Cheap Stills Camera for classroom use

[dcwhitworth]

I'm looking for recommendations for a cheap stills camera. We've recently banned mobile phone use by pupils in school and it turns out that they made significant use of them in food tech lessons for recording images of their work. Department has asked for three iPads so they can take photos ! Possibly the most overkill 'we need iPads' suggestion I've ever seen, but that's another thread entirely.

 

OK so has anyone got experience of using cheap stills cameras preferably with something like universal USB cables to transfer pictures. We could probably pretty easily find something online but if someone has good experiences with a model I'd be grateful for recommendations.

[SamanthaD]

When I was in a secondary using the iPads as a camera was the most used feature of them, along with iPod touches. We found the images they produced were better than anything with a standard digital camera, mainly because they were more familiar with how to use them. So unfortunately my recommendation has to be an iPad!

[mavhc]

We got Lumix FT30, on the grounds that a waterproof camera would be tougher and survive a classroom, which has been true so far, none have broken.

[crc-ict]

I have a big problem here with cheap digital cameras - everyone hates them!

 

Doesn't matter whether we spend £50 or £150, all we get is people saying that they are 'rubbish' because they compare them to their £700+ flagship smartphone and understandably find them lacking.

 

That said, the Lumix FT30 is a good shout, we have six of them in our Early Years department and they have survived much longer than any previous model. Got some Canon PowerShot SX620s elsewhere in the school and they seem to have attracted less criticism that previous models.

[mavhc]

What do they find rubbish about them? 1/2.33-type CCD Sensor / 16.6 Total Megapixels; F3.9 - 5.7; 25 - 100mm in 35mm equiv.)

 

Pixel 4: 1/2.55-inch sensor with 12.2Mp resolution, coupled to a 27mm-equivalent f/1.7 lens with optical image stabilization. Its second shooter features a 50mm-equivalent f/2.4 tele-lens, providing around a x2 optical magnification for zoom shots, with a 16Mp 1/3.6-inch sensor capturing the images.

 

If you want a faster lens then f/2.0 with Canon Powershot G9 for £120 https://skinflint.co.uk/canon-powershot-g9-x-black-0511c002-a1337929.html?hloc=uk

[bknaggs]

If you want a faster lens then f/2.0 with Canon Powershot G9 for £120 https://skinflint.co.uk/canon-powershot-g9-x-black-0511c002-a1337929.html?hloc=uk

I think that's a kit to accompany the camera. The camera is normally towards the £500 mark.

[Brimstone]

I'm looking for recommendations for a cheap stills camera. We've recently banned mobile phone use by pupils in school and it turns out that they made significant use of them in food tech lessons for recording images of their work. Department has asked for three iPads so they can take photos ! Possibly the most overkill 'we need iPads' suggestion I've ever seen, but that's another thread entirely.

 

OK so has anyone got experience of using cheap stills cameras preferably with something like universal USB cables to transfer pictures. We could probably pretty easily find something online but if someone has good experiences with a model I'd be grateful for recommendations.

iPod Touch would do the job...

[mavhc]

I think that's a kit to accompany the camera. The camera is normally towards the £500 mark.

 

True, hate it when that happens. Weirdly the next cheapest is https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07STF9PQJ

 

No one seems to make a non zoom camera really, which would be good for classrooms with indoor lighting. You're looking at £300 for a camera with a fast lens https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/buying-guides/best-point-and-shoot-cameras

Edited December 2, 2019 by mavhc

[mikeprice]

You could go for a cheapish android tablet - or better still windows tablet (do they still exist????)

 

 

set it up so the camera automatically puts the photos onto the school shared drive or whatever you have

 

 

at my last school they worked fine as cameras - and also ran some of the lower end apps they used

inevitably the teachers all referred to them as ipads

[mavhc]

iPod Touch camera is f/2.4, 7th gen is same as 6th.

 

https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_tab_a_8_0_(2018)-9665.php has f/2.2 for about £150

[crc-ict]

What do they find rubbish about them? 1/2.33-type CCD Sensor / 16.6 Total Megapixels; F3.9 - 5.7; 25 - 100mm in 35mm equiv.)

 

Pixel 4: 1/2.55-inch sensor with 12.2Mp resolution, coupled to a 27mm-equivalent f/1.7 lens with optical image stabilization. Its second shooter features a 50mm-equivalent f/2.4 tele-lens, providing around a x2 optical magnification for zoom shots, with a 16Mp 1/3.6-inch sensor capturing the images.

 

If you want a faster lens then f/2.0 with Canon Powershot G9 for £120 https://skinflint.co.uk/canon-powershot-g9-x-black-0511c002-a1337929.html?hloc=uk

 

Come on, these are teacher complaints, you don't really expect there to be a logic basis behind them do you?

 

Sarcasm aside, I think it comes down to the user experience - 2" screen vs 5", touch to set focus point, faster response etc

 

But I don't get any more explanation than "these cameras are rubbish, my iPhone is much better..."

[Scifigirl]

We got some refurbed iPad Airs for £127 each work fine as camera

[Jawloms]

We got some refurbed iPad Airs for £127 each work fine as camera

 

Where from?

[Scifigirl]

Where from?

 

Orchid Computers, we have a second supplier as well 3 step IT - let me know if you want the account managers details - will PM

[mavhc]

Problem is getting photos off iOS seems to be a massive pain

[Scifigirl]

Problem is getting photos off iOS seems to be a massive pain

 

as long as not supervised, email to using office portal not a prob, and havent had any issues getting photos off unsupervised ipads.

[mavhc]

Plug it in, appears as non mtp device, can't see files without admin rights to change driver. iCloud is crap at syncing back to shared drive

[jmak]

Plug it in, appears as non mtp device, can't see files without admin rights to change driver. iCloud is crap at syncing back to shared drive

Haven't tried it, but is the iOS OneDrive app poo? It's supposed to be designed for backing up photos...

[mavhc]

Other problem is all our ipod touches running io6 won't install anything like onedrive, googledrive, dropbox

[dcwhitworth]

Haven't tried it, but is the iOS OneDrive app poo? It's supposed to be designed for backing up photos...

 

I find the OneDrive app on iPhone excellent. Syncs photos nicely.

[dhicks]

I'm looking for recommendations for a cheap stills camera.

 

A few years ago, we set up a bunch of cheap stills cameras with wireless SD cards to automatically sync any pictures taken with a shared folder on the network - something like this:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Share-Speed-Wireless-Class10-Adapter/dp/B00Q2K47HY

 

The software provided that did the syncing wasn't designed for a school / corporate environment, so it's the kind of thing we had to have a VM running logged-in the whole time to run the software, but after a bit of set-up time it did all work okay.

 

The cheaper end of the stills camera market doesn't seem to have changed much over the last 5 years - these look very similar in price and specification to what we bought maybe 5 years ago:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Easypix-DF000165-W1024-I-Aquapix-Digital/dp/B007B7ZC30

 

I think everyone is putting effort in to tablet / phone cameras these days.