Digital camera

[greencreeper]

I've broke my parent's camera Got an SD card stuck in it. Just received a text to say it's "knackered" - this means a new camera. I was looking at the Fujifilm and Sony Cybershot ones. Just need something simple to take family snaps with. Any thoughts?

[Lord Nikon]

I severely doubt it's 'knackered' completely. But, since it's been classed as knackered, try the following -

Push the card in with a long nosed pair of pliers, then use them to extract the card carefully, then try reinserting the card again.

What make and model of camera is it?

[Nikesh]

I would get a Fuji rather than a Sony

[greencreeper]

Originally Posted by Lord Nikon

I severely doubt it's 'knackered' completely. But, since it's been classed as knackered, try the following -

Push the card in with a long nosed pair of pliers, then use them to extract the card carefully, then try reinserting the card again.

What make and model of camera is it?

"Knackered" is mum-speak - covers a variety of faults She was taking it to a repair place this afternoon, so I guess they've pronounced it bereft of life, or quoted a three-figure repair cost. We tried with tweezers and a pair of pliers - no luck. I think the problem is that the gold bit of the SD card has dropped off - I found it after I put the card in I think this missing bit is causing some part of the camera mechanism to catch on the card. I'll know more this evening when The Mother calls to let me know exactly how "knackered" it is.

It's a Fujifilm - not sure what model. It was bought a few years ago now, so an older model. A flap comes up to access the battery (rechargeable) and SD card slots - both side-by-side.

Originally Posted by Nikesh

I would get a Fuji rather than a Sony

Noted I've seen a nice pink Fuji one.

[Lord Nikon]

After having used (in fact, sat on my desk are the following - Fuji Finepix S5500 Zoom, Kodak Easyshare P8800, Olympus C-460 Zoom del sol, Sony Handycam DCR-SR42) I can say that the best thing to do is try them out, go for one with OPTICAL zoom, digital zoom is worthless, try and get one with a Carl Zeiss lens. AA battery power is preferable, you can buy inexpensive spares, etc.

[greencreeper]

Noted, Nikon

Pink ones

I've not seen one that mentions "Carl Zeiss" yet, but I'm looking to spend around £200, so it may be that I need to spend more to get a "Carl Zeiss" lens.

[edit] Ah - looks to be the Sony ones that have the lens

Pink with lens

[Hom3r]

I have one of these casio EX-Z1050 10.1 MP cannot fault it.

It has several modes for different conditions noe sell for about £140

Also takes video

[SMHarman]

Well if you want a carl zeiss lens then you will only be able to get a sony. Nikon and Canon both make their own high quality lenses.
These days it is not so much about the number of megapixels but the whole package, the quality of the lens, the quality of the sensor and the quality of the post sensor image processing, again the canon Digic processor is known to be good for this.
I'm a canon fanboi and admit to that so would recomend something from their stable have had nothing but good results from an EOS10 (film), Ixus (APS film), A85, A720, EOS 400D (getting the picture).
Had I not had the EOS10, I may have bought the Nikon DSLR but the lens collection made that not worthwhile, my point here being Nikon make good cameras too, My SEK800i takes good pictures so I am not averse to SE cameras.
The user of this camera needs to shop and decide what they like the look and feel of.

[greencreeper]

Canon - terrible printers. I'll have a look at the cameras though, and I've spotted a Nikon with a Carl Zeiss lens. My mum is good at feet shots, and I have an bit of an eye but understand none of the technical stuff, so anything that looks nice and is compact, should be acceptable. She'll be phoning me shortly, so I'll chat to her then. Going to have to wait until the end of January anyway - I've not a lot of cash until then.

[greencreeper]

It's worse than I thought. First she took the camera to Jessops, who said it would have be sent away to be repaired at a cost of around £150. Horror of horrors, and despite all I have taught her, she took it to PC World It sounds like they've ripped out the SD card and damaged the reader. Their advice was to contact Fuji for repair, and buy a new camera if the repair cost is too high. I can't believe she took it to PC World. Parents huh. So I'm now researching care homes and Fuji repair centres.

[bm1980]

Go for a canon 720is , i got one yesterday top camera 6x optical zoom 8mp image stabiliser, AA powered , its on offer a jesops for £169 Bargin
See my thread "which digital camera" for some more members opinions on cameras

[andygrif]

Originally Posted by Nikesh

I would get a Fuji rather than a Sony

It's all personal, but I would go for a Sony over a Fuju these days...Fuji are not making as good a camera as they used to and the Sonys are cracking little compacts.

In fact I bought a Sony W-55 for a recent holiday as I didn't want to cart around 20kg's of my camera kit. It cost less than £100, super pictures, 7mp, 2.5" screen, reasonable settings - excellent results.

Oh and you can get a pink one if that's your thing!

Originally Posted by greencreeper

Canon - terrible printers.

Guess you've had a bad experience. At the mid-price to high-price end of the market Canon printers are excellent - as good if not better than the Epsons, certainly better than HP and of course better than Lexmark.

Never buy a cheap printer of any brand - it's a false economy if you want to print photos.

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by andygrif

Never buy a cheap printer of any brand - it's a false economy if you want to print photos.

or never print photos. That said I don't know how advanced things have got in the UK but I can send my images to shutterfly and have all sorts of fun with them and if I want plain ol 6x4s send pay 12c each or if I want them reallyreallyquickly i can go pick them up in target for 20c each.
Paper plus ink would cost about the same printing at home.

[greencreeper]

Fuji repair is £99.99 - post it off, and it comes back repaired and with a 12 month warranty. I don't think it's worth it. Trade in is about £45 but you're limited to a small range of Fuji cameras. There's a nice Sony in Argos - £100 off. Still £250 mind, but quite small and with nice features. Going to have to wait until the end of the month though - pay day.