So, what can I get?

(Last updated December 2002)
The largest range of cameras lies in the 2nd category. The best camera I can see at the moment is the Kodak 3800, which can be purchased for £312 (inc Vat).

Spec for the Kodak 3800 is: -
Memory: 8MB Compact flash card supplied (Compact Flash Memory)
LCD Display: 38mm TFT full colour review/preview display
Digital zoom: 2 x
Focusing: Auto
Exposure control & White balance: Automatic
Shutter speed: 1/2 to 1/1000 second
Flash: Auto, fill, red-eye, off
Special effects: Date/time stamp
Interface: USB compact flash card reader supplied

It’s a good idea to get an additional 64Meg card for £40 (inc Vat), this should allow about another 200 pics.

In the semi professional bracket around £500, the Fuji FinePix 4900 is a good bet. I had a look at one of these when I was in Japan in April 2001 and I am quite impressed at the quality and speed of this camera, plus it has a few nice toys, like 80-sec motion capture with sound.

Technical Spec for the Fuji FinePix 4900 is:-
Resolution: 4.3 million pixels from a 2.4 million pixel Super CCD chip (Fujifilm have a very cleaver way of making their cameras work double the resolution (http://www.fujifilm.co.uk)
Lens: 3x optical zoom- equivalent to 36-108mm on a 35mm camera
LCD Screen: 2 inch, with 130,000 pixels
Sensitivity: Variable, equivalent to 200-800
Flash: Automatic Flash with 5 manual modes
Focus Distance: Macro: 20cm- 80cm; Normal: 80cm- infinity
Shutter Speed: Automatic 3 - 1/2000 sec
Video Clip Mode: 80 sec. bursts AVI Motion JPEG with sound at 320 x 240 (10fps)
Included Accessories: 16MB SmartMedia card, soft case, Adobe PhotoDeluxe, USB Drivers, 2 x NiMH rechargeable batteries and charger
Connectivity: USB, Windows 98/ Millenium/ 2000 Mac OS 8.5 onwards

Again I recommend an upgrade on the Smart card.

Two other camera’s around this price are the Nikon Coolpix 950; this is a very good package at the moment because it comes with a five-year warranty. It’s around £690 (inc Vat) and the Sony DSC-D770 Cybershot Pro at around £790 (inc Vat).

I have just bought a Minolta Dimage 7, which has a 5.2 mega pixel resolution, 7 times zoom lens, takes 60 second movies, well have a look at the Minolta site for specs. At £900 its not cheap (I bought mine in Japan, I wouldn t dream of paying £900).

If you have over £1000. Wow! You must be serious... (This is professional Equipment!) But there is a void between £700 to about £1800.

For about £2000, FujiFilm FinePix S1 Pro SLR Digital Camera, This is one of the lowest priced digital cameras that you can put your own SLR lenses onto. In the same price bracket is the Canon D30, it has very similar specs to the FujiFilm.

For around £3900 you can get the Nikon D1X, this is such a good camera that it’s used by the police.

If your really serious and have £14,000 + vat to spend, the Kodak DCS Pro Back is for you.

Whatever you choose, a digital camera is great fun to use and you will find yourself taking stupid amounts of images with it. In three years I have taken nearly 19000 images with my cameras.

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