Been surfing about on the old t'intarweb...

[Elmo]

and came across this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...=60420&_LOC=UK

just wondered if anyone had used one?

I cant afford a DSLR atm, and cba getting films developed, so wondered if this was any god as maybe a stop gap between my (crap) kodak and a DSLR.

it's on pixmania for £340 here:

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/1029...pack-plus.html

whatchya fink?

[noah]

i couldnt get onto the ebuyer one, but if its the same price as the pixmania one then head down to your local jacobs store, or phone them if you dont have one near as i was in britol on the weekend and they has the older (but still good) cannon 300D on offer for £350ish (mightve even been less). well worth a look if you can afford it.

otherwaise tho ive heard good things about the s2, also some of the fuji's. have a look at the reviews on www.dpreview.com and www.stevesdigicams.com

[Elmo]

on ebuyer it was about £150, but it think its a refurb, not 100% sure.

<edit> it's £140

is this a better link?

[shiato storm]

ebuyer is grey import. I wouldn't bother elmo... although the prices are attractive you're not covered by canon UK...which could be a bummer if anything cocks up.
and Pixmania is french. need I say more?
if you've got £150 then I think the fuji 5500 should be arond there. its a good little camea frm what I hear.

editamundo: the S2 is the update of the S1 (fairly obvious that really) and I believe its pretty good. came out earlier this year so still upto date. if you wait to next month I believe canon's new range of cameras are about to hit the shelves so maybe see what they have then?

I actually went to look at 7mpix cameras by other makes (mine is the sony P200) and to be honest none of the other makes did it for me. Canon and nikon really used their names and the actual cameras themselves were, lets face it, sub-standard and not worth the money. £300 for something without manual setting! the fuji F10 has an excellent sensor and decent lens and I think it can be picked up for a smidge over £200, plus it can go up to 1600iso for low light photography e.g. club/gig etc. but again oddly no manual setting.
for experimentation its good to try and get something with a manual setting - and a max shutter time of 30secs is what I have, does the job! I think many are 15secs which is acceptable. so, if you're after something to play around with and explore what you can do manual setting is a real need I'm afraid. and its something that should be on all cameras but saddly (for canon + nikon) it isn't always the case.

[Flibb]

Think many of the brands restricted manual setting to the prosumer models, Sony F828 + H1, Nikon 8800 (worth looking at other older models), canon pro 1, minolta A1,A2,A200. Think most of them basically up sensored the lower end models, but only put high end features in tot he top end prosumer stuff. Many of these prosumer models are comming towards the end of their retail life, the drop in price of dslr has made them difficult to sell, consequently the prices have started to drop. Problem with dslrs isntt he cost of the camera, its the extra lenses. To get the equivalent range of focal length and quality of glass to a good high end compact can cost thousands.

[Flibb]

Another point, try before you buy. I was settled on getting a minolta A2, then tried it and found the ergonomics didnt suit me, would probably have got a Canon pro1 but I picked up a DSLR cheap with a good lens. Also picked up a slightly older 70-300 telephoto (Nikon has good backwards compatability) for £50, next thing is a 50mm f1.8 (works well in low light), that shold be another £50. You also have to factor in increased storage with high pixel count, and the cost of any extra batterys.

[shiato storm]

and whether those batteries you use will be proprietry (specific to the camera) or consumer ones (like AA's - for which you WILL need to spend more on getting rechargables...)

[Elmo]

oh well i'll just go back to saving then i guess...

[5lab]

s1 is a good camera, whether the s2 is worth twice as much? i doubt it. i've got an s2, and i'm pleased with it.

jessops dont do price matching any more

in my eye, thats a stonking deal. you'd need a sandisk card to go with it - ~£50 for a 1 gig one

[Flibb]

have you checked out jessops and london camera exchange second hand stuff. Less risk than ebay as it comes with a gtee, LCS have online prices, jessops you have phone them and have it deliverd to a local branch.

[shiato storm]

jessops dont do price matching any more

really? since when? i thought they pride themselves in staying competative

[da_ging]

i thought they had only stopped matching online only stores?

anyway i also have an s2 and it is a good camera but if i had to choose again i would go for one of the canon 300d's from their ebay outlet as they are selling them body only for around £320 and £400 for the kit which aint bad at all as you still get a 1 year warranty

[Alex]

If you've got £150 then I think the Fuji 5500 should be arond there. its a good little camea frm what I hear.

I'll second that proposition - I have one of these and I think it's great! Mahoosive zoom levels, good manual controls, feels nice, works with 55mm filters, and if you get good rechargeable batteries (2000-2500mAh) then they last for ages too (the ones that I have last for about 500 photos - if you get two sets that'll easily do you for even the more trigger hapy holidays).

The only downside I've found on this camera is that I'd like the ISO range to go higher than the 64-400 it does, I'd like a flash hotshoe, a higher resolution would be nice as would some kind of image stabilisation. For £150ish though, its a superb camera.

[noah]

ive also heard good things about the canon s70 (£208 warehouseexpress) tis nice and small, fully manual and 7 mpix i think. worth a look

[shiato storm]

its a great camera, but its 299...unless you've seen it advertised for 209, I'd certainly get it for 209!!

[noah]

hmmn, i see what you mean...just checked the site, i thought i saw the above price in AP this week, mustve been after a couple of beers, my mistake