by DOUBLE A » Wed Nov 02, 2005 11:10 pm
Davie not sure if this is any help but some best buy guides from which magazine, bit long winded though
All of the Best Buy cameras listed here are very good. But it’s worth being aware that digital cameras in general have a couple of common weaknesses.
First, battery life is poor because the cameras have power-hungry electronics, such as the LCD screen, zoom lens and image sensor. Film camera batteries last for many months, whereas digital camera batteries last for maybe just a session or two of shooting before they need replacing or recharging. Most cameras come with a charger and rechargeable batteries. If your camera doesn’t have them, it’s definitely worth buying a set. They’re not too expensive, at around £10-£15, and will provide hundreds of charges (aim for NiMh batteries, with a capacity of at least 2000mAh). In the long run, these will be far cheaper, and more environmentally friendly, than buying sets of disposables all the time.
Shutter delay is a second weakness, although performance is getting better all the time. In our tables, a shutter delay of up 0-0.3 seconds gets a red star, while more than 1.3 seconds gets the dreaded black blob. Shutter delay can be reduced by using the focus lock. Half-depress the shutter button to focus the camera, compose your picture using the LCD screen or viewfinder while keeping the button half-pressed, then press it down fully to take the picture.
We’ve organised the Best Buys by resolution. The categories are less than 4Mp, 4Mp to 5Mp, and 5.1Mp or more.
Less than 4Mp
The Olympus Camedia C-770 Ultra Zoom has 3.9Mp and a powerful 38mm-380mm optical zoom. It has an attachment for fitting an external flash, if you want to use a more powerful one. Movie quality on this model is one of the best we’ve seen on a digital camera, but this is the only camera among our Best Buys that doesn’t score a red star for battery life. It’s similar in size to the Best Buy C-760 from Olympus but a few grams heavier at 361g. The C-770 is available online for around £280.
The Nikon Coolpix 4800 is a 3.9Mp camera. For a camera with a powerful 36mm-300mm lens, it’s pretty compact and quite light at 320g. Shutter delay is just OK. It lacks shutter speed and aperture priority modes, but it does have a feature called ‘BSS’ (Best Shot Selector). With this option turned on, when you press the shutter button the camera shoots ten images as fast as possible, and then keeps the sharpest. The Coolpix 4800 is around £175 online.
The Canon Digital Ixus 40 is a 3.9Mp camera. It’s small, thin and light (only 152g), so will fit easily in most pockets. It has a smaller optical zoom than the other models in this category and doesn’t have shutter speed or aperture priority modes. It impresses in every key test area, apart from flash pictures, which are just OK. It’s widely available for around £215.
4Mp to 5Mp
The 534g 5Mp Olympus Camedia C-5060 is one of the highest scoring Best Buys. Its viewfinder/monitor is just OK, but it excels in every other key area. Overall picture quality is especially good – very impressive. Its zoom range is 27mm-110mm – this low first number means that it can fit more of your scene in the photograph, and therefore it’s good for landscape shots. On the other hand, 110mm isn’t very high, so you won’t be able to zoom in a huge amount. Shutter delay is great for a digital camera. The C-5060 is extremely rare now, but you might be able to find it online for around £300.
The 5Mp Olympus C-55 has a short shutter delay, and shutter speed priority and aperture priority modes. Image quality is good and it has a useful zoom of 38mm-190mm. It comes with alkaline batteries only, so budget for a charger and a set of rechargeables. It also takes great flash pictures and it’s easy to use. The C-55 is £270 from Boots.
The 5Mp Nikon Coolpix 5900 is a very light Best Buy, at 181g. It performs strongly across the board, however, even taking pretty good movies. It lacks aperture priority and shutter speed priority modes, but as an easy-to-use camera, it’s very good. Shutter delay is reasonably short, at half a second, and it has a 38mm-114mm zoom, which is standard for a camera of this small size. The 5900 is £230 from Jessops.
The 4.9Mp Panasonic DMC-FZ5 is one of a small but growing breed of cameras with image stabilisation, which alleviates ‘camera shake’ (camera shake is more likely to strike when you’ve zoomed in). It has a massive zoom of 36mm-432mm and aperture priority and shutter speed priority modes – but no manual focus. Image quality and shutter delay aren’t outstanding, but as an overall package this camera is very good. Flash pictures are excellent and it’s one of the few digital cameras with good movie quality. The FZ-5 is £350 from Comet, Jessops and John Lewis.
The 4.9Mp Konica Minolta Z20 is another camera with image stabilisation. The zoom range on this camera is large, at 36mm-290mm. It has manual focus, aperture priority and shutter speed priority modes, but no sound recording with its movies. Shutter delay is pretty good, but this is another camera that comes with alkaline batteries only. The Z20 is £200 from Argos and Jessops.
5.1Mp or more
The 8Mp Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-F828 weighs in at a monster 955g, so make sure you’ve done your arm exercises. Despite the bulk, it’s one of the highest scoring cameras we’ve ever tested. Its shutter delay is one of the shortest we’ve ever seen, and image quality is very impressive. Its zoom range is a very flexible 28mm-200mm. An unusual but welcome feature of this camera is that the lens can swivel away from the camera body. For example, if you wanted to shoot a bird in a tree, you could keep your head and camera body looking straight ahead, while the lens points upwards to the bird. The F828 is available online for around £600.
The Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom has a very low wide-angle lens setting (28mm). Shutter delay is just OK, but all other key areas perform very strongly, and its resolution of 8Mp is very handy for big prints and cropping on image editing software. Image quality overall is very good. Movie quality is pretty good for a digital camera, too. This is another large camera, weighing in at 772g. The Olympus C-8080 Zoom is hard to find on the high street, but try online where you can find it for about £505.
The 7.1Mp Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom, £500 from Jessops, is a lighter camera than the C-8080, at 537g. It performs well across the board, and even offers good movie quality. The quality of its still images is very good. Its minimum lens setting is 27mm, very low for a digital camera, so it’s great for landscapes. Other options include manual focus and aperture priority and shutter speed priority modes.
The 8Mp Nikon Coolpix 8400, around £475 online, has ‘BSS’ (Best Shot Selector). When turned on, the camera takes ten images in quick succession and keeps the sharpest of them. This system simulates the effect of image stabilisation, but it’s not quite as good. This is a camera with few real weaknesses, though – in fact, image quality is very good and one of the best of all our Best Buys.
Weighing in at a hefty 617g, the professional-looking 6.1Mp Fujifilm Finepix S7000 is another high-scoring camera. Overall image quality is very good (close-ups are excellent). Its zoom range is 35mm-210mm - not as large as some of the Olympus Best Buys above, but larger than most digital cameras. It also has one of the shortest shutter delays. It doesn’t include battery charger and rechargeable batteries, so buy them separately. The camera is £330 from Jessops.
The Canon Digital Ixus 700 is a small, lightweight camera. Shutter delay is excellent (around 0.2 seconds), as are flash photos. Image quality overall is good. It lacks manual focus and aperture priority and shutter speed priority modes, but as a highly pocketable, easy-to-use camera, it is very hard to beat. It takes pretty good movies, too, and has a resolution of 7.1Mp. The Ixus 700 is available for £315 at Jessops.
The 8Mp Konica Minolta A200 weighs in at almost 700g, but there’s plenty on offer within all that bulk. You’ll find manual focus and shutter speed/aperture priority modes, as well as image stabilisation - still quite a rarity in digital cameras. Image stabilisation sharpens images affected by ‘hand-shake’, which causes blurring. The optical zoom on this camera is versatile - its minimum setting is 28mm, meaning that it’s great for wide landscape shots, yet the zoom is powerful (maximum – 200mm). Image quality is good, and it’s easy to use, but flash performance isn’t spectacular. The A200 is £450 from Jessops.
The Canon PowerShot G6 is another large and quite heavy camera, this time with a big 7.1Mp resolution. It isn’t the easiest to use (shutter delay is long, at around one second), and photo transfer to computer is relatively slow, but it takes very good-quality pictures. Its zoom range is 35mm-140mm. The Powershot G6 is £450 from Jessops, John Lewis and Comet.
The Nikon Coolpix 8800 is another large and heavy camera. It has a powerful optical zoom of 35mm-350mm and image stabilisation, but unfortunately suffers from a long shutter delay. It has lots of features, though, and very good image quality, among the best of the Best Buys. But start-up time is pretty poor: after you turn it on, the camera takes almost five seconds before it’s ready to shoot. The Nikon Coolpix 8800 is around £520 online.
The 7.1Mp Sony Cybershot DSC-V3 is a lighter, more compact camera with manual focus and aperture/shutter speed priority modes. Like the Konica Minolta A200, it doesn’t come with a memory card in the box, so you have to buy one separately. It will accept either Memory Stick or Compact Flash I memory cards. Compact Flash cards are cheaper – a 256Mb card will set you back around £25. As with nearly all digital cameras, you can also reduce image quality to fit more images on your memory card. Shutter delay isn’t fantastic on the V3, but you can use ‘focus lock’ to cut the delay right down, so in many circumstances it won’t be a problem. It’s available online for around £370.
Updated November 2005
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