Buying a camera for a mix of work and leisure purposes. I’d love a DSLR, but I’ll be totally honest, it would be wasted as it wouldn’t get the use it would deserve, and I don’t want to spend the kind of money required to get a half decent SLR.

Requirements:

-Good enough for taking a few product shots for a website (doesn’t need to be amazing at this, just significantly better than an iPhone).
-Be easy to use
-Take half decent action shots
-Be compact enough to be easy to take places when I’ve got no bags with me, but doesn’t need to be an ultra compact.
-Be brand new and available from somewhere that will take Credit Card (business expense).
-More optical zoom than digital zoom preferred.
-Not too fussed on Megapixel quota, 10 or 12MP will do me fine, nothing is going to get blown up huge.
-1080HD video shooting useful (max of a few minutes at a time)
-Use conventional SD memory cards for ease of transfer onto my Mac

My brief look last night (all of 30 minutes) led me to the Canon Powershot SX280 HS. It seems to be available online for about £150 which is about as much as I can really justify to be fair.

So before I buy one, anything else out there that I should look at seriously for roughly the same kind of money or less?

I have the sx220 and it’s great, excellent optical zoom but it goes through batteries really quickly so I got a few spare ones to keep me going.

Had heard the Canon’s battery life wasn’t too hot, but to be honest, that’s not a big issue for me. The likelihood of it needing to take hundreds of photos without being near a charger are slim. And if that situation does arise, I’d just buy another battery!

And for the day crowd…?

I have an Olympus xz-10 which supplements my Canon 50D DSLR very nicely.

Nice fast lens, fast AF, nicely made with a metal shell unlike most which are plastic.

I thought camera threads usually instigated loads of responses…? 😕

Or is that only for DSLR’s?

Anyway… Any more input would be greatly appreciated…

Sony Alpha6000? 24mp, 10fps. Super fast focusing. Really would like one of these myself.

EDIT: sorry, just seen your budget, the A6000 is ~ £500

i bought a canon g16 on here a few weeks back and I love it – the fact thats it’s smaller means I will carry it about more.

G16 is more than double my budget! 😕

*Edit. – was going to recommend a Lumix TZ35 but I think the SX280 HS trumps it with higher sensitivity.

TZ40 is marginally better but another 30 quid more.

I had a SX230 and lvoed it.

When i scratched the lens I looked in to buying another but the SX280 had replaced it.

The optical zoom increased but the sensor is crap. Seriosuly. Look at dpreview and use the comparison tool to see how the image quality has taken a big hit.

I bought a Canon S120 and it’s great. Less zoom but really decent image quality and a great fast (f1.8) lens at the wide end. This is great for product photos where you want the bokeh and for bike use where you was it fast.

HTH

I sold my dslr and bought a 2nd hand powershot g12 which had full manual controls, articulated screen and is capable (in hands other than mine) of producing high quality images.

Zoom might be shorter than you’d like but worth a look and should be doable on your budget.

WEX photographic & CameraJungle are well worth looking at for 2nd hand cameras

Canon S110 or S120.

Or is that only for DSLR’s?

Yes 🙂

There are thousands of compacts out there, and people who are into photography enough to pay attention to the specs are not buying compacts, they are buying SLRs 🙂

Most of the higher-end ones are good from any of the manufacturers. Don’t over-shop – go into a shop, try one out, if you like it buy it and stop looking 🙂

I already have DSLR in the form of my old put perfectly working Canon 400D which creates some really nice images. The resolution isn’t up there with the latest DSLR’s but I don’t tend to print huge images or crop and enlarge for it to be noticeable. It also lacks the creative programs and video that you get with newer cameras.
I wanted something that pocketable, as even in just a carry case the DSLR is a lump to cart around with you, but still have the control of a DSLR.
I looked at bridge cameras but still not something that you can slip in your pocket. Started looking at high end compact mainly the Canon G16 as mentioned above. Then happened on the large image sensor cameras which giving amazing results from something so small. The king of these cameras and first on the scene is the Sony RX100 now in it’s third version but also one of the most expensive. These cameras will give you so much versatility with amazing results, being so small you’re more likely to carry it with you and take more photos therefore getting more use out of it.
If this sounds more like your needs look at the Sony RX100 range, Panasonic LX100 and Canon G7x. I went for the later as the price point and features matched my needs.
The Canon has a poorer battery performance. In the scheme of things the third less life in the battery in a much cheaper camera than the competition is easily rectified with carrying a spare battery that any photographer wouldn’t dream of being without and still have change from the cost of the competition.

Olympus xz-2?

Great reviews, £180

A used Olympus e-p1 or Sony Nex-5 or Nex-3 would be my choice. Easy to get under budget and these were £600 not long ago.

Found out I’d accumulated a rather large number of points with a certain retailer, have just ordered myself a Panasonic Lumix TZ55 and a 16GB card to go with it… If anything, a slight upgrade over the cameras I was looking at initially.

Not bad for effectively free eh! 8)

Cool! ‘Free’ points purchases are always great!

Enjoy…

I use an EOS M, sort of a baby DSLR. Takes some great pictures, small enough for the camelbak and has plenty of settings to play around with just like a dslr.

Its a tough shout between this and the Nikon 1, both very similar camera’s.

Dig round ebay etc should serve up a cheap one, the eos m im sure has been discontinued but still has a some new firmare updates and accessories available for it.