What Camera should I buy.

Rockburner's excellent answer should give you several pointers. I can only add that if, in addition to waves and the pier, you think you'll ever want to do some astrophotography, there is more support for Canon EOS than other makes. Another point is that there are companies that specialise in 'pre-owned' photographic gear, which is a good way of getting better quality kit for your money. I got an excellent condition Canon EOS 450D with kit lense from Camera Jungle last year -- they rated the camera condition as "good", but it's like new! I'd be more than happy to buy from them again. HTH, Geoff
 
I have exchanged my 10in samsung tablet for a newer one (£100) at CEX (entertainment exchange) They have many outlets
I also "sold" them a 3 year old laptop which I bought as a refurb for £180. When I say sold I accepted their voucher for £95.
Now looking for a further camera similar to the Kodak one I posted earlier.
https://uk.webuy.com/search?stext=compact camera

Loads of other TOYS 4 Us as well
 
This thread reminded me to dig out my old 'proper' camera and use that instead of the camera on the phone all the time. :)

I bought a Pentax K100D DSLR back around 2007 IIRC.
Choose Pentax as I had a Pentax MV I bought used way back in 1983 and liked the K-Bayonet Lens fitting and the fact you could swap and use lens from previous generations on the new camera (maybe not get the latest features but a decent telephoto lens is still a decent telephoto lens even without motorised control)
Limited to 6MP maximum, but does that really matter? I don't think so personally for most photos and people and certainly not for the type of pictures I take myself.
Just ordered myself a new 8GB SD Card for £6 on Amazon which will give well over 1,000 shots.
Battery wise it takes 4 x standard AA batteries. Using standard batteries is really handy - if they go dead then can buy new ones from millions of outlets and just drop the new ones in rather than having a propriety battery pack that must be recharged before you can use the camera again. (You can of course use rechargeable AA batteries and carry a seperate charger - that is what I used to do)

Those are the kind of things I like. Something that I would look for on a new Camera if I were buying again is the ability to do Video on an DSLR rather than having to have a seperate camcorder (I think the latest Canon EOS cameras are the leaders in that Video DSLR functionality at the moment?)
 
wildebus said:
This thread reminded me to dig out my old 'proper' camera and use that instead of the camera on the phone all the time. :)

I bought a Pentax K100D DSLR back around 2007 IIRC.
Choose Pentax as I had a Pentax MV I bought used way back in 1983 and liked the K-Bayonet Lens fitting and the fact you could swap and use lens from previous generations on the new camera (maybe not get the latest features but a decent telephoto lens is still a decent telephoto lens even without motorised control)
Limited to 6MP maximum, but does that really matter? I don't think so personally for most photos and people and certainly not for the type of pictures I take myself.
Just ordered myself a new 8GB SD Card for £6 on Amazon which will give well over 1,000 shots.
Battery wise it takes 4 x standard AA batteries. Using standard batteries is really handy - if they go dead then can buy new ones from millions of outlets and just drop the new ones in rather than having a propriety battery pack that must be recharged before you can use the camera again. (You can of course use rechargeable AA batteries and carry a seperate charger - that is what I used to do)

Those are the kind of things I like. Something that I would look for on a new Camera if I were buying again is the ability to do Video on an DSLR rather than having to have a seperate camcorder (I think the latest Canon EOS cameras are the leaders in that Video DSLR functionality at the moment?)
Click to expand...
I prefer a re-chargeable camera but each to their own..

I suggest normal batteries just get eaten..you need lithium
I agree that too many Megapixels is/are a curse
More storage needed
Longer upload and download times and indeed viewing (On Tinternet) gets slower
unless you are going to print a poster with a suitable printer then something like 1200 by 800 or 900 is good enough for most screens
Ok if you have a tv the maybe increase that by 2(No 4) to 2400 by 1600 or 1800...
As you say camcorders are "old hat" dashcam or movie on camera or phone good enough again too many pixels
 
wildebus said:
Limited to 6MP maximum, but does that really matter?
Click to expand...

The truth about megapixels, the most surprising fact is:
A 480p image has a resolution of 640 x 480, and the multiplication 640*480 = 307,200 = 0.3 MP
A HD image/video has a resolution of 1920 x 1080, and the multiplication 1920*1080 = 2,073,600 = 2 MP
A 4K image/video has a resolution of 4096 x 2160, and the multiplication 4096*2160 = 8,847,360 = 8.8 MP

Regards,
Del
 
I read an experiment once. A fella hired a Hasselblad v expensive mega pixel camera 39 mega pixels in 2008 and popped down a local wood. He set it up along with his little Canon G10 Everything set up so the picture was framed the same shot the same then printed the same. Set itup in his gallery and invited loads of photographers friends etc to pick which was which The result at A3 was 50/50 you cant tell the difference. That said I can tell the difference between my 1DX and 7D2 but only because I know which shot which. And I dont pixel peep. Yes theres other differences like ISO performance, dynamic range, autofocus but if it was me, buy a decent second hand camera with a good lens in the last 10 years. I still use my 11 year old 1DS3 value less than £500 and an old 24/105 mm and get great results.
 
Canon are pretty big in sports photography lol
canon.jpg
Regards,
Del
 
Thank you so much for all your replys. I will continue to do research on the matter.
Cheers. David.
 
Rockburner said:
AF means it's auto-focus.

AI-P means the lens has a built in computer to tell the camera metring information. (this is the old usage of the 'P' designation)

AF-S means it's auto-focus with a built in "Silent-Wave" electric motor that draws power from the camera battery to turn the lens elements, rather than using the focus motor within the camera. :) (It will also have the metring computer).

AF-P is the newer designation for lenses with a 'stepper' motor (it's a different style of electric motor, quieter).
Click to expand...

Cheers Rockburner for your advice so far. I'm David by the way the van is called Geraldine. Lol
 
wildebus said:
Just ordered myself a new 8GB SD Card for £6 on Amazon which will give well over 1,000 shots.
Click to expand...

Be interested to see how you get on with that. On the Nikon D50 (my camera), it will only recognise 2Gb SD cards. So you can stick a 4 in and it will think it's a 2. It won't even recognise an 8Gb or 16Gb.

Hope you don't have that issue!
 
Rockburner said:
Be interested to see how you get on with that. On the Nikon D50 (my camera), it will only recognise 2Gb SD cards. So you can stick a 4 in and it will think it's a 2. It won't even recognise an 8Gb or 16Gb.

Hope you don't have that issue!
Click to expand...
Funny you should mention this! I plugged it in and it didn't work.

But I found there was a firmware update for the camera to allow it to recognise HCSD cards.
I had to buy a 2GB standard SD card then to load the firmware onto for the camera to read the update of course, but once I did that, the 8GB card was recognised and it seems to work fine (the space indicator is still maxed out at 999 though as the 8GB capacity is way bigger).
I am pretty sure it sees the whole card as I did a format in the camera, took some pictures and when I put the card in the computer, I had the photos and the full 8GB size reported.

I bought my Camera in 2007 (or maybe even 2006?) so was out before HCSD cards were common, let alone the standard, and hence the firmware upgrade. If your camera is of a similar generation, maybe there is a update available like for mine?
 
Ok, say I have purchased a good camera and taken some great shots.
What is the best and cheapest method to print?
Forgot that this is the next and most important part of the photography process.
Photo shop? Apple?
 
Geraldine said:
Ok, say I have purchased a good camera and taken some great shots.
What is the best and cheapest method to print?
Forgot that this is the next and most important part of the photography process.
Photo shop? Apple?
Click to expand...
not tried it myself but there are a couple of companies that advertise on TV to do Free Prints - you upload the pictures you want printed and just pay for postage of the prints back - around £2.50 or something and limited to a certain number per month. Sounded very good value to me.
 
Geraldine said:
Ok, say I have purchased a good camera and taken some great shots.
What is the best and cheapest method to print?
Forgot that this is the next and most important part of the photography process.
Photo shop? Apple?
Click to expand...
If you want to edit and print your own then both Canon and Nikon have their own software that will get the job done (I'm sure the other makes will have too but I don't have any experience with them). I use Canon's Digital Photo Professional to work on and convert the RAW images and Photoshop for everything else, Photoshop will also process the RAW files but DPP does a better job, after all who would know Canon RAW files better than Canon? There are also many other programs available for the printing side of things, some are even free. As for Apple or Windows, it doesn't really matter which you use most of the top software is available for both platforms so just use whichever you find suits you better.

Regards,
Del
 
I haven't printed a photo in years. Let us know what you decide to use.
 
Raw Therapee (http://www.rawtherapee.com/) does a pretty good job with Canon RAW image files -- particularly if you have a whole set that need the same adjustment. I mainly use it for pre-processing astro image sets prior to stacking, but it does a good job with RAW images generally. HTH, Geoff
 
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