camera advice

[andyhalstead]

Hi all

I am REALLY new to photography. So new that I am still trying to pick out a decent inexpensive camera to replace my old 3 mp Ricoh Caplio rr30 that I bought about 6 years ago. I am after something that isn’t a point n shoot but can take a good photo and will take an external flash (which apparently is important). i was looking at the Lumix DMK LZ10 which has good write ups but lacks external flash support.

Also i know that slrs are expensive so i don’t think i can afford one of those. I would really appreciate it if someone could point mi in the right direction of a reasonable camera for a beginner (pref under the £100 mark) along a similar vein

cheers

[kencaleno]

Your best bet with the budget you have is to look around for a second-hand Canon G3.Only 4 megapixels but a beautiful lens, and swivel-out screen,optical viewfinder,flash hot shoe. Ken

[andyhalstead]

thanks ken I really appricate your advice.

the thing is, i am hoping to be able to have some of the better photos printed to hang on my walls. I have taken some quite decent photos with what i have already but am i correct in thinking that, while mega pixelige isnt too important for viewing on a monitor, they are quite important for large size, good quality prints?

is there any way of getting around having an external flash? a really bright bulb that i could make filters etc for, for example? what do you think?

I could probably stretch to around tha £200 mark if i really need to

Cheers again

[kalendae]

it feels like u r in the budget zone that is hard to satisfy what you want. you can maybe look at a used Fujifilm Finepix S9000 9MP (that has a hoeshoe mount for external flash)
but maybe look into getting the nikon d60 used? but that will def go over budget quite a bit.

[kencaleno]

Originally Posted by andyhalstead

thanks ken I really appricate your advice.

the thing is, i am hoping to be able to have some of the better photos printed to hang on my walls. I have taken some quite decent photos with what i have already but am i correct in thinking that, while mega pixelige isnt too important for viewing on a monitor, they are quite important for large size, good quality prints?

is there any way of getting around having an external flash? a really bright bulb that i could make filters etc for, for example? what do you think?

I could probably stretch to around tha £200 mark if i really need to

Cheers again

Don't be fooled by the megapixel Myth-more megapixels don't mean better quality.
You can make good sharp images up to 11x 14 from a 3 megapixel camera-Ken

[kalendae]

actually with the lumix, it has no external flash port, but you can use any flashes that have optical slave mode. Basically external manual flashes that trigger on the in-camera flash of the lumix.