We are in the market for a new digi camera and have set a budget of around (Give or take a bit) $500.

Currently we have an ancient Fuji finepix 2mp jobby and are keen to stay with Fuji but are open to suggestions.

Anyone bought a new camera lately and are you happy or not?

What would you buy if you were looking now?

Cheers.

Slim.

Just take a course in water-colour painting, buy an easel and some paints, and then simply illustrate any scene you with to 'photograph'. It's cheaper, plus you may be able to sell on your works of art at a later date.




Hoping this reply is as helpful as the many, highly intelligent responses to threads you've made over the last couple of months ...

Just wondering if you are normally a dickhead or if you make a special effort on the internet?

have a trawl through here mate
http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews.php

i know its an amercian site but they must have some uses

dont they ??

i`m in the process of upgrading from my canon ixus 500 and trying to decide between the canon g7 and the panasonic dmc tz3
mmm mmm decisions decisions


have fun

Just bought a sony dsc-n2 10 mp, 3' touch screen, 3x zoom which is a bit crap, menus are very easy to navigate with touch screen.
Sony also had a photo printer on offer at £50 Then you send them the receipt & they send you £50 back.
This camera was in Argos for £350, but in my local camera shop it was up for £249, who says bigger is better?
Would recomend this camera as a good, easy to use, family friendly product.

Have a look here http://gadgetshow.five.tv

Check out www.dpreview.com

Remember you get what you pay for, the price of electronics comes down but the price of good optics doesn't. No point having an 8mp sensor when it's got a crap lens in front of it.

And avoid the really small cameras.

Nearly right, I make a special effort for dickheads ...

My wife recently bought a Fuji F30 after we read some reviews. Have to say that she hasn't been disappointed. The battery just goes on and on and on. I think she has had it about 3 months, taken 2 - 300 + photos, mostly with flash on and it still has 3 bars on the battery indicator. Takes the XD cards which I think are common for Fujis and I think it had some internal memory....

Couple of sites you may find helpful:-

http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html

http://www.dcresource.com/index.shtml

I have a Kodak LS 755
5mp / 3X zoom / Palm of hand compactness.

Pictures are not too bad but wouldn't recommend it.
Doesn't cope well with night pictures.
Takes ages to "wake up" when you turn it on.
Very slow shutter speed.
Slow recovery between pictures.

Thanks for all the helpful replies. Most of them are really good.

I got a Sony last year, was a DSC-50 and I'm really pleased with it. The Canons are also really good (the Ixus/Ixy range). My ex-GF bought one of the Fuji waterproof ones from here last year, it was very good, and a bargain. www.digitalcameras.com.au/

I have a Canon IXUS 750. I really love it. It's small but very nifty and solid. It features 7.1mp and 3x lens. I like that I can carry it everywhere I go in my handbag and pull it out for an impromptu snap. The quality of my photos are excellent but that could be me The battery life is pretty decent too - it comes with a battery charger. I paid $500.

If you like a lot of control over your photos though I would go for a digital SLR e.g. Canon Rebel but that would work out exxy as you have to lay out for lenses etc to do it justice.

I got a canon sureshot s3, £300 ..x12 optical zoom, they through in an extra 256mb card and case for the money to... very nice..Lots of places have them reduced now as they are 'last years' model.. It might be worth considering an older model as you'll get a better camera for your money

Would agree with this I have a old sony DCS-s75 3.3 mega with carl zeiss lens also have canon iXus 50
Both have pro cons, sony definitely takes better pictures but is very slow ie shutter lag so for kids shots it not great but the newer sonys are much better
The canon is better for movies and is much faster.