Digital camera recommendation for my young daughter

The cheapest one that she finds "Really Pretty".


Fritz Von Feelin Groovy

quote:

Originally posted by Berlin Fritz:
The cheapest one that she finds "Really Pretty".


Fritz Von Feelin Groovy

Fritz

Nice thought. But I don't think I'm going to get away with it that easily.

hi brian,
i just bought the sony w12. you can use it as a simple point n shoot on auto settings or you can overide everything on manual settings.
its incredibly easy to use and fast as hell.
it has a large 2.5" screen. 5mp which means it takes wonderful photos every time. and on top of that you can buy it at : www.pixmania.com for around £200 in a kit!!
hope this helps
scotty

Actually I want to buy my own very first digital camera in the next week or two as well, so I'll be watching this space.


Fritz Von Shutters galore

scotty

Thanks for that suggestion, looks pretty good so that's now #1 on the shortlist. Her birthday is coming up on March 17th, so I've got a couple of weeks to sort this out, see if anyone else has any suggestions as well.

Cheers

Brian

quote:

Originally posted by Berlin Fritz:
Actually I want to buy my own very first digital camera in the next week or two as well, so I'll be watching this space.


Fritz Von Shutters galore

Fritz

The cheapest one that you find "Really Pretty"

quote:

Originally posted by Berlin Fritz:
The cheapest one that she finds "Really Pretty".


Fritz Von Feelin Groovy

Brian,

Often one finds on here that Fritz's posts require some level of interpretation, so allow me, if you will:-

What I believe Fritz meant by the above is that, of course (!), he was recommending, without hesitation, the Canon Powershot A85, which as Fritz well knows, has the ability to appeal to beginners all the way through to experienced photographers through its neat combination of automatic and manual operation!

Generally cheaper than the Sony too.



Cheers,

JR (Fritz's unofficial and completely unauthorised "interpreter" - I thank you )

Dave;

Do you mean Sony DSC-W1?

If so; my friend George has just bought one. It's a beauty, and superb v.f.m.

John.

I believe the main difference between the Sony DSC-W1 and the DSC-W12 is that the latter is black. An updated version DSC-W5 will be available soon.

Ther DSC-W1 is nice piece of kit for the money. I still prefer however a traditional film camera and could never part with my Contax G2. Not Leica quality but excellent results nevertheless.

Brian have you thought about getting your daughter a 35mm SLR film camera with manaual facility to start off with. She would get good insight into aperture, shutter speed and depth of field etc. I appreciate she wouldn't see instant results as with digital but it's still worthwhile.

George.

I certainly wouldn't worry about your daughter losing interest in a digital camera. (as long as she doesn't lose it) These cameras are incredibly easy to use and if she should lose interest the camera can always be used by other members of the family. Seeing the images full-screen is incredible fun in comparison with 5x3 & 6x4 colour prints. The images seem to glow from within rather like stained glass.

Just remember to get a spare set of batteries and a turbo charger with the camera. My Sony P71 came with a 14 hour charger and flat batteries! Not a good start for an impatient soul. The NiMH batteries don't hold a charge long term and ideally need a charger that kills the charge memory of the batteries.

You ought to seriously consider greater memory storage than that provided. The usual 8Mb stick (or whatever they call it with your camera choice) adds up to only 2-3 shots at maximum image quality! Though 128Mb memory sticks are rather slow to download onto the computer (in my experience) It may be better to get a middle-of-the-road memory stick (or card) and format it regularly to avoid such long delays. Cheaper too!

There is a new free download from Adobe with some "fix"-ing controls to improve the odd image failure. Called Photo Album Starter Edition 2.0. It works rather better than the Pixella software that came with my Sony camera. I use the Adobe on my old film prints after scanning (as well as the digital images). You'll also need a large hard drive if she gets keen. I had a couple of gigs of images within a couple of months. I hardly ever bothered with my OM1n/Zuiko set-up in comparison.

Regards
Nime

quote:

Brian have you thought about getting your daughter a 35mm SLR film camera with manaual facility to start off with. She would get good insight into aperture, shutter speed and depth of field etc. I appreciate she wouldn't see instant results as with digital but it's still worthwhile.

George.

Hi George

The answer is yes, I have thought about a 35mm film camera but it is exactly the ability to view results instantly that is attractive about learning with a digital camera.

Cheers

Brian

The Chief was telling me earlier how he had a divil of a job getting the 12x12 filum into his new machine !

Found myself in a similar situation recently. The wife decided she wanted a digicam just for snapshots. Went to "7dayshop.com" whom I have used frequently. They still have some discontinued Nikon CP2200's for £88 plus £3.95 delivery. Only 2 megapixels but an ideal first camera methinks. Only drawback is that they are based in Guernsey so delivery is around 2 weeks.

hi john, george is right the w12 is virtually the black version of the w1. the w5 which is coming out soon is NOT as good as the w12! in the fact it has a lesser resolution screen and less spec.
scotty