We have a Nikon Coolpix. It is a brilliant camera, ours is a 7mp but the one before was a 3mp That wasbrilliant too. It takes fantastic pictures.

i would reccomend any of the kodak easy share cameras

they are very simple to use and easy to install

I know a thing or two about camera's, my photo sales so far this year paid for my last holiday (don't tell the tax man ). Most digital compacts are pretty good these days, there isn't a lot between them unless you go over them with a magnifying glass. Most cameras from the reputable manufactures, Kodak, Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fuji etc produce some imperssive compacts for the money. None are in the same league as an SLR, although some of the 'bridge' cameras are quite good. You can't beat an SLR though for their versitiliy, overall image quality and speed. My biggest gripe with digital compacts is shutter lag, some are so slow it makes them un-usable in certain situations and some are very 'noisy' in dull / low light conditions.

Darren

Hi Robbo11

I tried rechargable batteries, they lasted less time than the standard batteries did! right enough they were energizer ones! i'll have a look for the ones you suggested! Thanks!

Leanne

We had the same problem with a Nikon Coolpix ,eventually jessops recommened Lithium batteries (i think thats what they were,sold the camera recently)and they lasted forever.
We had a rechargable one and a non-rechargeable one as a spare but we never used it as the rechargeable one lasted ages ,even enough for 2 weeks holiday.

Hi Leanne,
As a follow up to Robbo`s suggestion, I would also recommend the high spec. rechargables, a good place to try is 7dayshop.com very reasonable prices and they do up to a 2800 in their own brand.
Best regards, Brigger

In this thread I recommended the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1.

I used my camera at the weekend at Wembley Stadium and I'm very impressed with some of the images it captured considering the lighting conditions and some of the distances involved.
Some of the images are a little blurry but that's probably more due to the fact both myself and all those around me were jumping about at the time than the camera not being up to the job.

Some examples (I took over 200 photos!) HERE.

I don't know if it's possible to buy this particular camera any more but presumably the Panasonic models which have come on the market since I bought mine it are equally as good if not better.

I'll be taking the camera to Sharm with me at the end of next month and I'm hoping to buy an underwater housing for it as I'd love to capture some images of the wonderful sea life.

It's definitely the best camera I've ever owned, and rightly so seeing as at the time I bought it it cost £300!

On the subject of cameras....

Can anyone recommend an underwater housing for THIS camera please? Do I have to buy one of THESE at a cost of over £150 or is it possible to buy a universal housing?

I bought and used one of THESE for my last holiday to Sharm but found it almost impossible to use the camera (a different digital camera to the one I have now) in the Aquapac, it was far too fiddly.

Any suggestions please?

Thank you!

Pippy

Pippy,

Have a look at Cameras Underwater for options. I'd stay well clear of cheap bag type housings such as Aquapacs. I use one for my phote and the seals don't last very long and they are horrible to use when in water. I'd recommended the more expensive shell type housings made for your camera, ie the £150 one which will give you access to all functions of the camera. The universal housing are ok, but only give you limited control of the camera. It's worth paying the extra, I've seen people use very expensice video cameras (ie over £1000) and flood them on their first dive because they used a cheap, nasty housing. It's not worth the risk and the the cheap ones are poor value since they don't last and the optical qualities of the ports are poor.

Darren

Thanks Darren, I was hoping you'd see my post

Your answer pretty much confirms what I'd already guessed, you get what you pay for!
No way would I contemplate using an Aquapac again, it really did render the camera useless in that I couldn't press any of the buttons or see the screen! Hardly a minor irritation!

I'll just have to do some overtime between now and my holiday in five weeks time!

Pippy

Fiona,

I recenly replaced my ageing cybershot with the sony cybershot T7.5.1 Megapixels and a rechargeble battery.My old cybershot was a pain as far as batterries were concerned but this one is great.Another advantage is the size.It is incredibly thin and easy to carry.Been very happy with it.

Regards

Papa.

thanks papa

Fi

My camera has really come down in price! It's now almost half what I paid for it! Examples HERE and HERE.

You can buy a much bigger memory card than that supplied. I think I only paid about £17 for a 1gb card and that was a few months ago.

OH bought the camera and video camera through ebay - and once we've worked out which one we want thats what he'll do again- no doubt Mind you, time is running out and we do need to decide

i bought s digi camera from asda in Jan for about 60pounds, but only used it once in Goa this year

Pippy,
Have a look at the Panasonic forum on dpreview.com:

They will be able to answer anything !

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1033

Be careful about the size of the card. I have just bought some 1Gb SD cards for £3.20 each. The 4Gb card is available but I can't remember whether the TZ1 can manage anything over 2Gb. Remember that the larger cards do carry the risk of losing more work if the card crashes. It may well be more sensible to stick to a few 1Gb cards.

Thanks for the link!

I won't be going bigger than 1gb for the very reason you mention I lost lots of pics from the card in my previous camera because it was....what's the word?! I bought a programme to recover the lost pics and did manage to salvage some but lost still more

To be honest it's unlikely I'd ever fill even the 1gb card. I took over 200 pics at Wembley and still had loads of space left on the card.

Pippy

I lost lots of pics from the card in my previous camera because it was....what's the word?!

Corrupted!

Pippy, I thought you had another word in mind