I'm looking for a digital camera for my birthday, I have about £130 to spend on it and I'd like at least 5mp. Obviously an SLR would be great but somehow I don't think I'll find a qood quality new one that fits in my budget

I'm wanting to take it to motorsport events so it has to be able to take good pictures of moving stuff (I can track something moving so it's not too bad if I have to move the camera with the car).

Has anyone got any suggestions?

EDIT: I'm thinking about getting the Olympus FE-150 but wanted to know if I could get a better camera for my money

http://www.anglianinternet.co. ... _Digital_Camera_s_55.html

Maybe look at some of these? The Pentax sounds ok??

Don't wanna put you off but my "entry level" SLR the Canon 350D cost me £800 with body 18-58mm Canon kit lens and 1gb CF card. [10 months ago]

Realistically I'd say save your £130 and keep saving until you can add a minimum of another £120 to it, particuarly if you want something with a reasonably quick lens.

Before you buy go to a camera shop and get a demo, play with a few different models, then go home find them on the web and go back to the shop and ask for a price match, buying retail means you've got a real person to take it back to if it should screw up...

Don't focus on the pixel output...a 20mp camera with a cheap lens and a crappy colour sensor is still going to take a crappy picture... that's why you try before you buy and ask if you can see the photos on a monitor or paper and not just on the screen on the back of the camera.

I'd only buy something like a camera online if it was considerably cheaper and I couldn't find a retailer prepared to price match it.

http://www.pbase.com/cameras
http://www.steves-digicams.com/

I often hunt for/look at atleast 200 example shots before buying a camera.

Probably the best place to look is here: http://www.dpreview.com/

I will need to get a new camera soon, and I can only say the camera brand you want most is Canon, no doubt. Nikon being the next pick. I had bought a 1st generation Digital SLR from Minolta (wasn't full SLR), and it is pretty decent (not that great really), but compared to what I should've bought (a Canon), I am really wanting to buy a new camera

have u had an SLR before? or any experience with manual functions?
correct me if im wrong but u dont sound like a professional photographer so id reccomend u pick up a SLR-like - only one lens but all the manual functions of an SLR its perfect for someone working up to an SLR (like me) the camera i have is 6.1MP which is more than enough - its a Kodak Z650 and i paid $450AU - i dont know how much that is in pound but mines top of the line and all that jazz so you should be able to pick up one similar for around 300 but make sure u research it thoughly before u buy so u get whats perfect for you

Just my tip, never buy an Olympus if you are upgrading from a fairly good camera. I find Olympus cameras are not all that worth the money when compared to similarly priced brands like Canon or Nikon.

I plan on getting a Canon SLR in the Winter. My Uncle is a professional photographer, and he teaches me a lot. But with limitations of a pretty bad camera I bought about 3-4 years ago, I cannot be that great. I wish I still had my gallery up, but basically all I could end up doing good photos of was macro shots.

I own many normal film SLR cameras, and the best one being a Canon. The digital camera I own now is the Minolta Dimage 7Hi, which was a great camera when reviewed at the time. But when this camera came out, true digital SLR's were JUST coming out on the market. My camera was what they call a 'hybrid' SLR, but not a true SLR with the mirrors and viewfinder, because I had a digital viewfinder. It has all the other features and abilities any other SLR would have, but I personally think the chip was not that great, and I could not do many nice daytime shots. Only sunset/sunrise shots and closeup macro shots were its specialty because it could understand the lighting better.

Back to what I was saying about Olympus... I would never buy one simply because of a few main reasons. Their cameras usually create a blue haze or halos around bright/shiny objects, and most of the time they create lots of noise. I never liked their cameras because they seem more catered to the average photographer, rather than a professional user who would use a Canon or Nikon. My friend is an avid Olympus fan, and is always buying their top models every 2 years or so... but I never like them when I use them.

I just prefer the Canon Rebel models we have here, or anything higher if I wish to pay more

You can pick up Canon 300D's for about £250 on the 2nd hand market.

Dan,

Yeah, I am waiting till they are a bit cheaper, or at least the higher models (Need to have something that is 8 mexapixels or higher if I am going to buy late)

I prefer Canon's user interface, and I think their cameras are really good value for money.

£130 isn't much for a new camera though. If you're willing to go for 2nd hand cameras, I'd look for Canon G3, G5 or G6 whatever fits your price range. Or something from the A-series that run on AA sized batteries..

for a general point and shoot, i would say 5-6 megapixel is all you need. that will give you good quality, but without the pricetag, and alot of features you prob wont use.

Quote from Leifde :

I'm wanting to take it to motorsport events so it has to be able to take good pictures of moving stuff (I can track something moving so it's not too bad if I have to move the camera with the car).

Save your money for a SLR. I bought my first digital SLR a few months ago.
It is a Konica Minolta Dynax 5D. I never want to miss such a cam again. I live near the Nordschleife and thats the reason why I bought the cam. I want to take good fast pics at the race track.

I use a 18-70mm lens + 75-300mm lens. I payed for this set nearly 660€.

Quote from danowat :

You can pick up Canon 300D's for about £250 on the 2nd hand market.

Dan,

I own a 350D and three of the lads on my degree course own 300D's. The 350D shoots more shots per second in sports mode, can write to the card faster, boots up eleventy million times quicker and has several custom features like 2nd curtain flash sync that the 300D does not. The 300D is far from a bad camera but the 350D is a million times better, and having used the two side by side I'm glad I bought mine new and paid the extra.

My brother has a 350D, and it's flawless as far as I can tell. In fact, the only gripe is the size of the images, both in terms on pixels and MB, but you can't really moan about that too much