A camera for my newbie friend

Griffinity

Griffinity

Active member
I have a friend who would like to start dabbling in video, and he's also interested in learning more about photography, but he's not super serious, so he's looking for a camera that suits his needs, although I'm not sure what he wants exists.

Below is a list of what he's looking for, prioritized by importance:
  1. Shoots photos and video, but he doesn't need interchangeable lenses
  2. Price range: $200-300
  3. I'm sure he'll shoot indoors at low light, so the faster lens, the better. Ideally F/2.8
  4. He's a musician, so a decent onboard mic, or a mic jack would be ideal
  5. Decent battery life

Because he's interested in photography, a camcorder probably won't cut it, but because he doesn't have much to spend, a true DSLR is probably out of the picture. That's why he's been looking at a lot of "Megazoom"-type cameras. He was seriously considering the Canon SX130 IS, until he found out the AA battery life is limited to 130 shots.

Any suggestions for other cameras he should investigate? Thanks!
 
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If he hasn't already bought one...The Panasonic FZ series are pretty darn good for all around shooting. The ONLY real drawback for his needs might be the 2.8 for low light, but they're kind of like poor man's GH cameras - lots of options for video, stereo mic, IA makes getting started easy, and you can go full manual if you want to.
One thing these cameras have that is really good for just taking quick videos that edit easily is motion jpeg 16 x 9 SD recording.
They also shoot HD, of course, but sometimes SD is all you need and it's nice to have.

The FZ40 is around $300
The FZ100 is around $450 Both have 2.8 wide angle 24x zooms - the FZ100 does FULL HD, while the 40 will only do 1280 x 720.
 
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I bought my brother a fuji fine pix 2800. It serves his purposes well. The 18x zoom (28-504mm) is amazing, especially for the price. It has 720 hd video, mini hdmi out. It was only a couple hundred bucks. It's a lot of cam for the money. When I was looking, I checked out most of the cams in the price range, including nikon, canon, fuji, samsung, flip, and a few others. The fuji was the one that had the best image, plus it's 3" lcd was really good. The lens is what sold it though. amazingly crisp fujinon lens. I highly recomend it. There may be even newer better models out now, go to the fuji website and have a looksy.
 
pulpfiction007 said:
If he hasn't already bought one...The Panasonic FZ series are pretty darn good for all around shooting.
Click to expand...
He was originally interested in the FZ40, after he found a local guy selling a new one for $250, and he figured it would be similar in operation to my GH2. I agreed that it looked like a good camera for his needs, but he eventually decided he didn't want the DSLR form factor.

Thanks for the advice!
 
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