OT: Digital photography on the cheap

Hi All,

A bit off-topic, but I'm sure there are a few peeps on the board that may have some good advice for me.

I'm off on me travels in a few weeks and I'd like to get a cheap digital camera to take with me.

The reasons for cheap are:

o If I get it nicked, then it's no great shakes
o It'll only be used to upload thumbnails onto my website so quality is not of paramount importance

I'm looking to spend up to approx. UKP175 and I've no idea about what to look for.

Should I get one that has no removable memory card (ie v cheap) or should I go for CF (cheap) / Smartmedia (more common, but more expensive)?

I've seen a really cheapy UKP89 job that will probably do, with a res. of 640x480, but should I go a little higher res so that if I want to get a decent piccy out of it I can?

Oh the dilema!!

Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom,

Paul.

and it has to record music as well...right paul? ;)

Seriously though, I would definitely say Smart Media. That's what we have and it's been a god send because you can carry multiple cards for it instead of having to clear it down. I'll get Grant to show you our cam at the weekend - it's served us well.

Show me too EP... it's something I need to get myself!

I use a digital camera (canon D30) it uses compact flash these I find better than smart media there are no moving parts in compact flash meaning they are less likly to break.
If you see any photographers at the race track they will be using compact flash so it is surly better they cant all be wrong.
As for cheap digitals look throught the second hand stuff on the jessops web site www.jessops.co.uk

Thanks, brickkicker - I'll have a butchers.

Can't you also get those Microdrive hard discs in CF?

you can get micro drives yes but they are not cheap. A 1GB you are looking at around 229 + VAT www.warnersimaging.co.uk you can get them smaller but they are more expensive than normal CF cards. They are also not meant to last as long as they have some moving parts in them were as CF cards dont. For cheap CF cards go to www.mx2.org 256mg for about 79 quid (not bad much better than the shops) they are not the fastes cards but they will do what ever you will do with the sort of camera you are looking at.
Hope that of help