New Digital Camera

[macca2]

Is it possible to buy a half decent digital camera for around $300, or if not what price would I be looking at.
I only want a camera to take snap shots etc. Nothing fancy. Just reliable with a decent battery life.
The camera I have a the moment is HP 635 that goes thru a set of 2 Ni-MH2100 batteries in about 6 photos.
Batteries are always flat and it takes crappy pics.

Macca

[MICKYG]

A Fuji 5600 will do the job, about 360 bucks.

Regards Mike

[Sir Stinkalot]

Canon Ixus 60 ..... currently about $320 with trade in at Hardly Normals.
It is a better buy than the Ixus 65 which has a larger screen 3.5" but no optical viewfinder, otherwise identical.

[Chesand]

Like MickyG I have a Fuji 5600 - took just on 200 photos from a set of good quality alkaline batteries when overseas last year.
Very happy with picture quality.
256mb card held 190 photos at best resolution

[Clinton1]

I went through the same process in December: here is the link to the thread

Hope it helps.... I'm very happy with my $175 camera.

Spent another $180 on the 1Gb memory card, and top quality rechargable batteries, charger and a good protective case.

Don't forget the price of the 'additionals'!

[Iain]

The extras can be a killer, what I like is a camera that uses AA batteries, then when it comes time to replace you can buy a set of 4 (for mine) for under $20, dedicated batteries seem to be up around the $100 for the same thing.

[macca2]

Thanks for the advice. I will have a look around and decide what I think is best for me.

Macca

[NCArcher]

One feature i can recommend is that the camera be able to take standard AA batteries.
I went through about four sets of rechargables before I switched to lithium batteries. I got about 1000 photos out of the last set of lithiums. I prefer them over the rechargables by a long way. A set in the camera and a spare set in the case for when they run out of puff.