Buying Cheap Digital Cameras

Not everyone can afford a more expensive digital camera and not everyone wants to buy one with all the bells and whistles that never get used. In this blog post I thought I would take a look at some of the pros and cons of buying cheap digital cameras.

At the present time I class a cheap digital camera at anything around £100 or under. Over the past 18 months there has been a noticeable drop in prices and it is surprising just how many cameras from known brands now fall into this price category.

As you would expect aside from saving a few pounds there are not a great number of advantages of buying a cheap digital camera. Many of the people I talk to never change the settings on their digital camera and only use the factory defaults that were in place when they bought the camera. Less expensive cameras are likely to have fewer features than more expensive models. Therefore this means that you are not paying for features you will never use. Fewer features can also make the camera easier to use.

For the first time I am starting to see pocket sized digital cameras becoming available at a little over £100. An example of this is the Olympus FE-230. This is a very straightforward digital camera and has a metal body.

You will need to be prepared to make some compromises when buying cheaper digital cameras. With some models the build quality is not always great and the camera can have a plasticy look and feel. You can also find increased shutter delay times, poor battery consumption, limited movie modes and smaller LCD screens.

The biggest difference though is in picture quality. One of the most noticeable differences here is with the amount of light you need to take a good photo. As a rule cheaper digital cameras seem to need more light to produce a sharply focused photo than their more expensive counterparts. Therefore if you are planning to use your camera primarily outdoors in bright daylight situations then you should still be able to get some pretty decent photos from your camera. In fact if this is the type of photo you are likely to find yourself taking almost all of the time then you may question the need to spend a lot more on a camera.

As you can see I have mentioned a number of potential downsides, so are there any cheap digital cameras I would recommend? Out of the current batch that I have reviewed to date I would say the best of the bunch is the Canon Powershot A550. Looking at current prices this is available at a shade over £100 online and is able to overcome almost all the problems mentioned above. If this is still outside your budget then for a little over £80 you could try the Panasonic DMC LS60 or the Canon Powershot A460.

These are all decent cameras and will handle most situations. With the two cheaper models you will find limitations from time to time when it comes to the amount of light you need to take a photo.