Hey there,

i've been interested in photography for quite a while now, especially landscape photography. i thought that it was time to upgrade my old digital camera (old Crappy Olympus 3Mpix, doing me absolutley no favours) to something drastically better. i would prefer a camera that is able to shoot 16:9 images, and has good image quality on a budget (~£170, £200 Max) and is relatively compact, and has an internal (user replaceable) camera.

any suggestions?

thanks in advance!

jordn

Given your budget, I'd recommend a Canon powershot SD600 (I think they may go by the name IXUS 60 though in Europe). I've had fantastic luck with Canon (I'm a proud owner of an EOS 20D and an SD400) and I think a camera similar to the SD400 would be right up your alley.

I say this because it's incredibly compact (it fits rather comfortably in my pocket), the image quality is superb (as is the color reproduction), it is capable of taking huge landscapes and 360s with a panoramic assist feature, and it is relatively easy on the wallet (~ £170).

For me, the only downside are that it is sometimes hard to take hand held shots in low light situations (also the image quality gets unbearably grainy at higher ISO speeds) and there are no full time manual controls. You can however trick the automatic modes into doing what you would've done with manual mode by pointing it at a very dark or very bright object (ex: the sun), pressing the shutter button halfway down, moving the camera over to your subject and then taking the photo - a bit of a hassle - but I still like the camera very much.

You might be interested in these links below:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/SD600/SD600A3.HTM
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06022109canonsd600.asp

Good luck and happy hunting!

I would recommend a Canon Powershot or a Sony Cybershot, currently on offer a jessops.

Cybershot have good lenses and Internals,

Canon Camera, IXUS 60

Cycber Shot W70


James

hey guys, thanks for the replies.

i was browsing the Jessops website and i also saw the Ricoh Caplio R5 in black , and the Casio Exilim EX-Z70 also in black. i am more in favour of the Ricoh, because of the wide angle lens, but what do you guys think?


jordn

For $400 you can get yourself a nice refurbished Canon EOS Rebel XT Digital SLR.

You can make panorama photos with every camera if you know how.Why do you need 16:9? Panorama is great thing.
link for example http://misnomer.dru.ca/img/panorama.jpg

With 400$ you could get a used 20D possibly. Or you could get a nice copy of a Digital Rebel.

I would definitely go for an SLR and get a zoom lens with some range like 18-55 or greater but also do get a "normal" lens like a standard 50mm lens because it is fast, like f1.8 This wil allow you to take great low light photos and because it is fast, it will also focus under low light better and faster. Is it more limiting? Yes but I think it forces you to train a good eye. Many times I will go out with just this lens

Some tips on choosing a camera:
-buying refurbished will spread out your dough a lot farther than if you buy new, just make sure you can return the camera if you run into problems.
-don't worry about panoramic pictures, you can easily crop photos later or take several shots of a landscape and then splice them together into a panoramic view later.
-be sure to pick up a camera with good image stabilization, otherwise you will end up with a lot of blurry photos, especialy in low light situations, making those sunset shots a lot harder to capture, assuming you don't want to lug around a tripod everywhere you want to take pictures.
-try to get a camera with fully manual controls. as you take more pictures you should start to understand all the functions of a camera and will want more control over your shots. in most cases you will have plenty of time to set up a landscape shot and being able to tweak your aperature, shutter speed, etc. will really come in handy.
-try to get a camera with good image quality and low noise. some digital cameras have problems with color reproduction (mine does so i end up shooting a lot in black and white or doing lots of digital manipulation)
-point and shoot models are easier to cary around but if you feel serious about getting in to photography you'll want something that is a bit easier to hold. I also find it a bit easier to get into the mood for shooting art photos using a camera with an SLR style body than a pack-of-cards model.

Where can I buy refurbished DSLR cameras in Europe (Germany) and where can I buy it in the USA? Thx