How's this for a beater cam?

[slickhare]

so i've been kind of reluctant to bring my SLR to certain places either for fear of theft, or "oooh lemme see it!" kind of people who are prone to drop my cam, and the list goes on. so i was thinking about getting a Fuji Finepix S5100 for a beater cam that i can just keep with me all the time?

 

[jonasr_jp]

i have an old fuji finepix s300 for a beater myself, not that small though hehe not good either, but it's always good to know you have something in case something happens.

 

[darin3200]

You have any interest in shooting film. Getting an old, nice film SLR would be cheap.

 

[MG TF 135]

Either don't let anyone use it, or if they do make them use the neck strap. Simple. I do some photography for a DJ mate, and i'm always getting hassled by nightclubbers. As for theft, well they gotta want to nick the camera alot more than i want to keep it!!

 

[JDS]

. . . so i was thinking about getting a Fuji Finepix S5100 for a beater cam that i can just keep with me all the time?

That should be a pretty nice camera. I owned an S5000 for a few years before I sold it to upgrade. I was able to get flawless 8x10 prints out of it - I never tried to go any bigger. The S5100's 4 megapixels should get you some great 8x10's as well - if you're wanting to print them that is.. Aside from the resolution, there isn't much difference between the 5000 and 5100 - you've got all the manual controls for the SLR-like functionality..I think it'd be a good buy.