Is this Camera Good Enough?

[NomNom]

Hi there Mybb Photography Experts

I am about to buy the following and I just want to know if it's decent for the price please:

R 1,589.00 (incl. VAT)
Olympus Smart VR-310 14MP Compact Digital Camera - Black
10x Optical Zoom 24-240mm, 3" LCD, 1280 x 720 Video Recording, Face Detection, Magic Filter, Panorama, Image Stabilisation
https://www.nivo.co.za/buy~olympus.smart.vr.310.14mp.compact.digital.camera.black~p25885

with a

R 249.95 (incl. VAT)
Kingston 16GB Class 10 Secure Digital (SDHC) Memory Card
Read speed up to 22MB/s, Write speed up to 18MB/s, Write protection switch

Any good?

 

[Deezil]

Good enough for what? Sure it will be more than adequate for day to day happy snappy's ... anything more than that? No, probably not.

Personally I prefer the Panasonic Lumix range in these small compacts but there is no reason for the Olympus to be bad ... also rather stick with 2 or 3 smaller SD cards, your battery will be flat loooong before you're even close to filling up a 16Gb jobby ... 4 x 4Gb's (or 2 x 8Gb) should be about the same price and a much smaller probability of failing or getting lost!

 

[mercurial]

I'm assuming you want a camera just for general photography and nothing hectic or specialist? I would prefer to get a Canon camera. There are many in your price range that are really good. Have a look at www.sacamera.co.za. Also, since it's a digital camera, the camera will capture the images in JPEG, so a big memory card, such as 16GB is not really needed, unless you plan to do a lot of 720p video recording. You should also get a card reader if you don't currently have one. You can also check out www.orms.co.za.

Have a look here http://www.sacamera.co.za/category/SAC100002/Canon/ and here http://www.sacamera.co.za/category/SAC100009/Advanced+Digital/ for some options for Canon cameras. You won't be disappointed.

 

[Deckert]

Olympus Smart VR-310 14MP Compact Digital Camera - Black

Any good?

My initial response would be: yup, it looks like a fine camera. It has a nice wide-end (24mm) for wide angle shots, the flash is recessed and the camera looks very portable. But there are a few things you should ask yourself:

- What battery does it use? Should you perhaps get one that works from AA batteries which can use rechargeable batteries and can also use normal AA batteries in a pinch? if it uses an internal battery, try and get a second one. You always run out of battery at inopportune moments.

- View finder. This is a personal preference, but I prefer to use a view finder, especially in bright sunlight it's much easier to compose a shot with a viewfinder. I also find that I shake less with my hands at my face than if they're a foot or more from me.

- zoom: the olympus is specced at 10x zoom. They calculate this by using the long/wide ratio (240mm/24mm=10) so it does zoom 10 times further than on wide. But if you look at the Canon Powershot SX 130 IS, they specify a wide end of 28mm and a long end of 336mm which gives you 12 times zoom and 336mm is a significantly further reach than 240mm, but with a slightly narrower angle on the wide end.

I disagree with the multi-SD card theory. I have large SD cards for my dSLR which have never failed. Sure, if you are a professional photographer you don't want to keep all your eggs on one SD card and in those cases I would recommend more than one. In your case you're probably going to be downloading straight from the camera onto your PC via USB without ever removing the SD card? Start with one 8GB card - you'll be able to fit at least a thousand pics on one 8GB card.

Since both (Olympus and the Canon 130SX) lack viewfinders, I'd agree with mercurial and rather spend my money on the Canon in this instance.

--deckert

 

[bwana]

Good enough for what? Sure it will be more than adequate for day to day happy snappy's ... anything more than that? No, probably not.

Personally I prefer the Panasonic Lumix range in these small compacts but there is no reason for the Olympus to be bad ... also rather stick with 2 or 3 smaller SD cards, your battery will be flat loooong before you're even close to filling up a 16Gb jobby ... 4 x 4Gb's (or 2 x 8Gb) should be about the same price and a much smaller probability of failing or getting lost!

You're much less likely to lose a single SD card since it's usually going to be in the camera.

Personally I hate SD cards and curse whomever invented them - - but when it comes to a P&S you're pretty much stuck with them these days.

 

[GTi]

Why do you hate SD cards bwana?

 

[bwana]

Why do you hate SD cards bwana?

They're just too flimsy. Twice now that little plastic lock tab has popped out, while I've been working, and rendered the card useless until I could tape up the void. Luckily the camera I use that does have an SD slot also has a CF slot so I could keep shooting (albeit without the redundant backup).

The only SD cards I use now are my EYE-FI ones and only then because they dont come in CF.

 

[NomNom]

Cool thanks everyone for the comments, yeah it is just for day to day shooting. I understand that there are much better camera out there, I just want to get a decent camera to take a photo now and then cause the best camera I have in the house in on my phone 5mp and the last digital camera I bought is a 3.2mp one.. and I couldn't take a decent pic of this snake that was in this little storm drain yesterday so I got fed up with them and decided to get something better. Personally I prefer to have just the one SD card hey as I don't want to take it out once I put it in.

I'm pretty sure it uses AA battery's didn't look into that will see when I get the camera, I have just pre-ordered it now. But again thank you to everyone for the comments.

 

[Deezil]

You're much less likely to lose a single SD card since it's usually going to be in the camera.

Makes sense ... and if you're keeping it in camera there's very little chance of the damn thing failing. Unfortunately I find camera to PC transfer extremely slow and prefer doing it via card reader but at the end of the day who really cares? Just get out there and take pictures dammit!

P.S Another vote for the Canon SX130is ... it may be a little bit less pocketable and slightly narrower at the wide end but overall I think it's a better bet than the Olympus (and I've definitely seen it in the R1500 region although that may have been before the Rand nosedived)