A bit of camera advice please!

I couldn´t find a "Hobby" or "Pastime" board, except for "Golf" so I´ll ask here:

If anyone knows anything much about cameras, could they give me any advice on these two models.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fujifilm-FinePix-S2950-Digital-Camera/dp/B004G8Q600/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1327693558&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-PowerShot-Digital-Camera-Megapixel/dp/B00400OK5C/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1327693855&sr=1-7 

Both are around the 120 quid mark. To my mind the Fuji looks better and has a bit more zoom, but I just bet that the Canon takes a better photo. It's really just for family photos, but I would like to start to take photography a bit more seriously, so I'm looking for something that is a step up from my Samsung point & shoot, but not an SLR where I need to be flapping about with a bag full of lenses.

Thanks in advance and have a great weekend all!

 Personally, I have always chosen Fuji - I have a Fuji s8100 at the moment and it's fantastic!  Have owned three Fuji cameras and, personally, would always opt for a Fuji camera as they always suit my requirements.

Hi;

Let me say straight off that I have no experience of either of these cameras, but I do have experience of an earlier Fuji Finepix...

A work colleague bought the Finepix camera at the same time that I bought a Minolta Dimage Z1. Both cameras were the first efforts by Fuji and Minolta to produce a digital camera with all the available bells and whistles at the time and which looked like a traditional 35mm SLR.

Overall the Fuji came out as the better buy... my Minolta was back and forth  to the repair shop several times before they eventually replaced it. I have little doubt that the new Fuji is possibly the best buy of the two you suggest.

As can be seen from the two reviews linked here and here there is little to choose but one thing caught my attention... the Canon uses only 2 batteries whereas the Fuji uses 4. Digital cameras can be power hungry especially with large LCD viewfinders and whereas the Fuji appears to have a traditional viewfinder in addition to the LCD screen, the Canon appears not to have this facility. I would suggest that battery life therefore on the Canon may be short compared with the Fuji.

Also remember that LCD screens can be difficult to see when used in bright sunlight with the Fuji you appear to have the option of the traditional viewfinder.

Telefoto... the Fuji has a bigger telefoto range, out to an equivalent of a 550mm on a traditional 35mm SLR camera; compared to the Canon's equivalent 336mm; this may or may not be a boon... taking long telefoto shots is not recommended on a handheld camera, camera shake is a real problem despite the anti shake technology especially if an exposure time greater than 1/200 second is being used. ALWAYS use a tripod for such shots.

It's really swings and roundabouts but to my mind the Fuji range is probably as good as it gets for a camera at this price.

I still use the Minolta that I bought seven years ago; I also continue to use a Minolta traditional 35mm film camera with just two lenses 28-135mm and 70-300mm.

Hope this helps

fb

Edited for typo.

Thanks! I'd mentally prepared myself to be swayed towards the Canon, I'm delighted you both lean towards the Fuji.

Fuji it is - thanks for the feedback! 

I don't know if this will help. Did you know that you can buy refurbished/dealer returns cameras direct from the Fuji in the u.k ?  I got the Finepix S3200 for £107  3 weeks ago---just like new, boxed with software and batteries and a 12 month warranty.(doesn't come with a card)

 You just have to keep checking the website for the model that you want to come up--stocks tend to be limited, and I did have to wait for about 2 weeks for the S3200 to appear  ( I was originally after the 2950--but it was out of stock all the while that I was looking--then one night the S3200 popped up at 2 am. so I grabbed it )

If you do get a camera from them ...don't buy any accessories at the same time because if you register your camera online with them to verify the warranty ( camera serial number/model) you should get a letter from them about a week later offering you a 25% discount on any accessories that you do buy from the website

I've been well pleased with the S3200--nice and simple to operate in auto mode--but with the options to use manual overide if you feel artistic

The only thing that slightly lets it down is that it--like most of the Fuji bridge cameras that Iv'e read reviews on, is a bit battery hungry-so would say get rechargeables ( 4 xAA)

Overall though - nice bit of kit for the money

 I have a small FujiFilm camera. Its charger and cable were in the baggage that was stolen in Quito, Ecuador. Trying to replace these from Fuji was a similar nightmare. I eventually bought a non-Fuji battery charger and a card reader, the cable is "proprietary" to Fuji. Today, the battery has to be taken out to be recharged, and the SIM card has to be taken out in order to dump the pics to a computer. What a pain. 

Furthermore, I have yet to find a setting where a picture's colors matches the true color (as seen in the viewfinder and in real life). This is really important. Good luck! (I'd test everything before buying, including availablity of replacement accessories)  

Hi Crostrad,

I wasn't aware that Fuji sold refurbished units direct and online, and having googled the site the potential savings are immense. Unfortunately all the S series cameras are sold out at the moment, but, as it's actually my Dad that's buying it for my 40th and he's not coming over until April, it`ll certainly be worth checking back there a couple of times a day.

He can either save money on the agreed model or I might get a nice upgrade!

Great advice, thanks.

Sorry to hear about your nightmare RonArt. I had a similar problem once with a mains cable for a laptop. Trying to source an official replacement was not only insanely expensive (60 euros I think they wanted) but I would have had to wait 28 days for delivery. In the end I bought a universal one in MediaMarkt for a fraction of the price but it never really fitted properly. However in this case the Fuji site that Crostrad recommended seems to stock replacement parts. http://shop.fujifilm.co.uk/accessories/dedicated-accessories

 you can get cables chargers etc on ebay good prices eg laptop charger 10 quid

camera batteries a fiver instead of £40

argos often do half price offers on cameras

they got half price offers right now

Nice one Lostagain,

I completely forgot about Argos, (in fact I thought it had gone the way of Woolies) and now seen a Nikon Coolpix L120 which was previously out of the allotted price range, retailing 30 quid cheaper than amazon.

Oh decisions decisions. 

 the samsung wb 720 is a cracker but to use 18x zoom would need tripod i find 10x is the most you can hand hold

or cheaper pl221  has everything a normal person would need 

both have hi def video which is really good

check out the reviews never seen a bad on

i have found that oddly the worst digi cams are the ones made by the old camera makers

just make sure you dont get one with a Y in the model number lol