Can anyone recommend a good point and shoot camera.

Having a look on the internet, seems there are a lot to choose from.

Anything to look out for?

I bought a little Samsung from Dick Smiths for $140 a few years ago and it does all I want.
It is just point and shoot, great little camera.

Peak Warming Man said:

I bought a little Samsung from Dick Smiths for $140 a few years ago and it does all I want.
It is just point and shoot, great little camera.

With the quality of cameras in phones these days, is there any point in buying a p&s camera that doesn’t have a phone built in?

The Rev Dodgson said:

Peak Warming Man said:

I bought a little Samsung from Dick Smiths for $140 a few years ago and it does all I want.
It is just point and shoot, great little camera.

With the quality of cameras in phones these days, is there any point in buying a p&s camera that doesn’t have a phone built in?

only image quality

The Rev Dodgson said:

Peak Warming Man said:

I bought a little Samsung from Dick Smiths for $140 a few years ago and it does all I want.
It is just point and shoot, great little camera.

With the quality of cameras in phones these days, is there any point in buying a p&s camera that doesn’t have a phone built in?

It comes down to what you want to do with the camera…

optics is king… so the better the glass, the more you can expect to pay

diddly-squat said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Peak Warming Man said:

I bought a little Samsung from Dick Smiths for $140 a few years ago and it does all I want.
It is just point and shoot, great little camera.

With the quality of cameras in phones these days, is there any point in buying a p&s camera that doesn’t have a phone built in?

It comes down to what you want to do with the camera…

Some people take pictures.

Dropbear said:

diddly-squat said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

With the quality of cameras in phones these days, is there any point in buying a p&s camera that doesn’t have a phone built in?

It comes down to what you want to do with the camera…

Some people take pictures.

thanks… 8/

it all come down to the types of pictures you want to take..

Dropbear said:

diddly-squat said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

With the quality of cameras in phones these days, is there any point in buying a p&s camera that doesn’t have a phone built in?

It comes down to what you want to do with the camera…

Some people take pictures.

I agree.
Option 1) Pick up the camera, turn on. p&s.
Option 2) Pick up the phone, push some buttons, scroll around for a while to set to camera, put phone away again because the photo opportunity is lost.

Tamb said:

Dropbear said:

diddly-squat said:

It comes down to what you want to do with the camera…

Some people take pictures.

I agree.
Option 1) Pick up the camera, turn on. p&s.
Option 2) Pick up the phone, push some buttons, scroll around for a while to set to camera, put phone away again because the photo opportunity is lost.

Option 3) Take shot with phone, realise that the lens is covered in dust/scratches/finger grease from being stored badly. Try to clean it, miss shot by several minutes . :)

pommiejohn said:

Tamb said:

Dropbear said:

Some people take pictures.

I agree.
Option 1) Pick up the camera, turn on. p&s.
Option 2) Pick up the phone, push some buttons, scroll around for a while to set to camera, put phone away again because the photo opportunity is lost.

Option 3) Take shot with phone, realise that the lens is covered in dust/scratches/finger grease from being stored badly. Try to clean it, miss shot by several minutes . :)

Option 4) Take shot with phone, realise that phone is in mirror mode & you have taken an unintentional selfie.

Tamb said:

pommiejohn said:

Tamb said:

I agree.
Option 1) Pick up the camera, turn on. p&s.
Option 2) Pick up the phone, push some buttons, scroll around for a while to set to camera, put phone away again because the photo opportunity is lost.

Option 3) Take shot with phone, realise that the lens is covered in dust/scratches/finger grease from being stored badly. Try to clean it, miss shot by several minutes . :)

Option 4) Take shot with phone, realise that phone is in mirror mode & you have taken an unintentional selfie.

Mirror mode? I don’t seem to have that on my phone. Maybe mine’s not girly enough to allow one to check for lipstick application.

Check what batteries you get with it. For mine, one battery was not enough and I bought a couple of spares. The cost of two spares was nearly as much as the camera itself because they were brand specific type.

To answer the OP:

A good lens (eg Leica on Panasonic)

Fast turn-on time

Anti-shake is useful in some circumstances (eg low light)

Michael V said:

Tamb said:

pommiejohn said:

Option 3) Take shot with phone, realise that the lens is covered in dust/scratches/finger grease from being stored badly. Try to clean it, miss shot by several minutes . :)

Option 4) Take shot with phone, realise that phone is in mirror mode & you have taken an unintentional selfie.

Mirror mode? I don’t seem to have that on my phone. Maybe mine’s not girly enough to allow one to check for lipstick application.

Mz Tamb’s phone has one & it was made in either Sumeria or Phoenecia. :)

My well-made little Olympus snapper has been fine for little snaps over the past decade or so, but I’ll be wanting a better, higher-res camera soon so I can take really good photos of my artworks to upload to the internets in large format. Also a good video camera or camcorder or whatever they call them these days, for making videos to accompany my music to upload to the choob.

Most point-and-shoots also have video mode.

Divine Angel said:

Most point-and-shoots also have video mode.

Yes but it’s not usually anything like professional quality.

Bubblecar said:

Divine Angel said:

Most point-and-shoots also have video mode.

Yes but it’s not usually anything like professional quality.

nor are most of the meatsacks behind the viewfinder

Divine Angel said:

Most point-and-shoots also have video mode.

Mine does, and in fairly decent picture quality. But only enough memory for about 5 minutes. Sound quality isn’t all that great of course.

Mr Mutant’s camera does a pretty decent video, but I’ve never tested its memory limits, nor can I offhand remember the brand.

Sound won’t be a problem with my music videos because it will be provided separately by Cubase and combined with the vision in the video-editing software that I’ll also have to get.

Anyway let’s not jump the gun, I’m still learning how to use Cubase :)

I use Snag-It for video production. Dead easy to use, one-button-share to YouTube et al. About $45 download IIRC (I use it to make mentoring videos for uni).

Ta, DA. Looks like these days one can make decent quality videos without breaking the bank.

I don’t do any editing, I just post all the raw video to a web-hosting site.

CrazyNeutrino said:

Can anyone recommend a good point and shoot camera.

Having a look on the internet, seems there are a lot to choose from.

Anything to look out for?

What sort of things do you want to photograph?

I have recently done about 20 hours online trying to find a decent p&s. After much deliberation I got a panasonic lumix TZ-40. Brilliant bit of kit. It has almost all of the features of a SLR, plus a few extra and still fits easily in a pocket.

I’d be happy with a Leica M Series

diddly-squat said:

I’d be happy with a Leica M Series

Looks like a disposable one…

poikilotherm said:

diddly-squat said:

I’d be happy with a Leica M Series

Looks like a disposable one…

unfortunately they are not priced that way…

diddly-squat said:

I’d be happy with a Leica M Series

Overpriced and overrated IMO.

Look at batteries and memory cards.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZwhatevernumbertheyreupto

The only problem is that the lens mech is made out of plastic, so wears out after a few years… or at least that’s what’s happened to mine.

I’ll be getting a new camera in a few months (hopefully) and will probably get another one like it.

A functionality that I really like about it (apart from the Leica lens) is that it has a GPS built into it, which is fabbo when you’re doing field work.

The only gripes I have with it are the plastic bits as previously stated, and the fact that it’s a bit slow to take piccies, ie it takes a bit to react after you press the button. I’m not sure if they’ve resolved those issues in the current model. Mine’s from 2009.