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The Moos

The Moos

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I know this is a forum for "internet, computing and gaming", but I'll post here anyway.

I'm gonna buy a new digital camera since my old one - a casio EX-Z120 - is driving me insane (say the battery is low even if it's new). It's been a good one, but now I just wanna throw it away.

The problem is that there's so many cameras out there with so many different functions and specifications that I know nothing about. I'm getting a headache just by thinking about it.

I have however narrowed my selection down a bit.

Panasonic DMC-FZ38

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX3

Nikon CoolPix P6000

I'm not sure about that last one (P6000). The one that has really stuck with me is the FZ38. It has better zoom than LX3 and an optical viewfinder, which is useful sometimes.

But apparently LX3 has a better image quality, which is also very important. On the other hand I'm not an expert on cameras and wont be using it for some high quality stuff. I'm just a simple man who want to take pictures of flowers and stuff like that.

One thing I really want my camera to be able to do is taking pictures at night and taking good pictures of fire or candles. Once every year at my summerplace we celebrate something that is called "Evening of light" (rough translation there) when we light fires and things. It looks something like this:

/monthly_10_2009/post-287-1255023027_thumb.jpg

It's really beautiful and I've always wanted to take pictures of it, but my old camera didn't manage to take any good photos of it. In fact the result was usually quite bad.

I really want my new one to be able to take good pictures of fire and candles at evening when it's a bit dark.

Maybe you know of any better cameras that cost about as much (or even less) that I should have a look at?

I was going to buy a camera today or tomorrow since I'm going away on a little boat trip this weekend, but if I can't decide I might as well buy it next week. It's a lot of money so might as well not rush things (though I have been looking at cameras for 2-3 weeks now).

 

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kalpitv said:
No Canon Ixus on your shortlist?
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No. I haven't read that much about those cameras, but the impression I get is that they aren't as good as the ones I've mentioned. Alot cheaper though.

Which one (of the Canon Ixus') would you recommend?

 
coco said:
Nikon CoolPix P6000I will be getting one for christmas hopefully. :unsure:

Have you used trusted reviews before ? Anyhow try them here...

http://www.trustedreviews.com/digital-came...oolPix-P6000/p1

Its a bit on the dear side, but its a top quality camera.
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Actually I have used Trusted Reviews quite alot.

Nikon CoolPix P6000 seem like a really good camera. Actually it seem more or less like the FZ38 I've looked at. One thing I noticed though is that if you compare the test images on Trusted Reviews you can see that the FZ38's images is a bit sharper compared to the P6000.

Originally I had 6 cameras on my shortlist. Apart from the two ones I mentioned before I also looked at:

Nikon CoolPix P6000

Canon Powershot SX10 IS

Canon Powershot G10

Nikon D90

The last two is just too expensive. If they would be alot better than the other ones I might pay a little extra, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

The SX10 IS just doesn't seem to be good enough.

So I had P6000 and the other two left. But in the end I just felt that P6000 wasn't for me.

I am a person who never can decide anything. I can have 2 choices and never chose one. Instead I try to listen to my body and heart. Does one of them speak to me or do I feel some kind of attachment toward anyone?

That's the deal this time. P6000 didn't "speak" to me, while the FZ38 really stuck with me. So maybe my body have already decided which one it wants but my brain just hasn't caught on yet.

I also know that it doesn't matter which one I buy because I will still feel like I've made the wrong decision (- "Maybe that other one was better? Or perhaps I missed a camera somewhere?"). So I will feel terrible after I've bought one of them.

I really should just close my eyes and pick one at random.

Once I was going to rent a movie and couldn't decide between two movies. After 20 minutes of choosing I ended up renting none of them and went home with nothing.

When it comes to buying things I'm the most insecure person in the world.

P.S. Maybe I should buy one of the cameras and try it out during the weekend and return it if I don't like it and chose another one instead? I guess the only way to find the perfect one is to try them all out :)

 
The Moos said:
P.S. Maybe I should buy one of the cameras and try it out during the weekend and return it if I don't like it and chose another one instead? I guess the only way to find the perfect one is to try them all out :unsure:
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Do you have Argos by you ?

 
The Moos said:
I know this is a forum for "internet, computing and gaming", but I'll post here anyway.One thing I really want my camera to be able to do is taking pictures at night and taking good pictures of fire or candles. Once every year at my summerplace we celebrate something that is called "Evening of light" (rough translation there) when we light fires and things. It looks something like this:

/monthly_10_2009/post-287-1255023027_thumb.jpg

It's really beautiful and I've always wanted to take pictures of it, but my old camera didn't manage to take any good photos of it. In fact the result was usually quite bad.

I really want my new one to be able to take good pictures of fire and candles at evening when it's a bit dark.

I was going to buy a camera today or tomorrow since I'm going away on a little boat trip this weekend, but if I can't decide I might as well buy it next week. It's a lot of money so might as well not rush things (though I have been looking at cameras for 2-3 weeks now).
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What's the date of this Evening of Light? Is that "lyskvall"? Tell us more about your "summer place" If you have already bought your camera, you'll be able to take photos of your boat trip and post them for us to admire.

 
moi said:
What's the date of this Evening of Light? Is that "lyskvall"? Tell us more about your "summer place" If you have already bought your camera, you'll be able to take photos of your boat trip and post them for us to admire.
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Yes, that is "Lyskvall" :unsure:

It takes place the last weekend - or rather the last saturday - of august every year. Exactly why we have it is slightly unclear. If I can trust Wikipedia then we took this event from Finland. Apparently people set fire to old junk and stuff from the summer and also cleared their refrigerators for when they were going home from their summerplaces.

If you go even farther back then it originally came from Venice. They celebrated that some plague was over. Not sure if this is correct though.

In Sweden some say we do this to pay tribute to the sea and the sea gods - saying thank you for a good fishing season. Some have other theories.

Personally I'm just happy to have an excuse to light fires and eat alot of food.

Every year my family and all the neighbours get together and celebrate this. Food, maybe play some games and then walk down to the beach to look at all the fires. It's amazing.

This year we were only 10 people but it was still nice. One couple who live just down the street had their newborn with them. Only a month old. Cutest thing in the world - even if he has the same name as a dog who lives in the area.

My summerplace is located about 155 miles from Stockholm (north from it) and I love to be there, which is a bit odd since I hated to go there when I was younger. My familys house is about 5 miles from nearest town - an old town (almost 400 years) that is simply wonderful because it has saved most of the old houses - and our house is more or less in a small place in the forest. A few years ago there lived there mostly elderly people but a few younger ones has moved in now, which is nice. Some live there all year round and others just spend summers there and some weekends. One elderly couple spend fall, winter and most of the spring in Spain. So basically they stay warm throughout the year. I envy them so much.

They might however come home for christmas and I expect my parents will spend christmas at our summerplace too so I'll be there. I just hope there's not too much snow. I love to have the white snow on the ground at christmas and maybe some light snowing in the air. That's the perfect christmas. Well that and children opening presents and maybe a santa. Kinda missed the christmasses when I was young.

Gonna stop rambling now.

If I buy a camera I promise to take some photos of my trip on the boat. That is if I can learn how to use it before then. Seems like the cameras I've looked at can be a bit tricky to use for an amateur like me. :)

 
I've owned a couple of Panasonic cameras as "pocket cameras" and have been really pleased with them, good picture quality. The only problem has been that at max. optical zoom the camera has lost focus (you have to zoom out and in again which can mean you miss your shot).

Night shots like the one you posted require a tripod no matter what camera you use, you can't hold the camera still enough by hand with such a long exposure.

If you want a point and click camera all the leading brands are good cameras, but you have to go to the shop and see what feels good in your hands, how you get on with the menus, etc. Also look at the offers on system cameras the likes of Mediamakrt, Expert, Siba or online Dustin have some great offers and low end system cameras also have a fully automatic mode to start with, but also the traditional settings options to let you grow with your hobby if that's your goal.

 
I picked up a Nikon CoolPix from one of my many trips to Japan. I have to say it could of been better but I was happy with it. It also had built in WiFi so I could send my pics I took to any email addess. Which I thought was good!

 
You won't go wrong with a Nikon Coolpix, but if you want other options, check out Sony's range, which have very good optics (Carl Zeiss) and generally very good quality. A good range with high ISO/ASA ratings for low light, etc. I have one of their compact cameras (not on me, so don't have the model number) which is reliable, has plenty of good exposure options and 13MP shots. Very happy.

To go beyond these you'd need to spring for a DSLR. Again, Nikon is arguably the leader here for quality.

 
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I have a Canon Ixus 85 IS. And it's never disappointed me. Though I think now the likes of 90 IS and 100 IS are fairing better. Some research will definitely help you.

As far as D-Vder suggestion about Sony is concerned, when I went from store to store looking for a new camera, none of the sales executives recommended a Sony camera and were usually against the idea of a customer purchasing it. I was initially lured by its touch screen technology, however, I was told that they are all running on Canon's technology and are not usually as good as they are supposed to be,

 
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