Point and Shoot for Luddite Mother.

Hi -

 

I know little about digital cameras as I use medium format film and cannot yet afford what I like teh look

of in digital so I need some brief advice.

 

I am getting my mother her first computer for her birthday - a bottom of the line Macbook - and thought

she might like a digital camera to go with it.

 

Nothing expensive or complicated but just a nice camera. She won't want to be making huge enlargements

but would probably appreciate one that was intuitive and simple to work.

 

I was thinking a Nikon Coolpix S6 Wi-Fi/USB Grey - the only reason for that is that they are selling it on

the Apple website and it looks okay - but having no real idea what I am looking for or what the options

are I am a bit lost.

 

I have to end up with something pretty good as everyone expects me to know all about digital cameras

because I use film - heigh ho......

 

 

Any advice gratefully received.

 

Robert X

A Fuji F20 or F30 will fit the bill beautifully.

 

While both have additional options if you want to fool with them, most of the time you just

leave the main dial on Auto, turn them on, and get a very good picture. They produce the

best low-light photos for a pocket-sized, small-sensor digicam I've found, with good

clean rendering up to ISO 400-800. Battery charges last a long time. The F20 can be had

for under $200, a 1G card is about $30 and holds around 360 exposures. Camera and a

1G xD card are all you need ... everything else is in the box.

 

I use my F30 for quick shots when I don't want to carry the DSLR around. It's always in my

bag. And it's not too small for older hands to operate (my mom has arthritis and can

operate it easily).

 

Godfrey

I second the above advice, and would like to strongly steer you towards the F20. It's noticeably cheaper, and the primary differences -- simpler controls -- is actually an advantage in this case.

Another vote for Fuji. The F30 has manual override functions that luddites will ever need (or want), leaving you with F20 and F40 to chose between. You might also want to wait and see how the new A-series cameras 610 and 800 score. I've checked those out for reasons similar to those you describe. They are supposed to have a truly user-friendly interface, explaining buttons as you press them. Some of the low noise performance might be carried over from the F10-40 range.

Sorry, "ever" should be "never" above.

While one might say one cannot go wrong with Nikon the size of the camera perhaps militates against an older person getting reasonable results, to size as viewed on monitor.

 

As an experienced photographer you are used to holding a large camera steady and would something smaller but these tiddly little digicams can be very hard to hold steadilly so that camera shake doesn't spoil most of them for the inexperienced, or simply used to a simple 35mm 'box' camera.

 

So I strongly suggest that you consider only a camera which incorporates image stabilisation to help with camera shake.

 

I would suggest one of the TZ models by Panasonic. They come with the same lens as Leica sell under their badge and Pany are a very experienced electronic firm and digicams are largely electronic devices. At a brief look at the specs it seems to be a similar camera to the Nikon you mention but sadly Nikon have not thought to include OIS at this level of digicam, they are a bit behind the times. The camera will also take good movie clips which appeals to many.

Canon`s come with the zoom brouser that is not only a brouser, but a fairly decent editing program. I have CS2, but the basic editing functions, crop, color balance, brightness, contrast, and more come in the brouser.

 

 

 

I am partial to cameras that take AA batteries and that have a rangefinder window so I am not waving the camera around at arm`s length. I would get a Canon 640 today.

 

My brother got an ELPH Canon and it is very nice and small, just expensive.

I'm astonished -- no one's recommended a Kodak, which is far easier for a newcomer to digital photography to use. I recommend the Z612 (12x optical zoom, image-stabilized lens) if she's expecting to take photos of kids involved in sports. Easier still is the C875 camera -- possibly one of the easiest, Schneider-lens 8MP digital cameras you're likely to find. Both have big, 2.5-inch LCDs. Generally, either of these is less pricey than the equivalent Nikon or Canon.

 

If you buy a WiFi camera, you're looking at some additional learning curve.<div></div>

thanks, i will think on....