Need a new camera - help!

[Turrican1983]

Hi guys, I'm looking into getting a new camera of some kind.
Generally something that can take good photos of miniatures as well as video battle reports would be awesome.
I'd need it for real life stuff too!

Any recommendations would be gratefully received.
I'm currently rockin' with an old Casio digicam from about 11 years ago and the picture quality just isn't up to scratch

[canberraguy]

What is your budget?

[Ultimate Life Form]

What is your budget?

You don't need a budget. You can get stellar cameras on amazon for dirt cheap, especially if it's not the newest model (aka over half a year old).

Generally I advise reading the customer reviews. It should give you a good picture (no pun intended) of what the camera is capable of and if it lives up to people's quality expectations. It's a great help in determining if this is the camera for you. If it's cheap and has no reviews, I'd stay away from it though.

If it's for taking close-ups of minis, a macro mode is a must. So this is basically the keyword in any description. This feature will raise the price slightly above your average camera, but trust me, youl'l be sorry forever if you forego this feature just to save 10 bucks. Because it means wasting a considerable sum of money on a product that does not do what you expect from it.

A general piece of advice when it comes to cameras, especially the cheap type - you want optic zoom. ALWAYS! Because digital zoom is actually a misnomer. It doesn't actually zoom in in any way, it just makes the picture smaller without adjusting resolution. Meaning you get pictures of the kind that you would find in a newspaper. No digital zoom. NO digital zoom! Never! If it means spending 30 bucks more, do it! For a camera that has only digital zoom actually doesn't deserve the name at all.

[Lorcryst]

Hmmm ...

About a year or so ago, I bought a nice Nikon CoolPix S3000 for something like 99 euros ...

Good picture quality, macro function, can make movies if you have a big enough SD card in it (I have a 2GB one in mine, can take up to 45 minutes of movies, and lots and lots of pictures), and it has an optical zoom too (4x, wide lens), 12 megapixels of picture resolution and a 2.7 inches screen.

You can still find some of those on eBay for the same price (roughly, plus shipping costs), but you might not be able to choose the colour of the casing (mine is orange because they didn't have any black ones in stock) .

Very nice little camera, fits in one hand, relatively cheap, and good quality.

I'm no expert tough, but it suits my needs of taking pictures of my models, my cats, my friends, some battle reports, and such like.