Went for a budget Kodak at Christmas and it’s sheeet.

So any recommendations for a half decent compact, not the most expensive but I’m happy to pay a reasonable amount.

Needs to have a rechargeable battery, decent start up time and be able to take good pictures of moving object likes bikes and that.

Ta.

Don’t get the Fuji F200 EXR – I took it back because it was pants :o(

If it’s a budget camera you are after, try here…

I use a £240 Canon G9, but for biking I find it very very useful to have a decent off camera flash, so I use a Jessops 300AFD flash (£25) and a PT-04 wireless trigger (£15). Carrying around this much isn’t partually compact, but it does get good results. Taking biking photos in woods or poor light either requires a good flash or good panning technique.

If you want something genuinly compact and cheaper the I’d suggest a Canon IXUS. Theres various versions availible at a range of prices but Amazon currently have the 85 IS for £145. Its a simple point and shoot, with image stablising, a decent screen, a good fast lense.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-Digital-IXUS-Compact-Camera/dp/tech-data/B0015ULMTM/ref=de_a_smtd

Heres a few I’ve taken recently:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32306159@N04/sets/72157608868249479/

Whatever you do don’t be fooled into buying teh camera with the most megapixels, more megapixles + small camera = bad.

totally agree with GeForce Junky, if it’s compact you’re looking for the canon ixus is brilliant!

Another tick for IXUS (bought on Amazon at discount).

Yep nice camera, we have one for work.
Nice pics GeForce Junky – you do know that tyres can be used on the ground too?

Don’t get the Fuji F200 EXR – I took it back because it was pants :o(

How so? I was looking at upgrading to this. It gets decent reviews

I has an IXUS 70 and was really impressed with the size and quality photos. The only downside to them is there’s a fairly common fault where the lens jams making the camera useless.

Happened to mine after I kept in a pocket without the case on and bits of the beach got in.

Still the best camera I’ve had, just remember to use a case. Bought the Canon G9 to replace it.

Lumix TZs are worth a look too, 10+ zoom & HD vid.

I bought an Ixus40 in 2005 and it’s still going well. Sand found it’s way into mine two yrs ago and the lense motor was a bit rough for a while but it’s ok now.

Kev

Or one of the Panasonic Lumix range, I bought my wife an FX3 and its tine but takes great pictures, I have a Panasonic Lumix TZ5, its got a 10x optical zoom but it still isn’t much bigger than a compact, it has a great wide angle range too, which can be sometimes be more useful than a decent zoom.

Another vote for an IXUS here.

Mine’s an 800 with image stabilisation.

It’s a few years old but takes surprisingly good pictures given the operator.

One great thing about using a Canon IXUS is you can use CHDK to hack it. Its a very simple program that you load onto the sd card that alters the cameras software. It is in no way permanant and even Canon say it won’t void your warranty, so its pritty safe. What it allows you to do is get full manual control, raw images and other cool things from a compact camera. This allows you to do really cool stuff if you decide you want to get into photography such as HDR, 2 minute shutter speeds and super fast shutter speeds that even dslrs aern’t capeable of. Some amazng examples can be found on flikr:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=ixus%20chdk&w=all

Another vote for canon ixus – quick to power up and quick to shoot when you press the button too. Got some great shots with mine and its tiny and looks pretty cool.

GeForce Junky,

those photos are really excellent.

another vote for the G9 here – full manual control and the flash shoe make it a really useful little beast. also like the ixus (ixii ??) – have recommended them to a couple of colleagues who seem really happy.

sigma SD1? or Ricoh CX1?? a Lumix of some description (had an FZ20 a few years back – a bridge camera and had a bit of a noisy sensor, but there more recent top of the range compacts get good reviews).

Black and White film and a canon canonet or a Fed 2 (Leica rangefinder copy) = fun (develop yourself in your bathroom (and annoy the missus) and then scan the negs)

Stick to Canon and Nikon and you’ll not go far wrong.

I use a 30D for most stuff but when on the bike I always throw in my PowerShot SX1000 IS. It works great and is surprisingly configurable for a compact.

This Ixusgets very good reviews in the Which? surveys – not the best, which are £200+ compacts, but so close as to represent very good value for money.

This looks like a bagain:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CANON-iXUS-90-SD790-iS-DIGITAL-VIDEO-CAMERA-4GB-SD_W0QQitemZ300312609078QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CamerasPhoto_DigitalCameras_DigitalCameras_JN?hash=item300312609078&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1690%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1308%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

PCWorld are doing Ixus 90is for a good price currently

Ixus seems to set the benchmark, although bear in mind that most of them are ‘only’ 35-105mm zoom.
I went for a Panasonic FX500, partly ’cause it’s not an Ixus, and also because it has a wide angle lens (25mm) and a decent zoom (5x), as well as some manual control. I’m impressed so far, especially for under £200.

Nikon compacts are worse than Fuji’s!!! I work in Jessops and 90% of the time a Canon compact will kick the ass off any of the compacts. The only ones that seem to come similar are top end Sony’s, like the W270/290. Alternatively, Panasonics are not bad but their ultra wide angle lenses can cause lots of distortion and they arnt sharp in the corners. Very easy to use, great looking, slightly noisier than Canons in low light but nothing amazingly bad.Image stabilization is very good on Panasonics.

The Ixus 90 is an old camera now. Go for something like the Ixus 85 I.S. (or if you can get hold of it, the Ixus 82, EXACTLY the same but in Jessops blue and exclusive to Jessops, and £20 cheaper)

Alternatively, the new Ixus 100 is a lovely little camera, but expensive. 720 unlimited HD video recording that is actually pretty good and looks amazing.

As Geforce Junky says, the lenses are the weak parts, so just make sure it dosent get covered in sand/chocolate/whatever and its not knocked, and itll carry on. I see alot of it happening to the earlier Ixuses but not the latter ones.

I bought a Canon Powershot G10, and I love it. It’s not exactly cheap, and you get a semi-decent dSLR for the same price. It’s a little bigger than an IXUS and most other compact camera’s. But it almost bridges the compact / dSLR range.

I have a Canon Powershot A720IS – I love it, best compact camera I’ve had/used. Not the smallest camera, but does the trick well…none of these are photoshopped, other than the stitched landscape. All straight off the camera.

Another vote for IXUS, great at point and shoot and mtb rides. I’ve had mine 3 yearsish and although abused still works fine.

Before I started think more about photography and brought the G9 I used a IXUS 75, which unfortuatly died when I snt it through the washing machine (sad day!). Here are some photos I took last summer in Morzine with it. I think they are all pritty much straight from camera when I did just point and shoot or gave the camera to someone else to point and shoot.

It was a great camera. RIP.

LOVE my (now discontinued and replaced by poorer cameras) Fuji F30. so much so i paid £80 to have it repaired rather than get a new camera when it broke after 4 years or so last month..

wasnt a fan of my girlfriends Canon IXUS when i borrowed that to take to San Francisco though. The pictures seemed very ‘flat’ and lifeless in comparison, and the low light performance was shocking! might have to give that software a go and see if it perks the IXUS up a bit.

Geforce – not trying to be critical (though it will come across that way!) but nearly every single one of those photos appears to be out of focus and/or have washed-out skies, was this user error, intention or the camera not auto-focusing very well?

They are horribly compressed on here, they are much sharper on my pc. I find photobucket sometimes compresses stuff ok, other times its rubbish. Flikr is much better. But yeah, some of the skys are washed out, which is where compacts are generally poo. I find the only way to not blow out skys is to rely on good sunlight/off camera flash/polariser filter. If you look at my pics at the top (flikr link) you can see how much my photography has progressed 🙂

Sony W300 and T700 are good compacts too.

Geforce- definitely loving your latest stuff, looks very impressive.

I tend to under-expose a lot of stuff with my A720 as it seems to over-expose in most cases when left to its own devices.

I’d love a DSLR, just need to find the funds and the right one!

I’m an SLR snob but my wife’s Panasonic TZ3 constantly surprises me – wide angle lens is a big plus too!

IXUS gets my vote too!

I’ve got a 70, and my dad has just bought a 90IS which was a bargain at ~£128 on pixmania.

My vote goes to the Panasonic TZ5. I have the old TZ1 which is fantastic, but hardly compact. Muz has the TZ4 and brother in law AND his dottir have got the TZ5 and they are all quite small (not Ixus small, but the performance more than compensates)
They also have metal bodies which are great if you’re a clumsy fekker like me and Muz.
Great for action shots and also macro shots, if that’s your thing.
The only criticism I have with mine – and bear in mind the 4 and 5 probably don’t have a problem – is shooting in low light. With flash it is fine, but using ambient light it’s not so great. Like I said the 4 and 5 are probably tons better.
That is my only criticism and it’s not a big one.

Couple of examples with my Ixus 60, just for the hell of it 😛

Thanks for all of the comments.

I bought a Nikon D50 a while back and whilst it takes cracking family snaps on auto mode I realise I have neither the time or the inclination to really learn how to use it properly. The result is that it mostly stays in it’s bag under the stairs whilst my compact comes out with me ion the trail and takes poor quality images.

With this in mind I reckon I’d be better of getting shut of the decent cameras and getting a half decent compact for better snaps.

ixus 75:

I’ really enjoying my Panasonic Lumix LX3 (300 quid, 450 if yo opt for the near identical Leica version made by Panasonic)