New camera.

Post by **bluezephyr** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 1:13 am

Im looking to buy a new camera, Any suggestions to a good one for reasonable money?

Ive found this one on Play.com http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electro ... type=genre

The samsung i have now is an 8.1 the only thing i dont like is that the sound cuts out when zooming, Can i expect much better/clearer vivid pictures with a 12Mp? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw0lfs8hqOM

Spitfire · Post by **Spitfire** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 1:43 am

Well BZ,

Just my opinion and I'm by no means a photo expert but I'd go for something that has high "Optical Zoom" along with 8-10 mega pixels. 10x optical zoom or better get you a great lens, digital zoom is not as important.

Mega pixels become important when you start "blowing" things up to make big/bigger pics. If you are just doing regular snaps/photos/video of holiday etc than 4-6 mega pixels are more than fine.

The camera in the link looks good and has the spec mentioned above plus more, but as yet unrated, Samsung haven't been making cameras for long.

It might be worth checking out the equivelant cameras from Pentax/Nikkon/Cannon for 300 pound, they are generally sound and problem free. If you're coming over here then you could pick up something pretty decent for 15,000 baht.

You said, "Can i expect much better/clearer vivid pictures with a 12Mp?" Just my opinion again but if you want to make really decent movie footage, then buy a decent video cam, if you want to take decent pictures, buy a decent camera. However, 12Mp should be enough for whatever you've got in mind. The hybrids can often be lacking as they are untimately a compromise. The exceptions are, of course, very expensive. Though this will change eventually and this Samsung may be a step in the right direction.

Might not always be the case for all situations but as a general rule of thumb.

It depends upon what you have in mind or what your personal requirements are. You can spend huge sums on this stuff.

Post by **Cowboy** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 6:33 am

Couple of things to consider when buying a pocket camera for holiday snapshots:

Battery life:
- does it have a proper long lasting battery
- does it use also normal batteries (in case your battery dies)

Memory card options:
- what type of memory cards it uses? cost vs capacity?

Snapshot speed:
- my pet peeve with pocket cameras is always that they are really slow to catch the action if you try to take a few snapshots in a row, it can be frustrating at times

Connectivity:
- my old Sony has a nice sounding dock system, however, on holiday you don't want to carry anything extra, so if you can have the option of small charger/USB enabled charging, that's less to carry around

These are the things I'd consider when buying a snappycam...

Post by **buksida** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 12:53 pm

Good advice above. I'll reiterate on the Megapixels thing, most people put so much emphasis on this but the really high numbers are only useful for printing out larger images, 6-8 should be more than enough. You wont get better image clarity with more MP's, its all to do with lighting, exposure, focus and taking a good shot.

Here is a guide to print sizes:

As also said above point and shoot cameras all have shutter lag so you may find you get "ghosted" images or a lot of blur, look for one that has quicker shutter release times rather than loads of Megapixels.

A good site for comparing different cameras and getting reviews is: www.dpreview.com

I bought a Sony W80 for mrs B last year which isn't bad but I then I'm used to the DSLR now so anything less is just annoying!

Post by **hhfarang** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 2:33 pm

I've been reading several of the top digital camera review sites regularly for years now and the general consensus is and always has been that Canon makes the best quality equipment. The other top rated ones are the ones you would expect, Olympus, Nikon, Sony, etc. but Samsung is rarely in the highly rated categories.

One surprising one that is is Panasonic (Lumix). From what I have read recently, if I were in the market for either a pocket snapshot camera or a long optical zoom camera, Canon or Panasonic Lumix would be among the first I would look at.

As for megapixels, as Buksi and others pointed out, unless you are going to blow up photos to a large size you really don't need anything over six or seven mp. I like to take photos at the highest resolution the camera allows to get the most detail (you can always make the photos smaller later if you want to put them on the web or make normal 4X6 prints) so another consideration for me is storage. I have filled over 200 gigabytes of storage on my computer with digital photos. Lower megapixels means less storage required (both in your computer and in the camera memory card), so take that into consideration as well before paying for 12 megapixels when you may only need 6.

Post by **Cowboy** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 4:35 pm

The benefit of having megapixels is that when taking a snapshot, for example about something in the distance, and since these pocket cams don't have a zoom like SLRs (never use the digital zoom), you can actually take the photo and then crop the photo to show the part you were shooting and still make it a decent size print (if you want to print it out)...

Zooming by megapixels...

Post by **Randy Cornhole** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 9:14 pm

I use that method everytime Cowboy...

Post by **STEVE G** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:56 pm

I was recently given a basic Panosonic Lumix as a present and it's incredibly good for taking those late night party photos that used to look like junk in the morning, but with this camera they're clear and in focus.

Post by **Randy Cornhole** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:11 am

for taking those late night party photos that used to look like junk in the morning, but with this camera they're clear and in focus.

Are you sure thats a good thing Steve...

Post by **bluezephyr** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:52 am

.
Lots of camera advice

mine seems to be doing the job for what i want so until i manage to break it i think i will stick with it until the need arises for semi professional pictures!.
Do these pics look of acceptable point and shoot quality? Would an SLR camera have made a vast difference?

This is the camera i havehttp://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews120029.html

Post by **Cowboy** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 5:43 am

To me they look good, however, if you wanted to improve them, you could run them through a Photoshop or similar and adjust brightness/contrast/color depth/etc to make them even better.

For example the Spitfire pic is great, but by adjusting the aforementioned, you could reduce the greyness/slight fogginess and make the plane pop out even more...

Post by **Randy Cornhole** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 5:55 am

I agree with Cowboy, photoshop is worth learning and can make vast improvements.

Also bluezephyr, and this is not a critisim but photographers will usually work to the rule of thirds when taking pictures and/or cropping.

Ie the subject is never bang in the center (like your spit) but over to one side, a third of the way so to speak. I think i would have put 2/3 of the pic in front of it to perhaps show some clear sky to provoke an emotive response from the viewer...

Of course the art of photography is highly subjective and you may think i'm talking a load of bollo's...

Post by **bluezephyr** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 5:58 am

Just adjusted the colour and contrast, Posting it again to see if there is much difference

+ a few other pics

Post by **bluezephyr** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:33 am

Randy Cornhole wrote:
Also bluezephyr, and this is not a critisim but photographers will usually work to the rule of thirds when taking pictures and/or cropping.

Ie the subject is never bang in the center (like your spit) but over to one side, a third of the way so to speak. I think i would have put 2/3 of the pic in front of it to perhaps show some clear sky to provoke an emotive response from the viewer...

Of course the art of photography is highly subjective and you may think i'm talking a load of bollo's...

But there are photographers and there a clumsy loons with cameras

!
Point taken

Your knowledge of pictures is far greater than mine.

Post by **Cowboy** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:57 am

There was a great article in the latest MacFormat UK magazine about creating more drama with layers by adding more color depth... if you're in the UK, pick it up (didn't find the article online) or have a look at the newsagent's...