbyte SD Sandisk Extreme with transfer speed of 20 mb which is important because this helps in the availabilty of the camera to take pictures faster and quicker ($65) (you can do with a 512 mb card that will store about 300 pictures or about 25 minutes of motion video with about 10 mb transfer for about USD$20 You really should check it out at
http://www.casio.com/products/Cameras/Exilim_Card/

Answer 2

one I bought in spain last year is a DV JVC camcorder, still pictures, mp3 player, voice record, it cost me €300 with a 256mb memory card included, all the leads to connect to tv and pc tvcard.
it also had rechargable nicads and the recharger, a cd of photo software and drivers in you were not running xp.
It has 8X Zoom and 6.5 million pixel resolution.
so I was very happy with the price.
it is really a great camera not gimmicky, it can record straight to Mpeg4 as well, saves a bit of messing around converting from one format to another, to record the pics or movies to dvd for the cdplayer on tv.

I know you said €200 but just €100 more euro and you have much wider choice.

as far as the camera you bought and the batteries went fast, the IT Center I work in bought a new digital camera, it cost €285 and was just a still pic camera, with rechargable AAA batteries, I use it when teaching there, and it is absolutely useless after inserting fully charged batteries and taking 5 pictures it starts to say battery low and after another shot it turns off because the batteries are gone, and it isthe batteries, because as soon as I insert more fully charged one's it works agin fine for another 6 shots or so.

I think you did the right thing by taking it back, that seems a stupid setup in a camera which costs so much. what are the manufacturers thinking of.

the other camera I mentioned above earlier, is brilliant, you could not get the end of the battery, I've used it all day, loads and loads of snaps and videos, and no problem.
so in comparison to the one in the center it is wonderful.
maybe some of this info will help a little.

Answer 3

I would always recomend buying a digital camera from a company that has a good name in the non digital camera market - Fuji, Canon, Nikon, etc. they will cost more than the non famous ones but you do get what you pay for. Don't worry too much about how many pixels it has.. anything over 3 megapixels will produce a good print and remember it is the lens that seperates the cheap and nasty cameras from the quality ones. I'm afraid battery life on a digital isn't good on any make, just buy 2 sets of rechargables.

Answer 4

They're much of a muchness. Go to Jessops or Jacobs (assuming you're in the UK) and speak to the guys and girls in there. Go for Fuji, Canon or maybe Kodak.

You can get a Kodak one with printer dock and photo printer for less than £120 (it'll be a 4mega pixel (decent quality) and should have a zoom.

As for batteries, get yourself a recharger and only use rechargeables in the digital camera and you'll be fine. Budget for around £35 for a decent charger (don't go cheap!) and batteries.

Answer 5

Samsung Digimax A50 is great. VERY wide screen, uncluttered interface, long life battery (if you switch it off while not in use it can last you many hours), nice quality, high res and sells for about 200$. A bit annoying thing is that it takes the shots about 1 sec. after releasing the button, but that is a minor thing. Had it for months and I'm quite satisfied with it. Perhaps not for the professional photographer, though.

Answer 6

truly digicam. it consistently has better lens than digital camera telephone. form of Mpix is way less significant than lens, trust. digicam has also better outfitted-in software than digital camera telephone.

Answer 7

your best option will be to go for a cannon, and use rechargeable batteries but don't leave them charging for too long.

Answer 8

you can pick up a good and ease to use dig camera from most good stores try nikon

Answer 9

maybe you half to get a new one at circuit city (look at sources)