Advice on digital camera purchase

[laserblazer]

We are about to get some cameras for classroom teacher. The last lot of Coolpix ones had louse battery life. Can anyone recommend a sturdy, simple budget camera please? GPS would be nice for when they get lost (typically within a week!)

[mole]

Always used Canon Powershots, take AA batteries which is a bonus and pretty robust (never had one break) and simple enough to use. They were also quite cheap - about £35-40.

[speckytecky]

Panasonic cameras get my vote - specially the DMC-TZ range as their battery life is particularly good in my experience. Probably not enough on the budget end when it comes to price though although their are a few bargain older models still for sale.

[hallb15]

It really depends on budget.

I use an Olympus SZ-15 which is brilliant and works well in all situations I've tried so far - but it cost over £100 with the card, spare battery and case.

We have some FujiFilm C10 which are rubbish. No good in artificial light which is what they are used in for 95% of the time - oh and they eat batteries.

On the other hand, the staff who have the FujiFilm JZ200s are very happy with them. They only cost £45 with a case and 4GB SD card. They have a FujiFilm battery but can be charged in the camera when its connected to USB so not really an issue.

[tech_guy]

Ignore the Canon fanboys...

 

Go for a Nikon DSLR, they're affordable.

 

As an ex pro photographer there isn't any other choice for me.

[laserblazer]

We got a deal from Misco for Olympus VG150s with accessories. It's an entry level camera but fine for point and shoot work. Thanks for the advice

[laserblazer]

We got a deal from Misco for Olympus VG150s with accessories. It's an entry level camera but fine for point and shoot work. Thanks for the advice. I'm sure the teachers would love a nice DSLR camera but the end results would still be the same.

[Little-Miss]

My personal experience of cameras in school and what ive learnt, not sure if its of any use but i certainly keep this in mind.

 

Buy a camera that can be charged via some method of plugging in to a wall socket or USB, not with AA batteries etc they get through them like nobodys business and its costs a small fortune.

Buy a camera that doesn't need properitery cables....cables get lost. Easier to grab spare usb cable out of box or order new one off fleabay

Staff lose cameras, no matter what you do, then think you've got a magic box to pull new ones out of.

 

But obviously, it all comes down to what budget you have available to get them.

[jallsop]

I buy Canon Powershot SX series since they are robust and deliver a quality result. A bit more expensive than some, but the metal case, and battery that you can recharge out of the camera means that you can have spares charged up ready.

[Novalee]

We are just looking at buying a few - Canon SX160 seem the ones for now although no idea what they are like, but the teacher wants it to have AA batteries so they can use rechargeable ones and have spares about for it.

 

Anyone used this one? Also, anyone know where is the best place to purchase about 15 of them?

[CHR1S]

From experience, Olympus have amazing customer support and returns!

[iom100]

Since getting iPads (and before them iPod touches) our digital cameras haven't been touched. They are literally gathering dust. If there's any possibility of a tablet project in your organisation then you might want to hold off until that is sorted.

[laserblazer]

Since getting iPads (and before them iPod touches) our digital cameras haven't been touched. They are literally gathering dust. If there's any possibility of a tablet project in your organisation then you might want to hold off until that is sorted.

 

Really good point Ian but I would hope to discourage staff from letting the kids charge around the playground with tablets. Let them break the £40 cameras.

[PyROm]

If your looking at cameras look at eyefi sd cards as well (now mostly available as sandisk wifi), Our students kept damaging cards and card readers, taking normal CF and SD cards in and out. Also if any get lost then you can usually find the last picture taken on them if it is in school. Useful if you have a camera that takes AA batterys as they never need the usb lead.

[Gibbo]

Ignore the Canon fanboys...

 

Go for a Nikon DSLR, they're affordable.

 

As an ex pro photographer there isn't any other choice for me.

 

And for the OP's use, complete overkill.

[laserblazer]

And for the OP's use, complete overkill.

 

One of the teachers sent me a panic email, could I come and show how to use the camera as she didn't have a clue. Lord know if we'd got Nikon DSLRs. Why she called me, she had 30 experts in the class with her.

[Gibbo]

We find the same with digital or video cameras. We opted for some very simple second hand Nikon Coolpix digital cameras which cost under a fiver each from Ebay, and Sony flip camcorders from the Argos Ebay outlet.

[sidewinder]

We've bought around 10 Olympus VR-340's in the last year or so - the teachers love them. They don't blow you away picture quality or build quality wise, but they're pretty good and none have broken yet *touches wood*

[jmak]

I bought Lumix DMC-S3's, specifically because they were the cheapest I could get without AA batteries. The dedicated batteries last longer and in a year, none have gone walkabout. We got three for every classroom - one for the teacher, one for the TA and one for the kids to grab whenever they want - and have had no lost batteries (have lost around 80 AA batteries in the same timeframe) and none broken (jinxed that now). They have lost chargers, but as they had three cameras in every class, I only issued one charger, so I do have a stockpile at the minute. They use mini USB sync cables, but generally users seem to prefer to take the SD cards out and lose them . I bought the cheapest 2GB cards I could, so there's a nuisance value, but not a massive cost. We turned the resolution down, as the pictures are generally only viewed on screen or printed 6x4, so quality is fine - also saves room on the server and encourages them not to store thousands of photos before they download them.