Thread: Help with camera selection please

Depends on what is important to you.

Size?
Proprietary rechargeable batteries or something that uses AA cells?
With optical viewfinder or just the screen on the back?
Are low light photos a priority?
Do you want to fit an aftermarket flash?
SDHC or Compact Flash or MicroSD or those proprietary overpriced XD cards?
Do you want it to shoot video as well?
How much do you want to spend?

Have a look here for camera reviews - Digital Camera Reviews and News: Digital Photography Review: Forums, Glossary, FAQ

Check if your local library has Choice magazine - they regularly do reviews and comparisons of digital cameras.

If you're travelling, I'd go for one which takes AA batteries - otherwise you have to worry about chargers, voltage, plugs, adaptors, time to recharge etc. etc.

Screen on the back lets you immediately check whether you got the shot or not - when we went OS, I had a Mavica (remember them? 640x480 resolution, saved about 10 pictures on a floppy disk) SWMBO took a film camera, and we'd both try to get 'important' shots, then we'd check the Mavica to see if it looked OK, 'cause we knew we'd probably never be coming back.

Also, try in real life to see how long from "Camera-in-pocket" to "taking a shot" - some cameras take as long to boot up as a PC running Vista - others it's less than a second.

And I'll second the looking into memory format. But, be aware that some cameras come with adapters (for example, the one my wife just bought. Salesman sold us the fancy XD card, then inside the packaging I found the adapter for it to take the common, far cheaper, SD cards

Cheers,
Andrew

Unless you buy cheap, most cameras go from sleep to shoot really quick these days.

Like anything you get what you pay for. The TZ7 is one of the best value cameras on the market.

Buy It - You wont be disappointed* (If it doesn't do what you want then you need some thing much more expensive)

*This camera doesn't feature manual control, it has plenty of adjustability, but is not something to learn photographic exposure techniques

Thanks guys, but after some further research I've decided to go the Sony DCM H20 instead.

SB