Digital Camera Auctions

I have been asked what I think of buying older, used digital cameras from online auctions such as Ebay. The question relates to models that are now a couple of years old or more and the question is are they likely to offer value for money.

When I took a look at Ebay I concentrated on used cameras available for less that £100.

Some of the digital cameras that were selling included a Kodak Easyshare DC240 that was sold for £20 plus £6 postage. There were also a couple of other Kodak digital cameras where people had bid under £20. The problem was that these cameras did not meet the auction reserve price and therefore were not sold. I also saw an Olympus C-765 selling for £91 + £10 postage. This is a fairly advanced compact with a long zoom lens.

So would any of these cameras be consider good value for money. This depends on the condition of the camera, but I would say spending £20 for the Kodak Easyshare DC 240 would be a very good piece of business. At that price it certainly gives people the opportunity to pick up a digital camera that they could not otherwise afford.

Also sold was a Canon Powershot S45 for £67 + £6 postage. The Powershot S45 would still be quite an advanced digital camera so again I would say it was a good deal.

Another camera sold was the Fuji Finepix A101 for just £5.50 + £6 postage. Well if you would like a digital camera I’m not sure you will be able to find anything cheaper than that!

The camera I am not quite so convinced about is the Olympus C-765. Personally I feel some of the current super zoom cameras offer better value albeit at a higher price. So you do need to be a little careful about what you buy.

What do you need to take into consideration?
This may sound strange, but I don’t think there has been a great advance in picture quality over the past couple of years. The type of photo I am talking about here is the standard snap shot taking in decent lighting conditions.

Areas where cameras have changed include offering more megapixels, longer zoom, faster shutter response times, better battery consumption, larger LCD screens and they have also tended to shrink in size. You will also find longer and better quality movies with sound, an improvement in some lowlight photography and shorter macro focusing distances. Therefore you need to weigh these factors up when considering whether or not to pick up a cheaper, older model.

When buying an older camera it is hard to tell just how many miles are on the clock. Digital cameras are fairly delicate machines and there is always a risk involved when buying out of warranty.

To sum up there are some bargains to be had, especially for those who are looking for cameras available for less than the cheapest current models. You do need to think about the factors that are important to you personally before jumping in.

If you would like to check out the latest auctions to find a cheap, used digital camera then follow this link: Low Price Camera Auctions

Buying a Digital Camera Abroad

One question I get asked is can I buy a digital camera from a non EU country? The answer is that there is nothing to stop you, but there are some issues you should be aware of before you part with your hard earned cash.

You should find any camera bought from a reputable brand is fully compatible with other appliances such as computers and compatible printers once you return or once your camera arrives in the U.K., apart from the need to buy a plug adapter. It can also be useful to know that the camera you have decided to buy may have a different name in a different country.

As far as I am aware there are three main issues you may wish to think about before you go ahead and purchase a digital camera either while on holiday or via the Internet.

The first issue is will you get charged duty and VAT when you return to the U.K. or your camera comes through customs?

The answer is you will have to pay VAT at 17.5% as you go through customs on all types of camera and camcorder.

Whether or not you have to pay duty is more of a grey area and could well change shortly. Currently there is no duty payable on a digital camera unless it has a video recording time greater than one to two minutes. This means that theoretically duty should be paid on just about every consumer level camera at a rate of 12.5% at the current time. At the moment I am not convinced that this rule is being universally applied. As I say this is a grey area. Digital SLRs without a video mode are exempt from duty.

35mm cameras incur duty of 4.2%, while camcorders incur duty at 12.5%.

The second issue is what happens if the camera breaks down. Repair policy differs from company to company. Therefore if you know the brand of camera you are planning to buy then check with that company whether or not their warranty is still valid when buying from another country. You could find that a camera bought elsewhere will need to be returned there for repair. Obviously this could cause delays to the process and incur shipping costs for you.

Next up is be very careful what you buy. So many people buy cheap digital cameras at high prices when they go abroad. It seems that salesmen suck them into believing that low quality brands are in fact high quality cameras. The best advice I can give you is to decide which camera you wish to buy before traveling and only buy that camera or one from a small shortlist.

That’s about it! Happy shopping.

Pocket Sized Digital Camera Limitations

This post is in response to a question I received about pocket sized digital cameras. The question posed asked if there was a pocket sized digital camera I could recommend that would handle a number of different types of photo opportunity. These included taking photos of moving subjects such as horses, working well inside a house in lower light and avoiding red eye. The budget for such a camera was specified as up to £350.

The first issue I will deal with is the budget. The cost of pocket sized digital cameras has fallen over the past 18 months to the point where it is difficult to pay more than around £220 for this type of camera. Therefore even if you are willing to spend more you will struggle to find a camera to buy.

Next up is red eye. This is caused by the light from the flash unit bouncing back off the eye into the lens of the camera. The reason why this is such a big problem with compact cameras is the close proximity of the lens and the flash unit. The only way to really get around this problem is to go for a larger camera where the flash unit is positioned further away from the lens. Even when I test a camera and my test comes up without red eye I am aware that with smaller cameras you are still likely to encounter red eye from time to time.

Lowlight situations in general are a challenge for compact digital cameras. The majority do not have manual exposure controls, so you are limited in the settings you can use to overcome the problems posed by a lack of light. You can try using any specific night time scene modes to see if this will help. Some cameras also come with a long shutter mode. By keeping the shutter open for longer you allow more light into the camera. This can help combat low light. When indoors turn on as many lights as possible. You can also try increasing ISO levels, but go carefully as this also leads to noise in the photo – in other words a drop in quality. It also pays to get in as close as is reasonable. This gives any AF (auto focus) assist lamp a better chance of working and will also increase the power of the flash unit.

Finally moving subjects such as horses pose a different type of problem. You certainly need a camera with little shutter lag, otherwise by the time the camera is ready to take the shot the horse will have moved out of the frame. Other options include using continuous shooting and setting a fast shutter speed if you have manual exposure controls available.

Outside of these actions there is not a great deal you can do. Pocket sized digital cameras offer great portability and usually ease of use, but they do have some limitations when it comes to the photos they are able to take. I cannot think of any cameras of this type that are able to easily handle all the issues detailed above.

You can find my reviews and ratings for pocket sized digital cameras at: Pocket sized digital camera reviews and ratings.

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.

Shutter Lag and Digital Cameras

What is Shutter Lag?
Shutter lag is the delay time between pressing the shutter button and a photo actually being taken. Most of this delay time is taken up by the camera focusing on a subject.

How is Shutter Lag Different to Shutter Speed?
You will see in camera specifications a feature called shutter speed. This is completely different to shutter lag. The majority of consumer digital cameras set the shutter speed automatically, but there are models available allowing you to set the shutter speed yourself.

The shutter speed determines how long the shutter will remain open while a photo is being taken. A camera will open the shutter for the length of time it believes it needs to in order to let enough light into to expose the photo properly. This is unrelated to the problem of shutter lag.

What Happens When a Camera Suffers From Shutter Lag?
Shutter lag can cause photo opportunities to be missed. If you point the camera at a moving subject it is likely that the subject will have moved out of the photo by the time a camera that suffers from pronounced shutter lag has managed to capture the shot.

What Can Make the Problem Worse?
Try thinking of your camera as an eye that no longer has 20/20 vision. The easiest subjects for an eye in this condition to focus on are stationary objects when the light is good. Therefore a camera finds it harder to focus in poor light and on moving subjects. The difference in the time taken to focus in poor light as opposed to good light can be very noticeable.

Using flash can also increase delay times. This is more to do with the amount of time it takes for the flash to recharge and be ready to take the next shot, then any additional focusing issues.

What Can Be Done to Reduce Delay Times or the Effect of Shutter Lag?
There are a few things you can try. Just how effective they are likely to be will vary from camera to camera. Not all cameras will offer all of the features.

Pre Focus. You can pre focus by pressing the shutter button half way down. Then when you are ready to take the photo press the shutter button down the rest of the way.

Continuous shooting. The camera will fire off a rapid set of shots.

Continuous auto focus. When using this setting the camera will constantly try to focus.

Change the focusing method. Try using centre weighted focusing rather than multi point. Be aware that this can change the sharpness levels of the photo.

Quick shutter. Some cameras have a quick shutter setting. Be aware that in some situations this can reduce the quality of the photo a fair amount. So make sure you experiment.

Higher ISO settings. This may help with moving subjects and in lower light. Be careful how far you increase the setting by as this can lead to loss of quality in the photo. A lower quality shot is likely to be better than a totally missed opportunity though.

Scene Modes. Use sports, children or pet scene modes. These can help with moving subjects.

Predict where action will occur. Try pressing the shutter button down pointing at an area where you think action may occur. As you get to know your camera you should find an improvement in snapping action shots.

Lighting. Use as much lighting as possible. If indoors turn on as many lights as possible.

Batteries. Shutter lag can become more pronounced as batteries run down. Make sure your batteries are fully charged.

Digital SLRs
If always getting the shot is of paramount importance than the answer is likely to lie with getting a better camera. Digital SLRs are more expensive, but you should find the problem of shutter lag disappears.

Shutter Lag Comparisons
To compare shutter lag between different cameras that a look at my Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

Buying a Digital Camera With Image Stabilisation

Image stabilisation has been appearing in more and more digital cameras over the past year to eighteen months. In the beginning it was primarily available on cameras with super zoom lenses, typically 10x zoom or more. Lately it has started to turn up on cameras with shorter, more standard length lenses.

Why do you Need Image Stabilisation?

Whenever you take a handheld shot there is the possibility that you will not be able to hold the camera completely still. These small movements can cause a loss of sharpness in a photo. This can lead to the photo looking blurred.

How Does Image Stabilisation Work?

There are two main types of image stabilisation the first is known as optical image stabilisation. This works by a series of tiny gyroscopes in the lens making compensating movements for any shake caused by hand holding. The second type works in a similar way, but it is the CCD unit inside the camera body that makes the small compensating movements.

Watch Out For Anti Blur!

Some manufacturers trumpet anti blur and you may get the idea that this is similar to image stabilisation. If you see this in a specification read very carefully about how this works. If it works by increasing the camera’s ISO setting then I would recommend not using this method. This is because although increasing the ISO setting may help to decrease camera shake it is likely to cause a drop in overall picture quality as higher ISO settings can lead to noise creeping into a photo.

Do I Really Need Image Stabilisation?

To a large degree this depends on the length of lens the camera has and also what conditions you are most likely to use your camera in. If your camera has a long zoom lens and is heavier this makes it harder to hold the camera steady. On top of this the more you zoom in the longer the camera’s shutter needs to be open to allow enough light in. The longer the shutter is open for the greater the risk of camera shake and blurred photos. Therefore if you are planning to buy a camera with a longer lens then image stabilisation is more relevant.

If you buy a camera with a shorter lens it is of less importance. Even so if you are planning to take a good proportion of your photos in lower light then image stabilisation can help. In lower light the camera’s shutter has to open for longer to allow enough light in, so camera shake can be an issue.

If you are planning to take mainly outdoor photos, in good light, with a digital camera with a standard length lens then image stabilisation is of less importance.

Digital SLRs and Image Stabilisation

The same methods of stabilisation are available for Digital SLRS. There are lenses that have the gyroscopes built in and there are also a small number of camera bodies that have a shifting CCD mechanism. Buying a Digital SLR with a shifting CCD mechanism means that you do not need to pay a premium for stabilisation on every lens you buy.

My Camera Does Not Have Image Stabilisation. What Can I Do?

Placing your camera on a tripod and using either a remote control (very rare for a consumer digital camera) or setting the self timer will ensure the camera is rock steady when a photo is taken. Be aware that if your camera already has image stabilisation and you are using a tripod it is best to turn stabilisation off.

Summary

Look out for cameras offering optical image stabilisation or stabilisation through CCD shift. This feature is more important for longer lenses and shooting in low light.