Hi all,

Sorry if this topic has been done to death.

Sold my D-SLR a while back as I wasnt using it enough (as a SLR anyway). My current compact is old and rubbish, so looking for a half decent compact.

Looking to spend not much more than £150 (under £100 would be great).
I dont mind 2nd hand (and dont need to latest model).
Must do HD video (to a decent quality)
Good pic quality (obviously)
Easy to use, and looks alright.
Water/shock proof would be cool, but not essential.

It will be used for taking pics and videos of biking, snowboarding, travelling, out and about, scenic shots etc. Just general use, but really want it to be half decent for moving shots in dodgy light (ie biking), and be quick (ie time between pressing the button and picture being taken). However, video quality is also very important, pretty much as important as pic quality.

To be honest it will probably be mainly used in auto mode for random shots, I dont actually take that many action shots (theyre usually of me 😛 ), but if its a decent camera I’m more likely to play around with the settings every now and then.

Ive been looking at this:
http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews_panasonic_lumix_dmc_fx500.php
You can get them fairly cheap on ebay (under £100), but reviews say video quality isnt that great for HD.

Then theres this, which is a fair bit more (can be had for £150ish), but hopefully a bit better?
http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/panasonic_lumix_dmc_tz8_review/

Those are the only two Ive looked at to be honest, theres far too many out there!

So, any thoughts/recommendations?

Oh, and if anyone has anything for sale I might be interested in, please gimme a shout!

Ta, Duane 🙂

I use this sort of thing:

Thanks.

my thought…(as I asked myself this question)…do you REALLY need HD…(are you going to be watching your video on a large tv ?)…standard definition is really good enough for me (and much smaller for disk space and on memory for editing)

I like canon and have just got myself and ixus 105 for £99 from amazon. was thinking about the ixus 130 for £136 – the upgrades being 14mp rather than 12mp, and HD video. For me, the 105 won but you should lookj at the 130

Well, I want decent quality video as I’d like to make mini web-edits of riding and what not. My mates got a Go Pro HD and the quality is ace, and definitely a lot better than the non-HD Go Pro.

I’ve had a TZ8 for quite a while now (since May-ish) and it’s very good. Tiny, massive zoom, ok in lowish light, good for ‘point and shoot’ or can do more tweaked pictures.

Some of my pictures with it are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulmckeating/tags/tz8/

I have a TZ7… Yes it’s very good but I don’t get on with it. The zoom is awesome but the low light videos are poor, no point in shooting HD when you get so much noise, might as well be 320×240. For general photography it’s superb, but it’s a bit bulky and feels delicate, very plasticky. For a tourist camera it’s absolutely superb, for a biker’s camera, I don’t rate it at all.

So I just got an Ixus 130, £100 from the Canon factory recon shop… Shoots HD video (and better in low light at it, though less good in bright light). 1/3rd as much zoom and I do miss it sometimes. Not quite as good a general camera all round. But, on the other hand, it’s about 1/4 the size, and though it doesn’t feel as impervious to harm as my old titanium Ixus 800 it still has a nice feel of durability. Already soaked it thoroughly and it’s still fine.

For me the Ixus is hard to beat for a biking camera but not a patch on the TZ as a general camera. I’d take the TZ to an air show or a wedding or on a weekend trip to London, but I hardly ever took it riding. The Ixus I’m taking absolutely everywhere.

Cheers for the replies, food for thought.
Gonna sound pathetic, but really dont like the look (aesthetics) of the Ixus 130 at all :/

😀 – nice title edit!

IMO pixel count means **** all beyond 6 or 8 unless you are cropping a lot etc.

I’d read a few reviews. Lumixs have bad reps in poor light IIRC.

Duane… – Member

“really dont like the look (aesthetics) of the Ixus 130 at all :/”

You can’t see it when you’re using it It’s a pretty anonymous black box but I love its teenyness. Older Ixi were nicer though, the 800 ti was just a lovely thing, felt nice in the hand. The ergonomics of the newer ones aren’t so good either, because of the size.