Im in the market for a new camera and i have about £200 any suggestions please it will be mainly used when out on my bike so would like something quite small but able to take quality shots. What brands should i look at cheers

Canon Ixus 870 IS, we bought one before xmas and its great. Super focusing system and very little shutter lag.Can be had for around £190

Canon Ixus if you want a compact or Sony A200 if you decide you want a DSLR

Canon – may be too big, but worth a look is the Powershot SX110 IS.
10X Optical zoom and loads of Slr-like features. Wish I could’ve afforded one!

I’m an SLR snob and usually loath using compacts but the Panasonic TZ-series that I bought for my wife was really alright actually. Wide angle lens is a bonus on whatever you finally buy though…

Also, look out for burst fire as it really helps get those action shots down…

Check out this website http://www.cameras.co.uk/details/canon-digital-cameras.cfm
You can spend hours comparing all the test shots.

http://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/p-canon-digital-ixus-80-is-digital-camera.htm

http://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/p-nikon-coolpix-s610.htm

http://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/p-panasonic-lumix-dmc-lz10-digital-camera.htm

Something like these – personally I wouldn’t spend £200 on a ‘bike’ camera as I reckon it will get fairly quickly trashed – mates fancy £300 Canon iIxus (couple of yrs old) lasted about 2 months mountain biking before the screen cracked.
The canon and the panasonic above both have optical stabilisation, whereas it’s electronic on the Nikon I think. The panasonic has a useful 5x zoom but they are known for being ‘noisy’ in low light (probably not an issue mountain biking).
The Panasonic runs on AAs which might be an advantage as you can cheaply take along 2 sets of spare rechargables so you don’t risk running out of juice.
I would avoid cameras that require Sony memory sticks or XD cards, as the memory is generally more expensive.

I would definitely have a fiddle with the cameras though before committing. You want something that you can access/use with gloves/cold hands.

Something like these – personally I wouldn’t spend £200 on a ‘bike’ camera as I reckon it will get fairly quickly trashed – mates fancy £300 Canon iIxus (couple of yrs old) lasted about 2 months mountain biking before the screen cracked.

On which basis, I’d recommend an Olympus 850SW or 1050SW!

I would avoid cameras that require Sony memory sticks or XD cards, as the memory is generally more expensive.

Not suffiicently so to be worth bothering about unless you take huge numbers of photos. A 2GB XD can be had for £10, and that’s enough for several hundred photos.

Not suffiicently so to be worth bothering about unless you take huge numbers of photos. A 2GB XD can be had for £10, and that’s enough for several hundred photos.

Yep, it’s amazing how cheap memory cards are now. My first 512MB SD card was £250!

Panasonic TZ-5 is great apart from low-light indoors shots (but then most digi cameras suck in these conditions)

Have a look at http://www.dpreview.com

Another vote for the Ixus, bought one for about a hundred quid from amazon, with free LowPro case it’s so good I bought another for my Mum – far more intuitive to use than the Sony she had before and it uses XD cards, much better battery life etc. In fact the battery life is nothing short of amazing.

If I was spending more, it would be the Panasonic Lumix – amazing package for the money/size but I have a DSLR so I just wanted something small, reliable and pocketable.

a Ricoh R10 would be nice, having a good zoom range and quick shutter lag especially once focused or a canon ixus of any flavour.

i have an ixus 55 which has ssurvived a couple of years of abuse and is still going strong. it sits in a Crumpler PP series pouch – lovely snug fit 🙂

http://www.we-sell-crumpler.co.uk/BagListing.asp?Name=Digital-Pouches&BagCategory=51

For me it has to be the Olympus Stylus 1030SW shock and water proof and 10.1 megapixels! It’s called Mju in the UK got one form the US for £198 its £299.99 on some sites but shop around it’s a fantastic camera. My sister is a professional photographer and she can believe how good it is for the price.

I had a ricoh r6, but it broke every few months and eventually got it replaced by jessops with a Panasonic TZ5. Feels a lot more solid than the Ricoh, pics look great, image stabilization seems very good even at 10 times zoom, and the HD movies are fantastic (can use the zoom whilst recording). Though unforunately they are in quicktime .mov format.

another vote for panasonic tz5