Camera recommendation for my Dad

[Achaicus]

He is looking in the "$100-$350 price range". He wants a new camera not refurbished or used.

His last camera was a Sony Cybershot DSC-H2, purchased because it was recommended as being tougher than average. He enjoyed the low light capability, and zoom. At times disappointed with clarity of distance shots, but understood that the camera had other strengths. He has rechargeable AAs and a 15 minute quick battery charger.

Nature, urban and indoor/outdoor family snapshots are what he shoots. Cheap tripod is only other equipment occasionally used. I can give a link to his viewbug page if you want a clearer idea of what he shoots.

He shoots mostly hand held, mostly auto and makes use of presets with zero to one variable besides zoom to adjust. He is looking at options with decent zoom 12x or more and image stabilization is a plus. Because of his disability clumsiness a tougher camera would be good. He is not interested in full manual settings or raw files. His post processing is almost nil, cropping maybe. I have to help him with horizon leveling.

He has looked at Fujifilm S9900w reviews but is worried it wouldn't be tough enough for his needs.
The reviews for Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS50 has piqued his interest, but I can't find if it can be set to jpg shooting only. If it can't it would be more technical than he wants to deal with.
Nikon L840 is another camera he noted as interesting.

A point and shoot with Zoom, image stabilization, low light handling and durability for 300-350.

 

[robbins.photo]

I'd check out a used panasonic fz200 myself

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[Achaicus]

I'd check out a used panasonic fz200 myself

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Nice, not sure if he will consider used/refurbished. He had a bad experience with a refurbished camera and doesn't want to deal with a lemon.

I just found out that he wasn't using the Sony Cybershot at full resolution, taking 80 or 90 shots on a 1 gig sd card without running out of space. When he got that camera he was still on dialup and at full resolution his patience didn't last long enough to download the pictures from the camera let alone upload shots.

 

[robbins.photo]

I'd check out a used panasonic fz200 myself

Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk

Nice, not sure if he will consider used/refurbished. He had a bad experience with a refurbished camera and doesn't want to deal with a lemon.

I just found out that he wasn't using the Sony Cybershot at full resolution, taking 80 or 90 shots on a 1 gig sd card without running out of space. When he got that camera he was still on dialup and at full resolution his patience didn't last long enough to download the pictures from the camera let alone upload shots.

From the sounds of things he doesn't really need anything with high MP since he's not cropping, etc.. the Fz200 does have a constant 2.8 throughout it's zoom range which will help in lower light, though of course it won't be as good as a 2.8 on a DSLR of course.

But all in all I've used one and it's a pretty good little camera. New though they are a little out of his budget range, I think they still run around $375-$400 new.

A Nikon coolpix L840 might do the trick, it doesn't have the 2.8 constant zoom but it does feature VR so he'd be able to shoot at lower shutter speeds and still get good results, and even new that would be within budget.

 

[table1349]

This:

Let him get what he wants.

 

[Dave442]

Looks like the Nikon B500 replaces the L840 and is still in the price range. Will have to move from Memory Stick to SD cards, but does keep the AA batteries that he seems to prefer.

I used a Sony Cyber Shot and later moved to a Nikon. Both cameras have been held up through hard use although the CyberShot is taped together in some places.