My specs were about the same as yours though I had to drop the Optical viewfinder - they are now rare at the lower end. For brand new cameras, I came up with lower cameras in the Canon range (IXUS range and/or A450 or some such purely from memory) and in the Nikon LX range. Sony Cybershots are also worth looking at if you can live with the proprietary memory sticks.
I ended up with a Nikon Coolpix LX18 and am extremely happy with it for OSM. The LX16 is slightly cheaper and identical except for lower Megapixel. Operatable one handed on a bike and has a neat "BSS" feature where you just keep pressing the shutter and it takes several pictures and saves the least blurred - great for OSM mapping as you don't have to steady your hand when pressing the shutter down, it just throws the first one away. - Lower end cameras are improving very quickly. If you see a camera in a shop, check model number on the manufacturers web site. If it is not there it probably superceded by a better camera for the same price. - Megapixel. Yes, you can save money here. 2M pixel is perfectly adequate for street signs across the road - you probably won't even be able to buy that low now. I normally set my camera down to this value as I can take more pictures faster and, I think, with lower battery drain storing the photo. - The newer the camera, but the better the battery life generally - Optical zoom - I ran some tests and found that x3 is adequate for zooming in on street signs across a wide street or average junction (at 2M pixel). - Splashproof - My very ordinary camera is usually useless due to rain splash on the lens before I start worrying about it getting wet. Just carry a plastic bag. Mike At 02:15 AM 9/8/2008, Ed Loach wrote: >I'd like a cheap digital camera to use when I'm out noting things >for mapping purposes; our existing camera eats batteries. > >Features I'd like: >* Rechargable battery >* Optical viewfinder - I struggle to see the LCD display on our >current camera in high light levels. >* Optical zoom higher if possible. >* Takes memory cards rather than relies on internal memory >* Megapixel isn't really too important. As long as I can take a >photo of a streetsign with optical zoom from the opposite side of >the road, that should probably be fine. I don't intend printing >these images after all. >* Splashproof would perhaps be useful if cycling in the rain, though >I guess this adds to cost and low cost is important (after all - I >do have *a* digital camera, and have to justify the cost of any other). > >Can anyone suggest either a camera or a good comparison website. I >tried Jessops who are overpriced, Amazon that don't have optical >viewfinder as a data item and Dabs whose website was down. The >Jessops site suggested that I can probably do without the >splashproof requirement... > >Alternatively if anyone can recommend some good quality, reasonably >priced, high capacity rechargeable AA batteries that work well in >their digital camera then that may work out a cheaper option. _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
