Digital Camera for ~$150

[Soylent Joe]

Since I've decided against speakers for my birthday, a new camera has taken their place. Currently I've got a Nikon D50 to use (belongs to my father) which is good and all, and a P&S Kodak that is a piece of crap.


What I'm looking for in a camera:

• 10MP+
• Large LCD
• 10X+ optical zoom
• Wide angle lens
• At least 720p video in a usable format
• Great image and video quality

I'm almost set on the Fulifilm Finepix S1800. It has every feature I'm looking for and more, for only $10 over budget, with a free case.

Looking at the reviews for cameras on Newegg, it seems that they all have their flaws. For the Finepix those flaws are that the lens zoom sound is overpowering in video, picture preview quality is bad (but actual image quality is great), it eats through batteries, and it's prone to laggyness and possible freezing. It also feels a little cheap. I played with it at Target earlier, although there was no power going to it (they needed the AC adapter unit for the bottom or something). It's going for $200 plus tax there at Target.

So does anyone have any experience with the S1800? For new recommendations, I'd really prefer Newegg although I'll deal with any respectable site if the price is right.

 

[Kursah]

I had pretty good luck with my old Samsung SL620...it doesn't do HD video, just 640x480, but it worked well at that. It also took very nice pictures, though at times it would have issues auto adjusting to outside brightness for a good shot. But I got it and a 4GB SD card at Best Buy over a year ago for around $120 or 130-ish. Overall I really liked it, and put it through hell...then I left it on the ground after a day of fishing...never to see it again.

I finally stepped up to a toughcam since I do mostly outdoors stuff in all sorts of temperatures, water is always around whether frozen or moving, etc. I ended up going with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS2...which is around 2X your budget...but I absolutely love it! Does 720P video, 14MP, takes great pictures, saves very quick, works great under water, when it's cold, hot, etc. This camera has been worth every damn penny, and I slapped a 10X 16GB SD card I got from the 'egg for around $30 shipped on sale, it's been one helluva combo thus far. Since July I've taken well over 1000 pictures and 3 hours of vid. It's been flawless and is tougher than snot and reviews quite well too.

I do know a friend that swears by Fujifilm's Finepix series, I don't think he as an S1800, but his pictures generally turn out pretty well and again he's had good luck with them. Honestly I think you should keep researching, you'll find something...also does your budget include and SD card or do you need one of those too? You'll probably want at least 6X for 720P video...otherwise it may get choppy during recording (fwir during my time researching tough cams). I have been extremely impressed with my Panasonic, dunno what they may have in your budget but if their regular P&C's perform and produce as well as my tough cam...it'll be well worth it.

Wish I could be of more help, but that's been my most recent experience. But that S1800 looks like it would be a pretty decent camera overall, if I didn't need something tougher I'd get it. I thought I'd hate the lower zoom of a tough cam...really doesn't bother me too much, for my uses at least. Good luck on your search!

 

[MN12BIRD]

I would think getting a 10x optical zoom in that price range won't be easy so perhaps the extra $10 on the Fuji ain't so bad. The laggyness and freezing could be something they fix with a firmware update but who knows.

I've always liked Canon SD series P&S cameras but of course they're pocket cameras and 3x to 5x optical zoom seems to be the norm on those. I'm actually surprised with this Fuji for what it can do, what it has and the price I mean. But I've never used one so I can't really say much.

Does the video have any time limits on it? One thing with the Canon's is they have a 10 minute cap on each video no matter how big your SD card is. They only do it to separate the camcorder sales since you can hack their firmware to lengthen the limit beyond 10 minutes. But that's one thing I always look for so I'm curious with this one.

I'm also joining the thread to hear more about this cam!

 

[Soylent Joe]

does your budget include and SD card or do you need one of those too? You'll probably want at least 6X for 720P video...otherwise it may get choppy during recording

I've got a "Class 4" 4GB card I could use, which worked alright in a 1080p camera that had for a few days about a year ago. If that card turns out to be too slow or too small getting a better one wouldn't be that big of a deal.

Does the video have any time limits on it? One thing with the Canon's is they have a 10 minute cap on each video no matter how big your SD card is. They only do it to separate the camcorder sales since you can hack their firmware to lengthen the limit beyond 10 minutes. But that's one thing I always look for so I'm curious with this one.

I looked through the reviews again and didn't see anything about a recording time cap, so hopefully that camera doesn't have one.


Are there any $150 HD SDHC camcorders worth the money?

 

[MN12BIRD]

No. There literally aren't any. Flip UltraHD, Sony Webbie, Kodak Zi8, Creative, JVC etc etc. Most of them sans the zi8 have no macro lens and even then it's not as good as a Canon SD's macro, they have no optical zoom, they have really narrow lenses. When it comes to shooting basic 720p video you can do more with a Canon SD1400 or w.e. for the same price. Other than the 10 minute cap but I would imagine most cameras now that do 720p don't have any cap. I have the Flip Ultra HD and the Kodak Zi8 and have done extensive use with both of them. I sometimes wish I just bought a Canon SD1400 or something equivalent with optical zoom, macro, wider lens, focus system etc etc. Like I said I've seen firmware hacks for the Canon cameras to boost the time limit but I still think they cap at 15 minutes at the most. But considering the videos I take would mainly be for YouTube and things like that I really wouldn't be that hard off with the 10 minute at a time cut off. You just hit record again and continue. So you have to break it up at some time before 10 minutes and continue. I don't usually record longer than that anyway to think of it. Yeah, should have got something like that instead...

 

[n-ster]

shit... now I wanna camera... and now I am considering that Fujifilm lol

 

[Soylent Joe]

No. There literally aren't any. Flip UltraHD, Sony Webbie, Kodak Zi8, Creative, JVC etc etc. Most of them sans the zi8 have no macro lens and even then it's not as good as a Canon SD's macro, they have no optical zoom, they have really narrow lenses. When it comes to shooting basic 720p video you can do more with a Canon SD1400 or w.e. for the same price. Other than the 10 minute cap but I would imagine most cameras now that do 720p don't have any cap.

Ah, it was the Zi8 that I had about a year ago. I think it was a little bit more than $150, but I returned it to the store within the month. The video was so incredibly shaky, and even though it recorded in 1920x1080, it looked just like 720p but stretched. The macro setting that you have to manually flip the switch for and extremely short integrated USB cable didn't help either.

shit... now I wanna camera... and now I am considering that Fujifilm lol

You get it first and tell me how it is?

 

[n-ster]

haha, I was hoping for the opposite I would probably wait till christmas or boxing week actually

 

[MN12BIRD]

Ah, it was the Zi8 that I had about a year ago. I think it was a little bit more than $150, but I returned it to the store within the month. The video was so incredibly shaky, and even though it recorded in 1920x1080, it looked just like 720p but stretched. The macro setting that you have to manually flip the switch for and extremely short integrated USB cable didn't help either.

Yeah oddly enough I couldn't notice any difference in video quality AT ALL from 720p to 1080p and it did get a narrower field of view in 1080p mode witch made no sense to me! If anything you would think it would get wider or not change at all but to get narrower and actually get less on screen? That was retarded. Plus in low light I got crazy lines in the video that the firmware updates were to help but I still noticed them pretty bad. The macro mode wasn't that great at all. It had electronic anti shake but that didn't help much either. I wanted to like the Zi8 I really did and on paper it smokes the Flip UltraHD. You get 1080p vs 720p, you get the macro, you get the electronic anti shake, you have removable SD storage, you get the HDMI cable, composite AV cable and wall charger (you need to buy your own mini HDMI cable for the Flip and they sell the wall charger separately) so it seemed like a clear winner.

But the Flip Ultra HD feels better in you hands, it can run off standard AA batteries if you kill the rechargeable battery on the go, the low light video is much better, the outdoor 720p video is just as good as the outdoor 1080p video on the zi8 and the built in 8GB is enough for 2hrs of recording. It has better encoding hardware so the video has better h.264 compression and at 720p vs the zi8 at 720p records longer length even if you had an 8GB SD card in the Zi8. The video coming off the camera also worked in Premiere and the video coming off the Zi8 didn't so I would have to use software to convert it first.

I actually bought both and was expecting to return the Flip Ultra HD. I loved the Zi8 on paper and got so stoked over all the extra features it had. But after using them both, realizing the low light video was better on the Flip (most of my video is indoors in not the best lighting), and realizing the video compression better on the Flip (not wanting to waste time converting video just to bring it into Premiere) I ended up taking the Zi8 back instead!

 

[Soylent Joe]

Any better suggestions for the camera? If not, I'm about to order the Fuji so it'll be here for my birthday next Tuesday.

Does anyone know how things go if you get something from Newegg and aren't satisfied with it?

 

[streetfighter 2]

I got a Samsung HZ10W for $170 about a year ago. Oddly it seems to have gone up in price.

It very closely meets your requirements though anyone can nit-pick the shit out of HD video recording on a low end camera. It's good enough but not great. Low light performance is not very good but I've become quite adept at compensating for that limitation by using the highly adjustable Program mode. It has a lot of the features of an SLR, like aperture and exposure time (which were in my camera buying criteria). The zoom is fantastic but you need to tripod it if you want a clear image (when zooming).

It's not very difficult to find the HZ10W for around $150:
http://www.centraldigital.com/Product/?10915309

I'm not reading the whole thread, BTW. I just thought I'd add my two-cents.

 

[MT Alex]

Does anyone know how things go if you get something from Newegg and aren't satisfied with it?

I bought my wife the new Canon Power Shot SD1400 for her birthday, from NewEgg. It was a wonderful size but took the most horrendous pics and videos. Seriously, it was bad. Anything with such a small lens just doesn't do well, especially at higher ISOs. In direct sunlight shots were passable, other than that they were grainy.

RMA'd it back, and they wanted to charge me a restocking fee, which was going to be $35. I told them I was just going to order a new one, so they waved the fee, which was good. If I wouldn't have complained, the fee still would have been there. So, if you don't like your camera, don't worry. The Egg will take care of you.

I got her the Panasonic DMC-ZR1, which is an older model, but we don't need the GPS crap. Couldn't be happier with it. Videos and pics are great. One of the main selling points for me was that the lens is made by Leica. Can't go wrong there. I did a lot of research, and it always seems that Panasonic comes out great with their point and shoot line.

 

[Fourstaff]

You can start hunting for better camera here: http://www.dpreview.com/

 

[n-ster]

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/fujifilm_finepix_s1800_review/

 

[garyinhere]

I did this review http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Icy_Dock/EZ-DOCK/2.html with that s1800 camera. It is good for the money for sure!

 

[Soylent Joe]

It does seem really good for the price.

HHNNGG this new sound card has me wanting those Klipsch speakers again >.<

 

[mudkip]

Since I've decided against speakers

What I'm looking for in a camera:

• 10MP+
  

• 
  Oh god you're one of those noobs who think it's all about megapixels.

 

[Soylent Joe]

Oh god you're one of those noobs who think it's all about megapixels.

Wrong. I by no means need any more than 5 or 6 megapixels. I know that it's the quality of lens and other things that make a camera good or great. You can have a 15MP camera that takes shit photos. "10MP+" was listed because that shows that it's rather new (less than 2 years?). Large resolutions have also come in handy to me here lately for intensive photoshopping.

 

[mudkip]

I'd suggest you some some money and buy a camera in a higher price range 200-250$ look for canon / panasonic best compact camera manufactures atm

 

[n-ster]

you got any suggestions?

 

[Soylent Joe]

Aw shit Newegg has 10% off all P&S cameras today after using "EMCZYNT99" at checkout. I'm really glad I waited.

I'll look at that review site more in computer class later on, and order one this evening.

 

[n-ster]

I'll probably buy one too.... thxs!

 

[n-ster]

My budget is 150~220$ after promo code before tax (I'm in NJ)... Hesitating between these

Actually not the Canon... the 220$ Recert. SP-800UZ looks great...

or with some extra bucks that P100 is sexy ...

 

[mudkip]

just don't buy a kodak. just don't. read the reviews and you'll get why.

 

[n-ster]

I did... the Z981 seemed like a good purchase... plus free SD card and case!

But I'll take your word for it...

S1800 vs Pentax X70 or for a bit more $$ the recert. Olympus SP-800UZ or for alot more money the P100.... What to do?