> Hi Folks > I'm looking for recommendations for a 5 or 6 Mp compact camera. Must > have good battery life, maybe 3X optical zoom. I would prefer it to > have a card format which is easy (and cheap) to obtain in, say, 512Mb > size. Max price about $750. Any help appreciated, even links to reviews > etc. > Andrew >
honestly $750 is a lot to pay these days on a compact digital camera. For that money you can get a very good compact camera and a fair few accessories, cards, bag... and still have money in your pocket. My experience with the Canon Powershot A70/A75/A80 is that they are very good quality for their price. They are slightly more prone to the dreaded "purple fringing syndrome" than some other high end compacts like the Fuji's and Nikon's compacts BUT ALL compacts (and even most DSLRs) do this to some degree. the new A95 is listed at Canon Australi's site as being $499 which meens you should be able to pick one up for $450 or less retail/cash. Then go to Batteries Plus and buy 8 Li ion AA batteries (about $26) and a charger (less than $30)- I like the idea of being able to use standard battery sizes rather than some expensive propriotry cell as you can, in a pinch get AA cells almost anywere in the world if you find yourself with dead rechargables and no powerpoint. Then pickup a couple of name brand 128, 256 or 512MB Compact Flash cards from a discount computer shop (Tang/Netplus/Austin etc) - personally on compacts you don't need to go overboard with superdopper ultra fast cards so you can come out of this for well under $100. <http://www.canon.com.au/products/cameras/digital_compact_cameras/powershot_a95.html> mind you if I had $750 to throw at a new compact I'd scrounge up a bit more and get one of these: <http://www.canon.com.au/products/cameras/digital_compact_cameras/powershots2is.html> or <http://panasonic.com.au/products/details.cfm?objectID=2653> Both 5MP ("more than enough"), 12X optical zoom with GOOD lenses and built in image stabilisation system fair enough neither are truely "Compact" but both are substantially lighter and smaller than any DSLR --------------------------------------------- This message was sent using Endymion MailMan. http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/
