New camera

[PeterN2]

I am thinking of updating my camera to a new up to date model. I have been using an Olympus C750 for about ten years and it still works well. I also have an Olympus C765 that I got off ebay for about £30 complete with original box and paperwork. That works great and is a little more compact than the C750. However, I got a memory card stuck in it (it is in the right way round) and the camera shop took it in for repair, sent it away somwhere and then charged me £20 to tell me it is uneconomical to strip it to get the card out when they got it back. The XD memory cards I have are now a bit old and I don't think they make them any more. Also, the contacts fell off one card and I bet that is what happened to the one stuck in the C765. It seems to be attached to the thing it sits on and will not release when you press it down.
So, I am looking for a good quality compact camera. I am not a photogropher as such, so not looking to create prize winning photo effects, just looking to take good quality pictures from close up to long views. I am not looking for a bridge camera or DSLR. I have beeen looking at something like the Sony DSC-HX50. Has anyone any reccomendations as to what make and model I should be looking at? There are dozens of different cameras out there and if anyone can assist in helping my choice, I would be grateful.
Regards
Peter.

[Niner]

I've got the DSC-HX20V and the one before it the DSC-HX9V. Both are top notch. I got the 20V because I loved the 9V and the newer 20 comes with a bit more zoom. Looks like the 50V is the next step with even more zoom. The 20V is plenty enough for me. Nothing wrong with the 9V either if you don't need a super zoom. The 20V does have a design change in the top of the camera case so the on/off button is lower than the top of the case to the left of it. On the 9V all the top surface is on the same level and the on/off button was all the time getting accidentally pushed when putting the camera in a small case I sometimes attach to my belt.

They used to offer one without the GPS and may still do. The GPS is good for travel photos. You can open up an album on your desktop and hit the gps to photo link and go to Google earth and be right there again ...in a sense. No forgetting where you took the photo. Good camera shake compensation. Program modes are all first rate, although the gold choice is super do everything program from low light to macro.

One thing to notice about these super zooms in compact camera's is that if you view long distance telephoto magnified images at actual size you will see a lot of pixel distortion. But... viewed normal size no problem. I'll try to show an example. One shot at a "normal" lens length cropped to give you a better idea of what the second shot at about full zoom does. If you look at the one with the people and the woman getting a sun tan, you will note particularly the blurring of the buildings in the background. But it is only very noticeable when shown, like here cropped from a photo that was about 2500 pixels to show what I'm talking about . The top photo is the zoom photo, full frame, resized to 800 pixels.

Here's a comparison I pulled up online between my 20 and the newer 50. .

http://snapsort.com/compare/Sony-Cyber- ... -DSC-HX50V

[DuncaninFrance]

First, XD memory cards are still available on Amazon UK, thousands of em!

Everyone has their favourite make - mine is Canon but you will have to decide on your requirements, price, programmes etc.,

Firstly, I would go to a camera shop and handle them, then you can start making a firm decision. One make I would consider is Lumix...........http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_ ... Ck%3Alumix

[Niner]

The Sony, and I'd expect the Lumix and all newer cameras as well, take SD cards with many GB's of potential images and HD movies on single SD HD cards. I've got a 8GB card for each camera and after lots of photos at large pixel count and a number of movie additions, I still have lots of space left on each card. But considering the low cost of cards, many people buy cards with only enough room for a particular number of events. Say... a weeks vacations worth of images. You can download them and view them and whatever, but afterward you can label the card as "vacation July 2014" and save as an archive regardless of whatever you otherwise do with them.

[Niner Delta]

Sony Cyber-Shot 14.1mp, a simple little camera does more than I ever need, photos, video,
and even a panoramic that is fun to play with. If I want to do real videos, I have a Canon
FS300 digital camcorder that I never use.....


OK, here is what I think I know about SD cards.
On each card there is a little circle with a number in it, 1 thru 10, called a class rating.
And the higher the number, the faster the image is loaded onto the card and
that means the sooner you can take the next picture, smoother video.
A class 6 card transfers onto the card at 6MB per second, a class 10 card at 10MB per sec,
you get the idea.
So obviously the cards with a 10 are the fastest, the best.
And not all devices can take the SDHC (High Capacity) cards, seems the SD and SDHC are
different voltage. Most all new stuff takes SDHC and can still use SD.
But if you really want go big time there is a speed class called UHS (Ultra High Speed) I and II,
up to 312 MB/s, but I think those are beyond what you need for home use cameras. I have never
tried one, don't think I'll ever need one.......
Although you can get a Sony 32gb SDHC UHS I 40mb/s card on ebay for $20, so they are affordable.

.

[PeterN2]

Thanks for the replys. It gives me some ideas to ponder. I will have a trip to the camera shops and handle a few and see what seems best for me.
Regards
Peter.

[joseyclosey]

Its nice to have a plan Peter, as I like a compact camera to shove in my range bag or pocket I went out and bought a Nikon coolpix L25 on the strength of getting good foties from my previous Nikon c-pix and was disappointed with it.
I guess thats what you get for buying a discounted camera without doing your homework first.

Have fun with the camera testing,

Joe.

[Niner]

Now days you can get a lot of professionally done comparisons online of just about any two cameras of any make and model that are in the same class. Then when you narrow it down, there are more extensive reports on any camera you are drawn to examine. you can also read what users report of their experiences. That's how I got the Sony cameras I have now.

One other thing I've found about the camera now days is it that it is more about the quality of the programing that is built into it than anything else. Sometimes the newer and more sophisticated model isn't as good as the one it replaces. For instance, my long time waterproof fishing camera is a Pentax Optio W20. It is a never fail, great photo taking camera. I got a newer Pentax W90 several models later expecting a lot of super additional features, like a light ring for closeups. It's not nearly as good a camera on a number of more important to me considerations....like battery life for instance. The earlier model is better for my needs and the W90 stays at home.

Another thing is the support programs in some models relative to the kind of programing that is in the camera. I have a PanasonicHDC-TM55 movie camera. It takes pictures that are HD and supper clear. The camera programing is excellent. It has a 8GB built in memory and an amazing 35x zoom and a wide angle of 35.7. It functions flawlessly once you figure out all the how to do it things. The only down side is that Panasonic has crappy software for saving the movies you make so you end up converting to low resolution to save them. So....not such a good buy.

[Niner Delta]

My Canon camcorder (not HD) saves movies to some strange format that I have to convert to a normal
one (MPEG) in order to burn them to a dvd. There are lots of different softwares, try one that isn't Panasonic,
that's what I had to do to get away from the Canon software.

.

[PeterN2]

I ended up buying the Sony DSC HX50. I quite like the big zoom for getting up close to stuff. I have downloaded all 287 pages of the manual. I have now to figure out all the fuctions and see what it will do. It should be interesting.
Regards
Peter.