Nikon d40 or Sony a200? hmmmmm NIKON!

After using various different point and shoot cameras, i decided it was time to move up to a more professional dslr. If your thinking of doing the same, then i suggest you invest some time into learning about the different dslrs on the market.

I narrowed my options down to this camera and the sony a200. after going in to various shops i decided the d40 was the right way to go. various shop workers were biased towards both of these cameras so your left to decide, based on what you need. The D40 is ideal for begginers in the dslr market.

I reccommend you spend more time choosing a lens than a camera, for the d40 and a200 are both great cameras, but the nikon offers cheaper more widely available lenses. the lens issuee is not vital for begginers, having my lens for a few days, the kit lens has produced fabulous results which really blow you away.

When buying the camera it is important you buy a UV filter which is vital for protecting your lens. Also you will need a sdhc card which are widely available on the amazon site. If your planning on taking your camera out of the house ( who wouldnt) then i suggest you buy a lowerpro case. these offer superb protection and are suprisingly compact and tight.

Like me im sure many of you are stuck between the d40 and a200.I have written this review after using both the sony a200 and the nikon d40 and i am in no way biased towards the nikon d40, or working for nikon for that matter. The sony a200 is a great camera however i found it felt less compact and more flimsy. it does however offer anti shake, which while it is very helpful, new nikon lenses come with anitshake/vibration reduction built in in the lens. Please dont let the 6mp put you off, it put me off first, but after research i understood that the camera doesnt just consist of its number of MPs. If you do want more megapixels for enlargements, then i suggest you look at the nikon d60 or the sony a200 more closely.

I cannot reccommend this camera enough! Feel free to leave any questions for i will be checking the review for feedback in the next few weeks.

Thanks for reading

sony cyber shot 10.1mp

a great camera for every day use not too technical and easy to use from the moment it was charged up

Fantastic Camera

I bought this for my wife as a replacement for her Ixus55 which broke when dropped, oh the joys of having a 3yo in the house. Initially we thought it would be pretty much the same as the Ixus55 but we've been highly impressed by the improvements.

The three biggest changes we like are the way the ISO changes automatically to best suit the shooting environment whilst letting you know by showing it on the display. The second major improvement is the flash which seems to fill fairly big voids with just the right amount of light. Lastly, the start-up is very quick for a point & shoot camera.

This camera is a joy to use, it has a nice feel, is light and the Canon design is now imitated by all the other camera manufacturers.

An excellent piece of kit

Having a good deal of top rate Canon DSLRs and the Canon G9,I was a bit wary of buying the Panasonic TZ7, but after reading all the reviews I could about this camera I decided to buy it as a pocket sized compact. I have not been disappointed. This is an excellent camera which will not let you down. It produces really good images especially when using the Panasonic Ai system. The 12x optical zoom lets you get really close to your subject and the built in stabilisation helps to keep your pictures pin sharp.
I have no hesitation in recommending this camera.

Fantastic camera

My boyfriend recommended this camera to me as one which would be more functional than aesthetic. I previously owned a Olympus 5 mpx camera which took a long time to start up, was bulky to carry around and had a low battery life. The Lumix is far better - it starts up quickly and has excellent battery life. It may be a bit heavy and bulky, but the photo quality is excellent and more than makes up for it.

There are many functions and settings, like the particularly helpful Beach function which means I no longer have the sun getting in the way of beautiful photos!

Excellent camera for picture and video

Originally I was looking for a video camera that could take pictures, but since I would be mostly taking pictures I came to the conclusion that what i really needed was a digital camera with good picture quality that could also take video. The FujiFilm F200EXR certainly provides excellent picture modes for my simple point and click requirements and the video quality is almost as good as my last video camera.

Although this camera was more than I had originaly wanted to pay, I was more than happy with the end results. It was also very recently confirmed as best buy on the gadget show, which just confirms to me its capability.

The only downsides that I have so far with it, is that when shooting video by turning the camer 90 degress (to make the picture taller) there isn't the option to turn the video back around the right way when viewing it later (either on the camera or PC). I suspect I will need to buy speacialist software to do this.

Also the Fuji Finepix PC software (to manage your photo collection and camera downloads) didn't seem to want to work with my PC (Windows Vista, with all the latest patches on), so I had to resort to manually bringing accross camera video/pictures myself and then deleting the images (this seemed to be a general issue with the software if you look at all of the google items relating to others users comments). This wasn't an issue or me, since I am quite capable on the PC, but for others this might be enough to discourage them.

Zoom on the video once it had started would have been nice, but I can live without it since taking pictures was the main purpose of it.

As with other reviewers comments, I would agree that a second battery is a must, especially since you need to remove the battery from the camera to charge it.

More than just an"entry" camera

Having looked carefully for a low priced DSLR,I found this camera,it is all and more than I expected,easy to hold and handle,very quick and silent in all functions.An excellent camera for anyone on a fixed budget.Sony DSLR-A200K Digital SLR Camera + Zoom Lens Kit (18-70mm F3.5-5.6)

bargin at the price

having had a sony camera for years and now having a more expensive main camera we found we needed a cheaper camera for those day to day events.
having got it going which took minutes this camera as all sony cameras delivers some exceptional photos and video for a bargin price. a super buy and worth every penny and taking less than 60 seconds to get it working just what is needed.

Small but powerful

The camera small but it makes excellent pictures so far. It's surprising how Canon manage to fit many functions in such a tiny device. The video has perfect quality indeed.

fantastic

this is a fantastic alround camera,its very fast and has more features than u can find in a week.this is my first nikon as have just upgraded from an olympus e 500 and i will never use anything other than a nikon again!i can also highly recomend"the nikon d90 for dummies"book as it has helped alot getting to know the camera and all the features!the only down point i have found is its a little heavy but then then have fitted alot of things in so they can be let of and you know u have a quality camera every time you pick it up!

Fantstic Camera

This camera is so easy to use and gives great pictures. Its so good I bought another one for my son for Christmas. So many functions and all easy to understand.

canon g10

I started with a g7 three years ago and was very happy with it until it got broken in a fall, the replacement g10 is a gem of a camera. Picture quality is still stunning (14 mega pix). A take anywhere type of camera.10/10

Z20fd

well so far so good, I've had my new camera for almost a week and have used it a few times, outdoors on fathers day, a few indoor shots. The only thing yet to try are nighttime indoor/outdoor photos. But I have to say I am more than pleased so far and would recommend it. It is lovely and small but packed with good features.

CAMERA

very happy with my purchase and the results are perfect.It's size makes it very convenient to carry and use.
David Young

A Perky Panasonic

This is a great little camera, small enough and light enough to slip in my pocket. Unlike many of its ilk it allows the user some control, with A (Aperture Priority), S (Shutter Priority) and M (manual) in addition to the Scene modes. The fact that it can shoot widescreen video is a plus.

The controls are a little small for those with big hands. As with most cameras at this price point the LCD is difficult to read in bright sunshine. The internal flash unit is also a little underpowered. It is fine for pictures in your living room but not for party pictures in a large hall.

The camera's menu system is OK except that one or two functions you might use every day are buried too deeply into the menus. The function to format the memory card takes 22 key presses.

The 5x zoom is great. Covering the 30mm to 150mm (35mm equiv) means it can capture a diverse type of subject matter, and its macro mode extends this even more.

The Panasonic DMC-LZ10 is now out of production but there are still some available at a good price. If you decide this is the camera for you then snap it up quickly.

Simply stunning!

We got this camera to replace a small Nikon which did its duty over the last 3-4 years, primarily as a point-and-shot for family pics and videos. I have a good dSLR for more substantial work. This Lumix is just stunning! The quality of the pictures, colours, detail and the focus/exposure logic produces fantastic results. The movie quality is superb, played out to my PC or direct connect to large LCD TV, very watchable.

Among the features I really like:

- the user interface is a beauty, so simple and logical to navigate
- a fully automated mode that really works. Every test picture so far came out"right", night and day exposure
- the flash is very complementary, it never seems to to wash out subjects, just producing enough light or fill-in to get a good exposure
- manual setting modes that allow a decent range of adjustments for such a small camera; it ain't an SLR but for trickier conditions it gives enough control. Higher ISO modes don't seem too noisy so far
- the movie quality is superb, and the screen on the back is large enough and of high enough quality to really watch them playback without the rush to transfer to another display
- focussing seems pretty quick and precise
- the 10Mpix is enough to allow on camera cropping, producing high res images still which are very useable for the case I tried. Onboard cropping logic was really straight-forward
- The size of thing; it's tiny and so light, and a wonderful design
- Battery life seems good, I charged it up then took 100+ pics (with lots of flash) and some movies later the charge level only just stepped down from 3/3 bars to 2/3 bars.
- Use of SDHC is nice, fitted with a 8Gb card it indicates I can get almost 1600 pics in the highest-res mode! The standard goes up to 32Gb apparently.

Nice job Panasonic!

fantastic cannon camera

I have to say i was worried about paying for a camera that might not give me all the options required to give me a perfect picture. this camera is FANTASTIC!!!! I LOVE IT!!! It has so many functions, easy to use and is excellent value!!! i couldnt have asked for a better camera

Good compact camera

I already own a Nikon DSLR, which is a fine camera, but it can be a bit heavy to carry for long distances (plus I sometimes feel a bit nervous carrying it around my neck in inner city areas)

I decided to buy something small & light, but that also took reasonably good photos, for a budget of approx £200. After reading various reviews, I opted for the IXUS 100.

With it's matt black case & rounded corners, it looks very smart. But that thing that really strikes you, is how tiny it is!!!

This camera is the same width/height as a credit card & approx the same thickness as a small matchbox. It will easily fit in your shirt pocket, or back jeans pocket.

But is it too small? No, it's fine. I have largish hands & have had no real problems (the buttons are small, but no too small & they are well spaced out, so you don't accidentally click the wrong one)

The image quality is also very good (clear, sharp, with rich colours & very little noise)

I was worried that the flash looked puny. But I took a test shot, just before dusk, with the curtains drawn & no lights on. I could barely see the subject through the view finder, but the final photograph was fine (it had a slight yellow hue, which is common for flash photos, but no discernable noise, with all the detail very clear, even though I was 7-8 feet from the subject)

The view finder is very tiny (you have to move you eye right up to the camera & squint) But at least it has a view finder (a lot of compacts don't)

As with all compacts the view finder doesn't give an exact likeness of your photo (you need an SLR for that) But the final photo has slightly more content around the side (which I prefer to framing a subject in my view finder, only to find it's been cropped off in the final photo)

The camera comes with a wrist strap, battery, charger, manuals & software, but does NOT include a memory card (though I have seen other reviewers saying they did get a memory card, so perhaps only later editions have it missing) OK, these are cheap, but it does mean you can't use the camera"straight out of the box".

A 2Gb card will probably be sufficient, I have an 8Gb and it will hold 2471 photos.

Battery life is quoted as just over 200 photos (with the LCD screen on) but if you use flash, take videos etc then I suspect you will get nearer 150 shots (and therefore may want to buy a second battery, if you're planning a long photo session)

The LCD screen is also reasonably large (given the size of the camera) and with brightness set at 40%, I could just about see it on a very sunny day.

The image stabilisation also seems to work well, & I've yet to take a blurry photo, even when taking photos in low light.

In summary, this is a tiny, lightweight camera, that takes good photos (probably as good as can be expected for a camera of this cost/type) Only, a couple of very minor niggles, prevent me from giving it five stars.

Awful

I bought this camera off the Fujifilm site. When i first got it i was really impressed, i actually recommended my brother to buy it since it was such a good price. The pictures seem good quality, that is until you see a photo on another camera then realise that even a bog standard cheapy one takes clearer pictures!
The fuji photos all have a *slight*, white haze around them in good conditions, in poor conditions its almost a glow! i took the camera to my sisters wedding, i was at the first table next to the head table and yet ALL of the pictures on the camera are unclear (even zoomed in) with a slight white haze on everyone, i can barely see any faces in the pictures. The disposable cameras left on the guests tables took better pictures. My brother has the exact same experience with his camera.

not worth it

Sony Cyber-shot DSCS950S - Silver (10.1 MP, 4x Optical Zoom) 2.7" LCDThis camera isn't awful but its not good enough. It really struggles to deal with any type of movement from the person taking the photo or the objects in the photo, it also struggles unless the light is perfect. this camera also has very few modes. for example my old 50 pound kodak takes much better moving photos (sports mode) and is much more consistant. With sony most of the money is invested in the camera looking good(which it does) and not on the photos (normally slightly blured). you money will go a lot further buying a Kodak, Canon or any proper photography make.