I've been using digital cameras for what seems like years and years. I had one of the old Minolta Dimage when they first came out but I think things have moved on a bit since then.

My daughter wants a new camera for her birthday which is in about 3 weeks. I don't know why - she's already got this new phone that's better than some cameras but it's what she wants so I don't know.

I don't really want to spend more than about £250. Are there any good cameras for that sort of money?

Hi Bill,

Firstly, you'll get a lot more help on forums if you give your post a title that actually tells us something about what you want to know - we know you need help, which is why you're posting here :)

About your question, I very much doubt that your daughter's camera-phone is better than some cameras, the number of pixels might sound more impressive, but that's irrelevant to how good a camera is in reality. There are many issues of usability, speed and image quality that a phone just can't match a proper camera.

You don't need to spend £250, there are plenty of good cameras for less than that.

I recommend the Nikon 4600 if you can still find somewhere selling it - you may be able to find it for £120-130, but there are plenty of other good ones about too. Check out reviews on http://www.steves-digicams.com (reviews of almost all cameras) and http://www.dpreview.com (far less cameras reviewed but better reviews) before you part with your cash. There are a lot of real turkeys out there that any shop assistant will happily tell you is a great camera because it's got X megapixels. :(

Sorry Dave I'm a bit new to all of this forum posting I just thought that I would ask for help and people would read my post I didn't realise I was going to confuse everyone.

I didn't really mean that her phone was better but it seems to have a lot of pixels and the pictures she takes with it look alright to my eyes.

How many pixels is she going to need? I looked at the Nikon 4600 and that only has 4 million pixels. I heard of a camera the other day that has 10 million pixles - does that mean it's 2 and a half times as good? I suppose if it's going to be better I could spend a little bit more money.

Hi again Bill, sorry, wasn't meaning to sound rude, just some advice for the future.

The pictures from her phone probably look fine on a phone screen, i imagine they won't look nearly so good on a computer screen (that's certainly the case with my phone) but when you print them, they're likely to look pretty awful. If they don't then check out how good it is for capturing moving subjects. I would imagine it has lots of shutter lag - it's always late taking the picture. If not, then is it ready to shoot as soon as you want it to be. If so, does it have a flash that's actually effective for use indoors? If It has that too, she may have no need for a seperate camera! :)

No, 10 megapixels is not 2 and a half times as good as 4 megapixels. Megapixels are not the measure of how good a camera is. It's about as relevant as the wheel diameter is to how good a car is - it has a small effect but it should be way down the list of priorities when you buy a car.

In fact, the image quality of the 10 megapixel camera could actually be worse than the 4MPx one, due to increased sensor noise (this is like film grain, only worse) and it may or may not have inferior optics.

How many pixels your daughter needs depends on what she's going to do with the pictures. The only time any more than 3 megapixels are of any benefit whatsoever are making very large prints and cropping and then blowing up a small part of a photo. Not many people do either of these.

Personally I would look for a 5 megapixel camera, as I do occasionally crop photos on my computer and i prefer 7x5 prints. However, my old Nikon Coolpix 2100 (2MPx) makes acceptable 7x5" prints if no cropping is done first! For most people 4 is perfectly adequate, though. If you want higher resolution, I wouldn't go above 6 or perhaps 7 MPx. Image noise is a problem above this level as the individual pixels are getting too small in a compact camera.

There are some fantastic cameras available for under £250. I'll try to dig out some to recommend if you want...

remember to budget for a memory card by the way. And don't buy one on the high street, you'll get seriously ripped off. (i'm talking 300% price inflation in many cases) I use http://www.memorycardzoo.co.uk/ personally, but don't bother ordering anything that is not currently in stock from any online retailer. It'll probably take months, instead of the normal next day service.

MY brother has a 7mp ixus from canon and noise isnt a problem, and to be honest it turns out cracking images, dunno what it cost though but am sure it will be about your budget.

I have a 7MPx Canon compact with well controlled noise too. It's the exception rather than the rule though. In this case they are using quite heavy noise filtering, which smears low contrast detail. For example, winter trees in the distance become flat grey shapes with little detail.

Thank you Dave and Stu. Her birthday is less than a week away and I'm getting more and more confused. I was goign to get a Canon like you said but then I saw the review here on the Kodak with 2 lenses. How doe sthat work? Is it going to be better than the Canon?

I have a FUJI S/R 3100 which takes super pics.but I would like to upgrade to a similar model which takes "X" number of stills a second so that I can catch the fleeting smiles of my grandchildren!Any advice out there please.Cost no more than £200.

We have the Panasonic FZ7 in the office at the mo, the burst mode on that is pretty impressive - set it to burst mode and it'll take photos on and on until the memory card fills up. I'd give that one a look, look in the right place and it'll probably be under £200.

Only problem with such mode is that before you know it you have 50 VERY similar photos, and you'll spend all day going through them for the one good photo...

Yeah, it's a real pain going through the sequences - often you find 5 equally good photos and then you're stuck for which ones to delete! And if you don't delete ruthlessly, your hard disk fills up frighteningly fast!

Also, be aware that Panasonic cameras generally produce rather noisy results. Generally they're good otherwise though.