Camera please santa

I want to ask Santa for a new camera for Christmas.Doesn't need to be professional quality especially when theirs only $200-300 available.
Just the odd bike shot ect.
My knowledge of camers is very limited but interest is building.
In lay mans terms what should i look for,any make better than others.Size does matter.Or is it for that money there all kids toys?

A good question Gus and I had the same question many years ago when digital cameras were still a novelty. Because of that there were some good reviews around comparing different brands and models. One review had an extremely good piece of advice that is still relevant today. Image quality is more about optical quality that digital quality. I can demonstrate that with the two cameras I have. A 3 megapixel Olympus C640 and a 12 mega pixel Canon Ixus 105 - the Olympus beats the Cannon hands down for picture quality because it has extremely high quality optics - you can easily see it in side-by-side comparisons - no amount of messing about with settings on the Cannon can get you a picture of the quality produced by the Olympus (which is why the review recommended it). So, don't worry at all about whether it's 3MP, 6MP or 12MP - that doesn't tell the whole story (or even the important part of the story). That's why I asked Desert Bandito on this forum what Camera he used. They are good shots and taken with a Cannon (not the IXUS 105 mind you) so I'm not bagging Cannon in favour of Olympus. Just passing on sage advice. I don't know how you'd get good advice on the quality of the optics on the multitude of current cameras except by a one-on-one comparison test like the one I got years ago. I carry the Cannon on rides because it is smaller and more compact but it doesn't take as good a picture.

You liked "Desert"'s photos, this one is an update on that his SX10 is, I like this series of cameras from Canon, big zoom and convenience, unless want a more compact camera. Probably look for at least 10Megapixels and at least 4x optical zoom (ignore digital zoom) and an optical image stabiliser. Sony and Panasonic also make some good cameras in this class as long as you go for the better optics as EWOK said.

SX20is for Sale

There are some good websites that have camera reviews, often with side by side comparisons of the same scene and full resolution downloads of the images the camera captures.

Not pushing the SX20 but here are two of my favourite review sites as an example.

Digital Camera Review

Steve's Digicams

you need to sort out what is important to you - what type of shots do you want to be taking?

if the majority are landscape, then zoom will be less important, but if you want to shoot action, then speed will be your priority.

there are many good deals available at present. we were at Hardly Normal at the weekend looking at some new models, but the arsesistant (no, not a spelling error) must have been getting a better bonus by selling the Nikon product as that was all he was pushing - despite being told that all I shoot with is Canon.

as an alrounder, this fujifilm was quite good (especially for $268) - but ideally you should go to a specialist shop where you can get hands on with several models.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/FujiFilm/fujifilm_jz500.asp

my 2c!

btw, if the SX20IS is of interest (& the higher price), forget it & go straight for the SX30IS - it's the new model with a very minor price difference.

Gee that got your attention didn't it.

Now I'm going to sit down and read it a few more times to get my head around it. I am impressed

Obviously if i need someone to chat too, I'll just have to post the word CAMERA. Thanks

boomer wrote:.... we were at Hardly Normal at the weekend looking at some new models, but the arsesistant (no, not a spelling error) must have been getting a better bonus by selling the Nikon product as that was all he was pushing - despite being told that all I shoot with is Canon.

Hey boomer - must have been the same HN store I went to - I walked out in disgust.

personally speaking, my Wife reckons I have the 2 most expensive hobbies on the planet - bikes & cameras.
i couldn't tell you which I've spent more on either.

Ewok - it was Bondi Junction. I did enjoy wasting his time though