Canon Powershot

[Christianne]

My daughter is going to Africa on a year's VSO plus a further month of travelling. She has asked for a cheapish camera, incase of any mishaps, and I was looking to buy the Canon Powershot SX210 ISA11000, priced at about £90. Can anyone recommend any other camera instead perhaps? The reviews indicate that this one is easy to use and the results are good. Would I need to purchase an 8GB Sandisk or will a 4GB Sandisk suffice? Many thanks for any suggestions.

[hc4361]

The size of the memory card depends very much on if she will have frequent access to a computer to upload the pics. If she does, the 4gb will be more than enough.
The Canon is a good camera, but have a look at last week's Gadget Show. They reviewed simple to use small camcorders that can also take stills. The price was not much different and the photo quality was excellent.
It is more important to buy very good batteries, otherwise they will drain very quickly.

Go to Jessops or similar and have a good look at what is available. I am very grateful for the eye viewfinder on my own camera as the large screen is invisible in bright sunlight. Other cameras may be different.

Also consider those very cheap and easy to use camcorders, such as the Creative Vado. Good fun.

[hc4361]

This is the sort of camcorder that can be instead of a camera.
http://www.jessops.co...ducts/77169/show.html


By the way, I am envious of your daughter's get up and go and enthusiasm. VSO is something I wanted to do, but didn't have the courage.

[Christianne]

Thank you for your very helpful answers. I shall certainly be looking at those options. Like you, I too didn't have the courage to do something like VSO. Perhaps I',m too selfish, I like my home comforts!!!

[TTG]

My Canon Powershot A480 is great. Has an 8gb card and takes excellent movies with masses of room for pictures. Get a good set of rechargeable batteries (2500 mah for top power).

[scotman]

The point about rechargeable cells is good. I would get at least 2 sets, one to use while the other is charging. If there is a separate charger make sure it can cope with the voltages she will find on her travels.
Also, the memory card will fill up quicker if the pictures are high quality and slower if lower quality is used.

[Christianne]

Many thanks TTG and scotman for the advice regarding the batteries. I shall now go onto Amazon and place an order as their cameras are certainly more competitive in price. My next posting is going to be asking for advice on a computer netbook which my daughter wishes to take with her. That's an area I know nothing about.

[hc4361]

I am very impressed with my Samsung netbook. The keyboard is fabulous for such a small piece of kit.

[Christianne]

hc, you are proving to be a godsend, so I'm going to ask your advice again. I know absolutely nothing about netbooks. Is there a particular Samsung you could recommend that I look at? Anne tells me she wants to be able to skype, so she's hoping to go for something with an inbuilt camera. I can see the price increasing every time I talk to her!!

[hc4361]

Mine is the Samsung N210, I bought it from Amazon.
It has a webcam and is perfect for Skype.

[Christianne]

A huge thank you hc for all your helpful suggestions, I'm very grateful for your advice. I can see Amazon is going to do very well from me in the next day. Have a good weekend. C.