[pE71J5Sw]

Hi everyone, summers comming up and im in the market for a nice cheap camera just to take snaps with. Nothing professional, just random days/nights out with friends. I got an LG viewty at the start of the year owing to it having a 5mp camera but the quality is not even as good as the 4-5 year old camera I already have.

The camera i've got at the moment is a 3.2mp Olympus something or other (Cant remember the model number and cant find the actual camera at the moment). To be honest the pictures it takes are absoloutly fine in quality, but its just to big and bulky due to it being quite old.

I know jack squat about cameras and I've already seen how more megapixels dosent equal better pictures, basically all im looking for is something very small and light. Decent battery length, decent picture quality for about £100-£150 ($200-$300) or cheaper if possible. Im not sure really what im looking for, what stats are important etc.

[Fainnamoony]

i know alot of ppl here will not agree with me here, but i got my sister a polaroid i733 and its image quality is just incredible. i don't know why ppl don't realize how good it is, and for the price its even better. i remember taking some amazing pics with it, i'll ask my sister to send me a couple of sample pictures. i also ordered one for myself on ebay, costed me 49 bucks + 18 shipping for a new one, must be around 90bucks @ walmart.

it has 2.5" lcd very very good quality 1/2.5 sensor 7mp 1/2000-8 sec shutter speed, alot of manual controls to it as well with 3x optical 4x digital zoom. like i said the image quality is very very very nice, much better then any olympus fe series camera (which is believe is completely junk) also uses sd card (which cost next to nothing compared to memory sticks or xd cards) runs on 2xAA batteries (which has a somewhat short battery life but with 2500mAh or better rechargables u should be fine).

[YabbaIn]

Canon Digital IXUS 970 IS is nice... It should be around 300€...

[Fegasderty]

I would 2nd the Canon IXUS range.

I bought the 860IS for my wife in November last year, and I have to say I am very impressed. It uses the same DIGIC image processor as the Canon DSLRs. The only downside is that of all compact cameras - which is ISO noise, as the sensor in compact cameras is smaller than those in DSLRs.

[dAy2EWlg]

Also look at TZ5 from Panasonic, I'm a canon guy, but in the compact range Panasonic is being a real competitor to Canon. TZ5 has very good ISO performance, IS and other capabilities.

[JohnImamadviser]

if size isnt a big deal i would highly recommend 1st olympus sp-550 uz or 560uz if you can find the later. or fuji s1000fp or fd i guess (they are both around $300) i got my 550uz for 249 on sale at futureshop. and fuji is also $249. stay away from olympus "fe" series. they have the worst image quality ever.. i will check some cameras for you. but if you want something really cheap and slim with good quality seriously consider polaroid. at least give it a look "i'll put up a review with lots of sample pictures next week once mine is here"

[Enalsebeerkawl]

I'm about to get myself a Canon Ixus 80 IS (£144.99 from Amazon) to replace my ageing Canon Ixus 430. Canons are definitely my favourite compact cameras and my old one has produced some fantastic pictures, so hopefully the newer model will be even better.