Beginner Camera.
 

Hey guys.

I'm already interested in Photography, but I'm a bit clueless when it comes to the cameras themselves.

Could anybody recommend me a good beginner camera? And I mean a compact camera, that I can slip in and out of my pocket.

I'm considering the Lumix DMC-TZ6 at the moment, but I'm still not sure.

Keep it under £200 please. :)

Thanks, -DreadAlert-.

Welcome to the forum, DreadAlert.

Here's a link to a group test - the ZS1 and TZ6 are the same camera.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/q209grouplongzoom/

So you're saying I'd be better off with the Olympus Mju 9000 or the Canon SX200 IS?

I might be able to afford the Olympus, but not the Canon.

The Lumix scored higher than both of them on www.cnet.co.uk and is cheaper.. Could you let me know why you think the Olympus would be better?

Thanks.

Firstly hi and welcome to WPF.

I don't think that birdsnapper was offering a personal recomendation just pointing you in the direction of a good comparative review. I have no personal experience of any of the current models but I did use one of the older Panasonics (TZ5) and was not hugely impressed with it. My initial impressions were good - nice zoom range, excellent LCD reasonable fast AF and little shutter lag. However the images out of the camera were over over saturated and just didn't look right, the lack of manual controls left me unable to correct this issue. In the end I sold it and picked up a used Canon G9 - much less zoom range but much better images. The G series have full manual controls so you can decide how a shot with look. You might be able to pick one up for under £200 if you shop about a bit.

Thanks for the welcoming. :)

Thanks too for the info about the Panasonic, I think I'll steer away from that one.

The Canon G9 sounds great, but I'll keep away from that for 2 reasons:
- Too expensive, around £250+ everywhere I look.
- Looks too chunky. I want something slim and light.

For these reasons, I'm still considering the Olympus Mju 9000. Do you have anything to say about the Olympus, or any others to recommend?

DreadAlert, for the kind of camera you are looking to buy, I don't think there's that much to choose between models. Your ability as a photographer will make far more difference to the pictures you produce than the kit you've used.

For the price bracket you're looking at, I'd go for the Fuji F100fd. You can now get this for a smidge under £200 but I stress again, don't regard equipment as the be all and end all.

Yeah, I know that, but I still like to get the best equipment possible.

It looks great, but is the Fuji Finepix F70 EXR a step up from that? If so, I can afford that at £195.
http://www.camerabox.co.uk/
This is where I'm looking, so maybe you could take a look at the ones under £200 and recommend me any great ones you see?

DreadAlert, are you jerking us around for a bit of fun? In your original post you said that you were considering the TZ6. I linked you to a review that recommended the TZ6. You then ask why I suggested something else, which I obviously did not. If you are genuinely confused, then OK, but if this is your idea of entertainment then please do not waste members' time.

o_o No, I'm not wasting any time and I'm asking serious questions.
I just kinda thought you were getting at the fact that the canon and olympus were rated higher than the TZ6. And along with what postcardcv said about the quality in the previous TZ being bad, I thought I'd count that out.

Sorry if it came across like that.

I would say that you should never rule a camera out based on one persons opinion, especially not mine. Given that you want something small the new Fuji f70 that you mentioned does look nice. I tried it in a shop last week and was very impressed with the overall feel and speed of it, though I've not actually shot with it so can't really comment. It has Fuji's EXR sensor which is apparently very good, but the best bet is to try before you buy (if possible).

Well, i've looked at the one up on that too, with less zoom. It's got great ratings everywhere I look, and some of the photos taken look great.
The F200EXR.

The best thing is to actually handle all the cameras available which fit whatever is your most important spec - it sounds like this is probably price in your case. Pick whichever feels best in your hand. You can debate the pros and cons on paper ad nauseum, but however good the spec, if you dont like using it, the camera wont be used.
If this is your first camera, you will at some point probably want something 'better' - but it is hard to know what you will want out of the next camera until you have been taking photos for a while and know what you want to achieve in more detail.

This is because the photographer is good, it's not a feature of the camera.

I do get the impression you want everyone here to tell you what to buy in order to absolve yourself of any responsibility over the results you obtain.

Follow Gordon's advice given in the post above. Make a decision. Buy a camera. Get out there and practice. Put in the hard work, make the effort, that's what gets great results.

Hi DreadAlert, welcome to WPF - enjoy the forum. Most of todays cameras are capable of taking great pictures, but it is the skill of the photographer, NOT the camera that makes a shot good or great. Go to a dealer, like Jessops, where you can try out and handle the different cameras and choose one within your budget and that you feel comfortable with. Don't be seduced by the number of mega pixels - the more you have only means you can enlarge the result more and anything over 3 or 4 mega pixels will enlarge to 10" x 8" with ease. Also a larger optical zoom is usually better than a digital zoom. You as the photographer will make or break the picture not the camera.

You sure you want digital?

Actually for a beginner digital is best because you can take a lot of pictures and learn from your mistakes easily.

I learnt (and am still learning) photography with film cameras, and if you really want to get to the purist nuts and bolts of the art at a very low price you could consider a film (35mm) camera.

Older cameras offer a lot more manual control over the picture, and manual control is what learners need. When you press the shutter on a compact, the fairly complex (but not that hard to master) process of composing the picture takes place fully automated, so you will never really know about this process. When you compose a picture on an SLR, you have to consider shutter speed, aperture, light sensitivity, focus and depth of field very seriously. A digital SLR will offer this control, but the cheapest one is £250 and not that brilliant, not to mention fairly big.

If you like the idea of getting to the heart of photography on a small budget, browse around on eBay for a Minox 35, the camera that taught me photography. This is a very compact camera, the smallest 35mm film camera ever in fact. It is an aperture priority camera, which means that you choose the aperture and it chooses the shutter speed for you. Focus is done by scale i.e. guesswork (sounds hard, but the wide-angle lens means that depth of field is quite large, allowing you a lot of room for error. Besides, guessing a distance is a lot easier than it sounds).

If you want to just snap about, ignore what I said in the last paragraph. *Old-school mode off*

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