Camera recommendations please.

So can anyone recommend a camera for me? I'm not an experienced photographer by any means but don't mind learning.

I want to take photos of the family, the garden, views on days out that sort of thing. I see some lovely photos on here of bees on flowers, ladybirds etc so being able to take close ups would be good. I can spend up to £400, maybe a bit more!

Any ideas?

 

I love Canon PowerShot. I've had several variants, over the years, and am now on the SX50HS.

That model won't fit in your pocket, but it does most of what the SLRs will do (its a so called "bridge camera") and without the need to lug lenses and all the rest of the accoutrement around with you. I did that years ago, back in the days of film, and I have no wish to repeat it now. Only thing I miss is the zoom ring on the lens, the little zoom lever on the PowerShot does not give the same fine adjustment.

The SX50HS has a lens that zooms from 24 - 1200 mm, you'd certainly need 2 lenses for that on an SLR, and more likely 3 or perhaps more. It will go beyond that zoom, digitally, to 200x !

Here's a picture (from this thread) to show what that means. These are not cropped (just reduced to 800 x 600 to fit on this site), so this was exactly what I saw through the viewfinder. The pictures are hand-help, no tripod (the camera has a stabilising capability for slow shutter speeds / extreme zoom)


Normal 24mm. See the statue at the end of the path? Here it is :


Full optical zoom


Full digital zoom

It also has a Macro mode for closeups. You can fiddle with it, in macro mode, but in most cases you don't have to do anything - just move closer. Here's an example of my laptop screen:



and then moving even closer, so that the lens is actually touching the screen:



Other thing I like is that you can use viewfinder (great in bright light) or the back screen; the back screen rotates in all directions, including flipping out to the side and rotating back-to-front so that you can see it when you take a selfie!

There are smaller, more pocket sized, cameras in the PowerShot range. They all come with the same excellent Canon software.

Have a look at one of the camera review sites - that will help you get a short-list of must-have features etc

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-powershot-sx50-hs

I bought mine for £250 from eGlobal Digital

 

Another one here with a Canon, although mine is a SX40
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5597408.htm

 

I bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ200 earlier this year and can honestly say its fantastic, equivilant zoom of 600mm, granted not as big as some of the other bridge cameras but its enough for me I like taking wildlife photos and the 12fps burst shooting at full resolution sold it for me. I paid around £360 new off an Ebay seller and have since bought some filters, close up filters for even closer macro work and a remote, I'm loving it

http://www.trustedreviews.com/panasonic-lumix-dmc-fz200_Digital-Camera_review

 

Thanks guys....just checking out your recommendations. Lots to think about!

 

Some good points Armandii, I always use the viewfinder on the camera mentioned above, easy to use and much easier to compose photos I find

 

Thanks Armandii.....I definitely won't rush and I'll take your advice about handling them first to see how they feel. Then after choosing I'll see if there are any good deals online.

 

Hi Fern, a word of warning about some online sellers, try and check their feedback first as I found that although some companies were saying they were UK based they were simply a mail depot sort of thing that held no stock and the cameras were being imported from abroad and then sent on to the buyer from there. A lot of feedback on these sort of companies suggested long delivery times despite quick delivery promises and poor customer service. The one I found through Ebay held stock in the UK, answered my queries via email within 12hrs and eventually delivered the camera once ordered within 2 days after also sending an email with tracking info

 

Thanks Bilbo. When I order something online, I want it NOW..lol. I don't fancy waiting forever for a new camera!

 

Will do Armandii.