which digital camera

[paul 1]

hi. i am looking to buy i of these shortly. never owned i before, complete beginner. looked at which magazine. suggestion was canon lxus 70. or bigger lcd lxus 75. however the 75 does not have a viewfinder. what is a view finder? and is it beeter to have 1 or not on a camera? what i cannot understand is that the 75 is the newer version and it has no viewfinder so canon must think it is not an impotant feature. thanks 4 your help

[vehelpfulguy]

The viewfinder is the small "hole" that you look through when taking a picture.

The problem with most cameras is that the viewfinder does not fully line up with what is going through the lens, so you do not actually "see" a totally accurate image of the picture the camera will take.

This is particulalry true of cameras with a large optical zoom lens.

Nearly all digital cameras have a screen on the back showing what is going through the lens, and this is what you use to decide what picture to take.

I rarely if ever look through the viewfinder when taking a picture with my digital camera, not sure if other peole do.

[dustypuss]

one of the draw back of not having a view finder is in bright sun light sometimes you cannot see the picture on the screen because it is to bright . If you can go for a camera with a view finder and a LCD screen . VHG answer is all so true

[ianmunt]

I personally would go for a viewfinfer as well.The main reason for omitting one is to reduce costs and keep size to a minimum.
More recent cameras are better,but try using a LCD screen in really bright sunshine and you are operating half blind as the image is hard to make out.
The optical finder does have a parallax problem since it doesn't accurately line up at close distances,but anything over a couple of metres its accurate enough.Many of the superzooms have an electronic viewfinder where you view a miniature electronic image via an eyepiece,the are more accurate in what they show.

[dustypuss]

go to the jessop web site then you can browse through all there gear at your hart content with no pressure to bye

[fo3nix]

What sort of photos are you wanting to take?

If you're wanting a general camera for any purpose, holidays, random events, birthdays, etc. then go for a small compact.

All the Canons are good. Casio also make some good camera. The Casio Z75 is a good price right now. Better (though perhaps with features you don't need right now) is the V8. The V7 is also very good (its older brother).

What to look for:
- Ignore any talk of digital zoom. Never use it.
- Optical zoom -- the more the better. Most are 3x or there abouts on compacts.
- Megapixels. Above 6 and there is no difference. 4 megapixels is enough for a decent A4 print at full size.
- viewfinder. Used to be necessary, as that was the bit of glass you looked through to take your photo. Now, the LCD at the back is used. Manufacturers used to include both because the LCD wasn't very bright (and therefore viewable) in direct sunlight, so composing a picture was hard. Now, the LCDs are much bighter, so many manufacturers save room on the back and take off the viewfinder, leaving room for a place for your thumb or some other control.

[clarelouise]

Canon are the best in my opinion.
We have a canon and 2 other makes and canon is the best.
My family have canon and agree they are good.
I once read on a photography website that canon was the best picture of a wide range of cameras.Colour and quality were good.
Apparantley they could always tell which pictures had been taken with a canon.They were always good quality.
It's entirely up to you.I wouls always go with canon.
But as someone else has said all canon's are good.
I don't use viewfinder on any of our camera's.
You may do though.It's personal choice.
Hope this helps
Clare

[dustypuss]

well did u get your self a camera .or did santa get u one