Replacement Camera

[Crossover]

Hi All

Was wondering if anyone could advise on this.

Basically, I am looking for a new camera, somewhere ideally no more than £150, but lower would be good too, which is a compact digital. It is pretty much a minefield.

As it is I have a Pentax Optio 60 which has been (and still is a great camera) but having had it for a few years is looking a little worse for wear and I am regularly getting lens errors as it jams and then you can hear the gears clicking when zooming so its not in the best of health!

I am looking for something with a good optical zoom, as I use it in railway stations, one where any auto focus lights can be disabled (is this actually possible???) and one which has option for manual adjustment of exposure etc (as my current one has)

Not overly bothered whether it has a removeable chargeable battery or if it takes AA's as I have a decent set of AA rechargeables already.

Just wondered if anyone had any experience of anything like this that could help since as I say there are so many options out there and could spend ages looking at reviews!

Cheers

 

[rail-britain]

I have a Fujifilm SD2000HD
You should be able to get this for about £150 now
I am able to record up to four 15 minute videos in 16:9 1080p on 4GB SDHC cards
The zoom is a little loud and can be heard during video recording, but apart from that it is excellent

 

[Bevan Price]

I suggest you look at the reviews on this site to check specifications, etc..

http://www.dpreview.com/

Select your preferred models, then search for best UK prices via Google, etc.

Ideally, you need a camera on which you can control the shutter speed yourself, rather than let the camera decide everything automatically. You will need around 1/250 second shutter speed to "stop" many moving freight trains, and preferably at least 1/1000 second if you want to photograph trains moving at 90+ mph. Shutter speed too slow, and you will get motion blur in your photos.

Bevan

 

[Crossover]

Thanks for the replies guys

Agree entirely with the the manual adjustments - it is something I can do with my current camera and is very useful...just need to learn more about what the functions actually do!

Another question regarding the auto-focus lights (which I believe are not allowed to go off in stations)
I have been looking at my friends Fujifilm Finepix F70 EXR, which does have an auto-focus light - I cannot see any way of getting rid of it without putting my finger on it. I have determined it comes on if the lens senses a dark image (from low light, dark clothing or otherwise)...any idea if it can be disabled via the firmware on it?

EDIT:

We've found how to turn off the AF light so no worries now