camera

since buying my bike & getting the internet at the same time ive got a bit carryed away mainly on ebay ....anyway now i need a digital camera, but dont fancy ebay? i have been told that 2-3 pixel is best for loading to computer as more than this takes to long &the quality will be the same is this right? wot should i pay(as much as i can afford, i hear you cry ), i have a nokia 6310 at the mo(i droped my sony in work ...wot about a camera phone?

p.s. wot other things are important when buing one ?

the higher the pixel count the better the quality
you can always take pix at a lower rate.
as for cam phones i have a sonyerricson k750i which has a 2mb pixel count

this was taken with my phone

Contrary to popular belief, pixel coint is not the most important factor. All pixel count gives you in the ability to print bigger impages before pixellation. Most 2 or 3MP are fine for printing 6" x 4" images just fine. You still have to reduce the size to fit the whole image on a PC screen running 1024 x 768.

Most important thing is the lens and exposure system. Note that generall more pixels means smaller pixels that tend to result in higher noise levels. Last year the optimum was about 5Mp for a compact camera. I guess that this figure has increased now to 6 or 7Mp.

If your going to use it in bright light you may want a 'real' optical viewfinder as the screens on the back are hard to see in thses conditions.

Ignore digital zoom as a feature. Optical is much better, it does not degrade the image.

Size, if you want to carry it about on the bike it has to fit in a pocket.

Camera phones are getting better but still lag somewhat behind a basic compact camera but are really good for the snaps when you don't wish to carry another thing about with you. Get one with a flash for lower light. They are really convenient devices.

That my 50p worth.

To save money, get someone else to take the photos

Personally I prefer film But I am old so I have an excuse

thanx for the advice

[Viney]

Nikon Coolpix are amongst some of the best Point and shoot cameras. Jessops have the P3 on sale at the mo, (5.1MP, 5x optical zoom etc) Good camera for £170.

You would be hard pushed to find a 2mp camera nowadays. Id aim for a 3-5mp camera.

argos do a nice pink one £15 3000pix

i only got about £50

Originally Posted by Viney

Nikon Coolpix are amongst some of the best Point and shoot cameras. Jessops have the P3 on sale at the mo, (5.1MP, 5x optical zoom etc) Good camera for £170.

You would be hard pushed to find a 2mp camera nowadays. Id aim for a 3-5mp camera.

Yep, I had a Nikon Coolpix 5700 (Which I am still mourning the loss of), very good camera. But that was more of a prosumer coolpix then the ones viney is on about I think. But very nice toy indeed.

I’m currently lusting after an EOS 400D, but that may be a little more than you are looking for!


Dan

Have a look at the Sony Ericsson phones. My one has a 3.2 mega pixel camera with auto focus, flash, and all the other bits you get with a camera. Its pretty good.

[northwind]

I'm maybe out of date, but I've never seen a camera phone with an optical zoom... Which, if it's still the case, is very limiting

Listen to Beenz. To put it a different way, a 7mp camera with bad optics takes a very high resolution image of a bad picture.

See if you can try some out. I got a fairly nice Kodak a couple of years back, not great but not bad, but I often use it for taking photos at gigs and festivals... And it's incredibly slow. Takes about 20 seconds to boot, for example. Stuff like that isn't obvious from spec sheets but it can be prety important- try taking a spontaneous photo with a camera that takes 20 seconds before it can shoot!

Thread hijack- can anyone recommend a small, fast, reasonable quality digital camera? Got to be able to deal with low light pretty well, and be fairly durable. I'm thinking maybe an IXUS, I used to have an APS IXUS II which I loved, apart from the cost of running an APS film camera...