P&S camera advice: One that uses regular AA batteries

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sdd

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Hi Guys

I urgently need a camera that uses regular penlight batteries and not the slim line proprietary ones.

Can any one give me a heads up on a decent camera? Budget of about R2000.

It would be awesome if I can source it at Makro as I have a gift voucher that I can redeem.

Regards
superdad
 
If i may ask why do you want one that uses AA? If anything i would say you should avoid them. . .
 
The only advantage of a penlight camera is that you can purchase AA batteries anywhere in the world, including most tourist sites. So if you run out of battery power, just buy local alkaline or Li-ion.

Buuuuut - even in the 2 years I shot with my old Canon powershot S1 that took 4 AA batteries, I never purchased alkalines once. Rather buy a spare slim-line battery for extra power.
 
I don't know of any, at least not newer than my old Cybershot DSC-S40, and I'll agree with the other forumites here - forget AA. Modern camera batteries pack a lot more punch in a lot less space, giving you a more compact camera and better battery life. I have extra batteries for all my cameras, and I don't regret a penny I spent on any one of them.
 
Funny ... thats what I looked for in my camera ;)
 
Thanks for the responses thus far, unfortunately, I don't see a recommendation ... I had a look at dpreview ... but that site is way to complicated for me.

My Makro voucher expires this week.

Penlight powered cameras, I have found to be indispensable when travelling, something we do a fair bit of. My travel camera is a Panasonic TZ10 (ZS7) I have a spare battery. Even still I sometimes find that I go through both of them before I have a chance to charge, thats were the penlight comes in ... my wife usually uses that ...
 
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Sorry ssd, but there just aren't too many of them to go around. I believe Kodak still makes a couple, but I've been very unimpressed with both the output and reliability of their lower-end cameras.
 
How much is the Canon SX120 at Makro?

I had the SX110 and loved it.
 
sdd said:
Thanks for the responses thus far, unfortunately, I don't see a recommendation ... I had a look at dpreview ... but that site is way to complicated for me.

My Makro voucher expires this week.

Penlight powered cameras, I have found to be indispensable when travelling, something we do a fair bit of. My travel camera is a Panasonic TZ10 (ZS7) I have a spare battery. Even still I sometimes find that I go through both of them before I have a chance to charge, thats were the penlight comes in ... my wife usually uses that ...
Click to expand...

The Nikon Coolpix L110 at Makro for R2799 (promotional price) takes 4xAA batteries.

I will have a look at Makro's other offerings and let you know if there are any others that take AA cells.

EDIT, these also take AA cells:
Nikon L22 - http://www.makro.co.za/p/29188/nikon-l22-digital-camera/
Nikon L21 - http://www.makro.co.za/p/36708/nikon-l21-digital-camera-bundle/
Canon PowerShot A490 - http://www.makro.co.za/p/31341/canon-a490-digital-camera-bundle/
Canon PowerShot SX20 IS - http://www.makro.co.za/p/22641/canon-sx20-ultra-zoom-camera/

Out of the above bunch I would go for either the Canon SX20 or the Nikon L110 unless you want something smaller with less zoom.
FujiFilm bridge cameras 95% of the time also take AA cells, one of their signature features if I could call it that.
 
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sdd said:
Thanks for the responses thus far, unfortunately, I don't see a recommendation ... I had a look at dpreview ... but that site is way to complicated for me.

My Makro voucher expires this week.

Penlight powered cameras, I have found to be indispensable when travelling, something we do a fair bit of. My travel camera is a Panasonic TZ10 (ZS7) I have a spare battery. Even still I sometimes find that I go through both of them before I have a chance to charge, thats were the penlight comes in ... my wife usually uses that ...
Click to expand...

Just get any canon/nikon within that budget and you can't go wrong.
 
ponder said:
Everybody seems to ignore the fact that the OP is looking for a camera that uses AA cells, he was very specific about this. The SX 210 uses a Li-ion NB-5L which is not AA.
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I didn't ignore ; I just didn't know ...

As I said I've had the SX120 and SX1 -both of which use AA. Assumed the same of most smaller Canons

If you really want to be funny, everyone is ignoring the OP budget as well - which was specfically told to us at R2,000.00
 
Dolby said:
As I said I've had the SX120 and SX1 -both of which use AA. Assumed the same

If you really want to be funny, everyone is ignoring the OP budget as well - which was specfically told to us at R2,000.00
Click to expand...

Assumption is the mother of all fsckups :D

Well that was his original budget, he also mentioned that he has a Makro voucher which we don't know the value off which he would use towards it. Not trying to be funny.
 
My Fujifilm S1800 cost R2K but not so nice if you don't know how to use it or if you want a smallish camera.
 
Good people, thanks for the input. Much appreciated.

I found that the Canon A490 was perfect for our needs. Not the best image quality but easy for the kids to use.

While I was there yesterday, I bought the Sony Hx5V (Makro Silverlakes still have stock) ... I have used it for one day and am very impressed with it. Having used the Panasonic ZS3 for a long time, I found that this is really a super little travel camera. I just love the Panorama and Handheld Twilight feature ....
 
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