Question - Camera on a budget

crusader · Mar 15, 2012

Hello all

Me and my best mate are currently planning to invest in a camera and possibly tripod to share. We are both not massively well off, but are saving up. Currently, my mate has his eye on this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Panasonic...=0&customid=link&campid=&toolid=20001&mkevt=1

If that camera is a bit tacky, then what would you suggest? Considering that our camera budget is around Â£60 (although we would be willing to save up a bit more for a better one). We are not professionals, or regulars and don't have the cash for a big fancy one. Any help would be great.

Thanks

Adders · Mar 15, 2012

Definitely trawl ebay if your budget is that tight. People have gotten some good bargains off there on older range cameras, Spungletrumpet for one, who up until recently was using a 99p digital camera, and IIRC spent Â£30 on its replacement.

Keep your eye on the "spares and repairs" section as a lot of the time the people selling them are idiots and just don't know how to charge or replace a battery. Just read the descriptions, and more importantly don't blame me if it doesn't actually work.

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spungletrumpet · Mar 23, 2012

adders said:
Definitely trawl ebay if your budget is that tight. People have gotten some good bargains off there on older range cameras, Spungletrumpet for one, who up until recently was using a 99p digital camera, and IIRC spent Â£30 on its replacement.

Keep your eye on the "spares and repairs" section as a lot of the time the people selling them are idiots and just don't know how to charge or replace a battery. Just read the descriptions, and more importantly don't blame me if it doesn't actually work. :

Excellent advice in that second paragraph Adders.

Spungletrumpet has, indeed, used a 99p camera for the last 2 years or so.. It was a Nikon Coolpix 4300. I spent an extra tenner on a wide angle adapter for it. It was 99p because it had no battery, I simply used a remote controlled car battery strapped to my (ten quid) tripod.
I had a coolpix 4300 for a couple of years beforehand but French customs broke it so the 99p one replaced it.
They are a great camera, with a 60 second 'B' setting if you can bodge together a remote.
Almost all the pics I have posted on here were taken with it.

Styru · Jun 28, 2012

Don't get too hung up on the need to spend lots of wonga.

This picture:

Shows spungletrumpet using the aforementioned 99p camera (a camera he produced some cracking shots with)

It was shot on a 12 year old, 2.1MP compact that I found in a bin, and that is held together with an elastoplast, a bolt, and a bit of metal I literally found in the gutter

These are from the same 'bin-find-freebie' camera...