f.a.o camara folk

[keirz]

i need help from the photography buffs out there. im gonna buy a new camara. im looking to spend about £150 on a decent one that i will be using mainly for car photo shoots. needs to be good in low light and extremly sharp images. i want something which is very easy to use but also one i can have a bit of a play with settings and stuff as i want to learn more about photography. i have seen these two camaras today and just wanted some opinions on them. any other suggestions on which cam to get which will suit my needs will be greatly appreciated. these camaras are available from a shop near me and are both in my price range. the links are below.

samsung

olumpus

keiran

[keirz]

any ideas any one?

[gaz]

sorry mate im not too up to date on that type of camera.

[keirz]

ok gaz. all the camaras i have been hearing you and others using i would love to own but they are way out of price range and probably to hi tech for me. im just a begginer who wants a decent enough camara that i can play about with settings on and take clear photos. im sick of taking poor quality stuff on a 3mp cam, it doesnt do my shots any justice!!

[Guest Enzo]

that olympus looks like it can do the job perfectly mate,

[keirz]

thats what i thought enzo. i have read through and it looks like it can be fiddled with. lots of settings and also anti shake and blur. i think the olympus camara was close to £300 when it first came out so must be a decent bit of kit. ive seen it in black at jessops for £130 in a sale. so i may part with my cash. the only thing putting me off is that you cant change the lenses about.

[Glanza_Ragger]

Id go for the olympus matey, as it has a higher optical zoom.

The difference between 7mp and 10mp will be barely noticeble, id rather have a much better zoom..

I mean lets face it, 7mp will give mega resolution pictures and how often would you want prints larger than a4 sized ;)

Id go for the olympus. I was actually lookin at one of these in my jessops store, they look pretty good.

[lobotomy]

Don't go in for cameras that say they have a good "nightmode" -- All the camera will do is fire the ISO up to maximum which will make the photo all grainy. All you need for good night photo's is a camera with exposure and aperature settings and a tripod.

Also -- you won't be able to change any lenses on any camera that isn't a DSLR, that's why they're referred to as DSLR style. Plus if you're working to a tight budget interchangable lenses wouldn't make much dif because they cost more than the cam usually!

[lobotomy]

Also another point -- Which I've kinda found out after buying my girlfriend a camera:

stick to cameras made by camera manufacturers!

I bought a casio (known for digital bloody watches!) exilim for her which on paper seemed awesome, but all the "best shot" settings are pretty crap -- it does take good outdoor photo's and vids though.

[edit]

Also I've just done a bit of reading on the Olympus mate, and it has a threaded barrel so you can change lenses -- but they will only be a couple of camera specific lenses. Namely:

WCON-07 Wide-Angle Conversion Lens

TCON-17 Telephoto Conversion Lens.

[/edit]

[gaz]

I print over a4 all the time. Not only that but the pixel resoultion within the picture makes a difference at a higher Mega pixel along with DPI.

A good quality lens will make a great differnce but not if the camera isnt capable in the first place, if your thinking of that kinda thing.

[lobotomy]

When you're talking about image processors on cameras you can't really compare at this budget. But it all does make a difference.

[keirz]

thanks lads.

so do you think the olypus would be worth the money?

like i said i am on a budget so the camaras a would like are way to far out of range, so i want a kinda compramise.

[lobotomy]

I'd go with the Olympus mate -- but to throw another one into the mix:

Fuji Finepix S5600 @ Tesco's

This is the camera I've got. I'm a bit tired of it now, wanna move on to DSLR soon, but I payed £300 with case and memory 1 and 1/2 years ago for it. Tesco's has it for £130 -- Lot's of intermediate features but only 5.1MP

[Guest Enzo]

yea the technology of cameras is moving at an alarming rate, ive got a 5 mega pixel exilim thats a year and a half old, it would be worth fucka ll now

#

would you be intersetd in selling me your fuji ??

[lobotomy]

If I get a DSLR in the next couple of months I'll keep you in mind -- wouldn't want anywhere near retail when I sell it so I'll keep you in mind bud (since it's been so well used )

[Fogdoggydog]

I'd go Fuji!

Cause I used to have a few and they all rocked! And my dad is a bit of a photographer, and he swears by them.

My current camera is an Olympus 3MP jobbie, and it's grand for daytime shots, but in the dark the 1.3MP Fuji is used to have came out with better photos!

[keirz]

lobo would that be the camara you used to take the photos of you and geos cars??????

if so im nipping tesco now!!!

[lobotomy]

Yeah that's the one I've used for all the photo's on my FlickR account.

Actually just mentioning FlickR -- Ir's got this good camera comparing bit on it that lets you see the kind of photo's taken by FlickR users with certain different cameras. I couldn't find the samsung one but here's some with the other two:

FlickR -- Cam comparer [Olympus SP510]

FlickR -- Cam comparer [Fuji Finepix S5600]

[Fogdoggydog]

Question for Lobo:

The night shots you did of your's and geo's cars a wee while back - how come they came out so well. Just taking a stab in the dark (geddit?), but would that be due to the ISO level of the camera, or just due to the big ass lens? I'm asking because to replace my current camera I'd like something small, but capable of similar low-light performance.

[lobotomy]

I actually take the ISO off auto on my camera and whack it down to the minimum possible! 64 on the S5600 -- Going higher just introduces noise! If I'm in a situation where the slowest shutter speed (15sec on mine) and aperature setting that I want is still giving an underexposed image I'll maybe pop the ISO setting up a little.

I also actually just read the other day that the super fine compression which I've been using actually adds blur/noise to my photo's aswell! I just assumed superfine would be the best option for getting the best photo's!

[gaz]

Is that the same for all cameras lobo? the superfine thing. because i assumed that too

[lobotomy]

I'm not 100% sure mate -- it was actually a review of a DSLR cam in a magazine (which I never bought) so I thought I'd turn it off on mine. Not taken any pics to see the dif tho.

Has something to do with the image processor... I'm gonna read up on this on the net though and try to find a definitive answer. The way I saw it though was the superfine compression pics are larger (in filesize)... implying that they're compressed less... implying less loss of detail through compression?? But this mag had 3 pics in RAW format, Normal compression and Superfine compression, and you could see a bit more blur when zoomed in on the superfine pic, the normal compression pic seemed sharper.

[gaz]

I see, do you take your pics in RAW?

let me know if you find anything out dude.

[keirz]

im learning a little know thanks lads. im sure i will hastle some of you when i start playing around with settings. lol.

ive seen a camera which im gonna buy now. it seems to be the upgraded model of the one lobo recomended. its a fuji finepix S6500fd.

it looks the dogs bollocks. its in argos for £280 and i found it for £179.99. a little out of my budget but i think it may be worth the little extra. i may pick it up at the weekend. what you think?