Another What Camera & Printer Thread
Discussion
Looking to but myself a small digital camera and willing to spend around 350GBP for one... what is PH consensus on best one to go for...
Would class myself as relative beginner photgraphy wise
Also to keep other half happy - need photo printer too, not proper pictures until they're printed!
Would class myself as relative beginner photgraphy wise
Also to keep other half happy - need photo printer too, not proper pictures until they're printed!
Derek,
To be quite honest it sort of depends what you are planing to use the camera for and how big you want to print.
Quite honestly I think almost any camera on the market and certainly any that have an RRP around £200 and above would not disappoint. Recommendation is difficult since the models change every 6 months - marketing and progress! There are a lot of good products out there. How far doyou think your interest will dig into the photography world? If you get hooked you will want to upgrade anyway .... so many angles on this.
In my family at the 'slip it in your pocket' size we have a 3 year old 2Mpix Sony without zoom (but very small - doesn;t get used much these days), a 2 year old Pentax Optio which I carry most of the time, ANother Pentax of similar age for my eldset daughter, 2 Casios - oldest about a year, most recent about 5 months old and a Canon Ixus Wireless which I bought back in February. All of them take great snapshots. All are slightly different in terms of what they do, whether they use proprietory or 'standard' batteries and stuff like that.
I also have a Canon Pro1 (All in one camera but more like an SLR withough the ability to change lenses) and a Canon S3 IS (Similar to the Pro1 but without the Pro quality lens and a few other features but WITH other features that fulfil certain requirements that the Pro1 cannot do. Horses for courses. The S3 IS retails around £300. A lot of camera for the money but not exactly pocket size.
If you are wanting to print - how involved do you want to get?
Some of the little dedicated 6x4 photo printers offer a good quality, many with simple but effective adjustment capabilities. Not cheap per print though. Top end versions can be quite sophisticated in their own way.
Or you can go through a PC.
Or you can get one of the more recent printers with direct printing from camera and/or memory card if that appeals more. My Canon Pixma iP6600D will take computer input, direct camera input of printing from memory cards with editing and adjustments and no computer required. Cracking quality. If you buy from the right source it won't cost much more than the smaller dedicted 6x4 photo printers yet you can produce much bigger prints and print on CD/DVD as well, if that takes your fancy.
In summary I think it is difficult to go wrong buying a first set up these days unless you are budgeting a total spend under £100! I could be wrong of course but I have yet to see anyone on here complain that they bought a pile of crap. (Maybe I missed the posts?
) And as the kit is mostly components which represent a part of the overall investment it's no big deal to make a change to part of the set up if you feel you must.
But if you have specific things in mind for subject matter for the pics let us know and more focused suggestions and experiences may well be forthcoming from the regulars here!
To be quite honest it sort of depends what you are planing to use the camera for and how big you want to print.
Quite honestly I think almost any camera on the market and certainly any that have an RRP around £200 and above would not disappoint. Recommendation is difficult since the models change every 6 months - marketing and progress! There are a lot of good products out there. How far doyou think your interest will dig into the photography world? If you get hooked you will want to upgrade anyway .... so many angles on this.
In my family at the 'slip it in your pocket' size we have a 3 year old 2Mpix Sony without zoom (but very small - doesn;t get used much these days), a 2 year old Pentax Optio which I carry most of the time, ANother Pentax of similar age for my eldset daughter, 2 Casios - oldest about a year, most recent about 5 months old and a Canon Ixus Wireless which I bought back in February. All of them take great snapshots. All are slightly different in terms of what they do, whether they use proprietory or 'standard' batteries and stuff like that.
I also have a Canon Pro1 (All in one camera but more like an SLR withough the ability to change lenses) and a Canon S3 IS (Similar to the Pro1 but without the Pro quality lens and a few other features but WITH other features that fulfil certain requirements that the Pro1 cannot do. Horses for courses. The S3 IS retails around £300. A lot of camera for the money but not exactly pocket size.
If you are wanting to print - how involved do you want to get?
Some of the little dedicated 6x4 photo printers offer a good quality, many with simple but effective adjustment capabilities. Not cheap per print though. Top end versions can be quite sophisticated in their own way.
Or you can go through a PC.
Or you can get one of the more recent printers with direct printing from camera and/or memory card if that appeals more. My Canon Pixma iP6600D will take computer input, direct camera input of printing from memory cards with editing and adjustments and no computer required. Cracking quality. If you buy from the right source it won't cost much more than the smaller dedicted 6x4 photo printers yet you can produce much bigger prints and print on CD/DVD as well, if that takes your fancy.
In summary I think it is difficult to go wrong buying a first set up these days unless you are budgeting a total spend under £100! I could be wrong of course but I have yet to see anyone on here complain that they bought a pile of crap. (Maybe I missed the posts?
) And as the kit is mostly components which represent a part of the overall investment it's no big deal to make a change to part of the set up if you feel you must. But if you have specific things in mind for subject matter for the pics let us know and more focused suggestions and experiences may well be forthcoming from the regulars here!
Wow.. thanks for the detailed reply, didn't know I didn't know so much about them!
It's first foray into digital cameras, I have an 8yo pentax point n shoot that's served very well under fairly abusive conditions and a 4yo nikon slr that is way better than me/my capabilities but has allowed me to take some cracking shots - or probably more like it has taken some cracking shots while allowing me to hold it! One day I'll have time to really learn to use it properly.
Thought was for a general purpose camera, small enuff be lugged about most of the time, but doesn't have to be one of the really dinky pocket sized efforts.
Have looked at 6, 7, 8 & 10 MP Sony, Canon, Casio, Pentax & Nikon's but as I don't understand enough of the jargon to know which is better..... so haven't bought.
I'd been guessing that traditional camera manufacturers should have better optical lenses and then Sony/Casio types would be better digital zooms, but then noticed Sony have Zeiss lenses and am now just velly confuddled by it all??
Ability for a little bit of video with sound would be a bonus but wouldn't sacrifice other qualities for that.
WRT printers, better half is of the old school and prefers pictures you can hold, put in albums etc. not scroll through slide show on laptop or tv.
So we'd be looking for the 6x4 type, something that's reliable, easy to use and doesn't cost a fortune in consumables.... what is the cost/quality benefit between home printing digital versus printing them from one of the kodak/fuji type machines that seem to be everywhere these days?
It's first foray into digital cameras, I have an 8yo pentax point n shoot that's served very well under fairly abusive conditions and a 4yo nikon slr that is way better than me/my capabilities but has allowed me to take some cracking shots - or probably more like it has taken some cracking shots while allowing me to hold it! One day I'll have time to really learn to use it properly.
Thought was for a general purpose camera, small enuff be lugged about most of the time, but doesn't have to be one of the really dinky pocket sized efforts.
Have looked at 6, 7, 8 & 10 MP Sony, Canon, Casio, Pentax & Nikon's but as I don't understand enough of the jargon to know which is better..... so haven't bought.
I'd been guessing that traditional camera manufacturers should have better optical lenses and then Sony/Casio types would be better digital zooms, but then noticed Sony have Zeiss lenses and am now just velly confuddled by it all??
Ability for a little bit of video with sound would be a bonus but wouldn't sacrifice other qualities for that.
WRT printers, better half is of the old school and prefers pictures you can hold, put in albums etc. not scroll through slide show on laptop or tv.
So we'd be looking for the 6x4 type, something that's reliable, easy to use and doesn't cost a fortune in consumables.... what is the cost/quality benefit between home printing digital versus printing them from one of the kodak/fuji type machines that seem to be everywhere these days?
OOo! Sorry, busy with stuff and missed this one.
Yep the Ixus is likely to be good. If you want to go bigger (though this may be a bit late for your trip. Are you sure the airport is a good place to buy? Dubai or similar maybe ...) the Canon S3 IS may be worth a look. More small SLR size but no interchangable lens. On the other have the lens does 37mm-432mm (35mm equivalent). And video with stero sound if that appeals. You can get a wide angle adapter to take it to 28mm equivalent and and Tele adaptor which iirc takes it to about 630mm. The wide angle seems to work well enough. I don't have the Tele adaptor.
If you want simple 6x4 prints then sticking with the (relatively) little Canon Selphy printers (various models with various features including direct from camera printing and limited editing capabilities) are probably a good idea since they will more likely match the characteristics of the camera than another brand.
Not cheap per print though. The one I bought Mrs. LongQ seems to produce some good prints (they are dye-sub printers) but she doesn't use it, preferring to entrust the task to a particular Boots photo centre and then complaining if the colours don't match on reprints.
Canon media is designed for Postcard use (or at least the stuff that came with the printer is!) so you could take the thing on holiday and create personal postcards ...
If you want to go up market there are a few other Canon printers which cost about the same but are more general usage. I picked up a Pixma iP6600D (now 6700D) from the Canon Outlet on eBay for £75 (about half price then) a few months ago. Excellent machine. Can ALSO be used to print direct from camera or memory card and has a small LCD screen for simple editing. Also prints onto printable CD/DVDs. But to be honest most printers which claim some sort of Photo capability are pretty good these days from what I can see.
The main decision seems to be how long you want the prints to last. The going target is 100+ years in an Album, though probably somewhat less than that if left hanging on the wall - especially if mounted without glass. To get that sort of life you have to buy - "The system" - Manufacturer Inks AND Paper. How much longevity may (or may not) be lost by using alternative papers is anyone's guess.
Does this help or might it be too late to help you?
Yep the Ixus is likely to be good. If you want to go bigger (though this may be a bit late for your trip. Are you sure the airport is a good place to buy? Dubai or similar maybe ...) the Canon S3 IS may be worth a look. More small SLR size but no interchangable lens. On the other have the lens does 37mm-432mm (35mm equivalent). And video with stero sound if that appeals. You can get a wide angle adapter to take it to 28mm equivalent and and Tele adaptor which iirc takes it to about 630mm. The wide angle seems to work well enough. I don't have the Tele adaptor.
If you want simple 6x4 prints then sticking with the (relatively) little Canon Selphy printers (various models with various features including direct from camera printing and limited editing capabilities) are probably a good idea since they will more likely match the characteristics of the camera than another brand.
Not cheap per print though. The one I bought Mrs. LongQ seems to produce some good prints (they are dye-sub printers) but she doesn't use it, preferring to entrust the task to a particular Boots photo centre and then complaining if the colours don't match on reprints.
Canon media is designed for Postcard use (or at least the stuff that came with the printer is!) so you could take the thing on holiday and create personal postcards ...
If you want to go up market there are a few other Canon printers which cost about the same but are more general usage. I picked up a Pixma iP6600D (now 6700D) from the Canon Outlet on eBay for £75 (about half price then) a few months ago. Excellent machine. Can ALSO be used to print direct from camera or memory card and has a small LCD screen for simple editing. Also prints onto printable CD/DVDs. But to be honest most printers which claim some sort of Photo capability are pretty good these days from what I can see.
The main decision seems to be how long you want the prints to last. The going target is 100+ years in an Album, though probably somewhat less than that if left hanging on the wall - especially if mounted without glass. To get that sort of life you have to buy - "The system" - Manufacturer Inks AND Paper. How much longevity may (or may not) be lost by using alternative papers is anyone's guess.
Does this help or might it be too late to help you?
Derek,
I've found the Ricoh Caplio R4 to be an excellent compact
I will also be looking into printers in the new year
Del
I've found the Ricoh Caplio R4 to be an excellent compact
I will also be looking into printers in the new year
Del
LongQ said:
though this may be a bit late for your trip
I pass through Schipol at least twice a fortnight so, no, any/all advice welcome.
LongQ said:
Are you sure the airport is a good place to buy? Dubai or similar maybe ...
When I bought my Tomtom and MP3 player I found the prices in Schipol to be better than other places I'd looked.
LongQ said:
If you want simple 6x4 prints then sticking with the (relatively) little Canon Selphy printers.... are probably a good idea since they will more likely match the characteristics of the camera than another brand.
Had looked at those but now thinking to just get 'em printed at local photoplace easier.
LongQ said:
or might it be too late to help you?
It's been too late to help me for some time now.... Keep getting drawn to the Sony WSC's for some reason??
Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff