A Good Quality, Simple, Well Built Camera

Posted by: dave brubeck on 24 March 2007

...so I put my charged up battery into my old Pentax Optio 4MP camera last night, pressed the on button... the lens moved to full extension, and then started making this terrible grinding noise, and the camera turned itself off. Repeat the above 5 times.

In short, it's time for a new camera.

So I get myself down to the olde electrical shoppe. Now, is it just me, or does every compact digital these days (maybe Canons exempt) appear to be made from plastic, and designed to last for 2 years? i.e after they are dropped or the technology is superseded?

And if I were to go for a digital SLR, are these not all massive and you need a PhD to operate?

Is there not something in between? i.e a reasonably sized (compactish) simple camera which will not be out of date in a short time? ...which is a quality built machine and will still take excellent pictures 10 years from now? Allowing for operator error of course...

Now I know there are a lot of budding Lichfields out there...

Budget is around 500 quid max.
Posted on: 20 April 2007 by ryan_d
Gary, you ain't wrong...i'm learning (trying!!) photoshop cs2 and although it is a mightly powerful tool, its a bloody nightmare to work out how to use. Maybe i'm not patient enough.....now wheres that nightclasses list????

Ryan
Posted on: 20 April 2007 by Graham Russell
Ryan,

You are so right. Photoshop CS2 is highly complex and designed for all aspects of digital media. I use CS2 for all my editing, but probably only use 5% of it's total capability.

I can thoroughly recommend this book:
"Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers" by Martin Evening

It shows you the bits of CS2 relevant to digital photography.

Great to read through or just to dip into for reference.

Good luck,
Graham.
Posted on: 21 April 2007 by ryan_d
Thanks for the recommendation Graham, its now been ordered via amazon.

Cheers

Ryan