Digital compact for OAP

[LeoSayer]

My father in law wants a digital camera after he broke his last one.

The only real requirements are:
Must be very easy to use
Takes good pictures
Takes video clips
Below £150 preferably
Fairly rugged

Any recommendations?

[diesel head]

Well it has been a while since I have sold cameras however to be honest there is a real gap in the market for a good very very basic camera, the number of the older generation who wound up coming back time again either because they couldn't see the tiny symbols on buttons, or there was simply too much to get their head round.

I tended to either recommend a pentax or nikon compact to these type of people as they tended to be the easiest to operate.

[andy-xr]

The dial on the top of the Lumix TZ4 is big enough to push around with a finger if he's so inclined, and not massively fiddly if left in Intelligent Auto.

It's not massive, but you'd know it was in your pocket. Camera / Playback toggle is a slider just under the shutter button and mine was under £150 with a 1 gig SD card

I'm selling my car and took some snaps of it with my TZ4, this is the original:



One of the chaps asked if there was a knock on the bonnet, so I did a crop with no alterations other than a random border



It has video, but I've never used it sorry. It's probably been replaced with something else now, as I bought mine around a year ago

Edited by andy-xr on Friday 31st July 20:07 because he doesnt know which camera he actually has. Sorry

Edited by andy-xr on Friday 31st July 23:18

[BigAlinEmbra]

Recommended this a few times now, but I got my mum a Sony W50 a couple of xmases back and she loves it. The function dial also pops up onscreen, with descriptions of what each mode does, which she finds helpful.
Some of the Sonys also have optical viewfinders, which tends to go down better with those of an old skool persuasion.

[Ed_P]

[irony]I'll be retired in a couple of years. I've got a 5D, 40D, 70-200mm F2.8 L IS, 24-105mm F4 L IS, 400mm F5.6L, 4 speedlights and a big bagful of other bits and pieces. Unfortunately, no video facility and as far as I can remember, it cost more than £150. Rugged though, and picture quality ain't bad either. [/irony]

What a retirement to look forward to though!