Advice for a very simple P&S camera

[Stef_T]

Hello everyone,

First I want to welcome everyone back to the discussion forums after the lengthy hiatus. I hope that everyone took the oppertunity to get out and take some more photos.

My grandmother saw me using my digital camera over the last few months and has decided that she wants to get her own. Normally I would just reccomend for her to get a good Canon and be done with it. However, while she is in good condition for the old lady she is, she doesn't quite understand the manual functions of a camera.

To be blunt, I am looking for a camera that might even sacrafice quality for simplicity. All she would need would be a on/off button, shutter and zoom (it took her a while to get the hang of it). Review would also help, even if she wouldn't use it herself. Apart from that, it needs to be fairly light and hopefully with a larger LCD, maybe even 2.5". MP doesn't need to be particularly high, 4 or even 3.2 would more than suffice.

Thank you very much for your help,

Stefan

EDIT: I just realized that I placed this in the wrong forum section. I appologize for that.

[DiaAzul]

I went through the same process with my parents and got them a Casio Exilim EX-Z57 which they are extremely pleased with. It has good battery life, and also a large 2.7" display on the back. To give you some idea of how technoliterate my father is - he still double/triple clicks html links to open a new page (even though he has been told he only needs to click it once) and gets confused if you move the trash can from the left of screen to right. If you have any advice on how to explain that how emails get delivered and that POP3 emails are stored in the network before being downloaded and stored on the PC that would be really helpful. The reason for this diatribe is that given his poor performance on the PC he can still use the Casio camera.

Another great advantage of the Casio is that it comes with a docking cradle. This is plugged into the mains (to charge the battery) and USB port on the computer. Therefore, once pictures have been taken the user comes back, puts the camera in the docking station and the files appear as if you had inserted a floppy disk. Most people I have met can cope with the concept of the camera as a floppy disk and copying the files to a hard disk :-)

Image quality is quite good. Flash is average/weak. Limited manual controls. I beleive that it will also boost ISO automatically in low light (but I would need to check the manual). Cheapish, simple, easy and very little to mess up. Also very light and slim to put in the handbag.

[Stef_T]

Thank you very much DiaAzul, I will definitely look into that camera.

If there are any other ideas, please let me know.

Stefan

[Ben Rubinstein]

How's your leg Stef? Did you ever update us on what equipment you finally bought with that budget of yours?

[Stef_T]

My leg healed completely, thank you for asking. Good enough to go back to playing football.

As for purchasing a camera, I finally came to my senses. I decided that until I actually start shooting more picutres that I didn't need one. When I was here months ago, my way of thinking was that the camera needed to come first and then the pictures would. I've now switched that around to first  taking pictures, then a new camera. So for now I am sticking with the measly A80.

Another problem was that after evaluating my finances I decided that I was going to need a great deal of them for university depending on where I go. I am currently entertaining the idea of going to an Ivy League for pre-med (looking a Harvard mostly). But I don't want to jump the gun, seeing as my grades are not quite as high as I would have liked them to be. So the plan is to boost the grades and to start taking more pics and then to choose a university and camera (hopefully).

I do however apologize for the way I asked for information. I gave off the impression that I needed information as quickly as possible for something that turns out didn't happen. I still learned a great deal that was useful, but can't help feeling that I wasted a fair amount of your time. I hope that there aren't any hard feelings.

All the best,

Stefan

[Paulo Bizarro]

Stef,

There are literally hundreds of cameras that are just what you describe. You can search Dpreview, or Steve's Digicams, based on megapixels, etc.

[Ben Rubinstein]

Stef, don't apologize, I'm sure that everyone here, like me, was glad to help. That thread was helpful to a  lot of other people as well. It is very good to sort your mind out before you start sorting out your bank account. Once you know all your options, in detail, you can plan far better than if you were not prepared.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Stef, don't apologize, I'm sure that everyone here, like me, was glad to help. That thread was helpful to a  lot of other people as well. It is very good to sort your mind out before you start sorting out your bank account. Once you know all your options, in detail, you can plan far better than if you were not prepared.
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Stef, I agree with Pom. I was always impressed with how sensible and clearly stated your questions were. I am sure they helped many others.
Good luck with your university career and the photography, in its own time.

Eric

[BernardLanguillier]

Too late it seems, but I were to buy a simple P&S today I would purchase a Fuji F11 without the shadow of a doubt.

Regards,
Bernard

[Stef_T]

Thank you for your support Pom and Eric, I appreciate it.

Mr. Languillier, it is not too late. I will only be seeing her this weekend. Might I ask why you consider the Fuji F11 better than other models?

Stefan

[Lisa Nikodym]

Stefan -  A couple of months back here I was asking for suggestions for a very compact camera to carry around with me all the time, to use when I unexpectedly wanted a camera and wasn't carrying around my SLR.  After some discussion here, I came to the conclusion that a Fuji F11 is what I'm going to get, so I second Bernard's recommendation.  What it has going for it is that it seems to have unusually excellent image quality (low noise, especially) in a very compact package, with a good zoom range and a built-in flash.  (It also has aperture-priority mode and shutter-priority mode, which are probably not of particular interest to your grandmother, but were of interest to me.)  Unfortunately, it's not available quite yet - but soon!  If you're in more of a hurry, the Fuji F10 does most of what the F11 will (just not the aperture-priority and shutter-priority modes, mostly).

Lisa