Looking to buy a camera. Second opinion, please

[Defrag]

*edit - No-one had an opinion, so I ordered it. Thanks anyway.

I've got a budget of £180 or so (as I will have to keep some money back for memory cards and rechargeable batteries & charger), and this camera will be used for a few things:

General (people etc)

Garden (parents)

Texture base (what I need it for)

I've spoken to a few people and read some reviews and at the moment I'm looking at the Fuji FinePix S56000 Zoom a.k.a. the FinePix 5200 in the US (Click).

It seems a good all round camera, with only a few disadvantages. The size is fine, but the shape looks a little awkward. The LCD screen size doesn't stack up against some others in the price range, either. Also, xD cards are more expensive than other camera's memory types.

Basically, what I'd like to know is if there's a better camera I can get for a similar amount of money and whether anyone has a camera in the same price range (I'm more interested in personal experience given that you guys are more likely to use your cameras for reasons similar to my own). Please, no recommendations that are out of my price range I always figure it's better to get a second opinion.

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers.

[pliang]

I use a leica camera which has better lighting and pixel ratio

[kleinluka]

ok i dont know what 180 pounds is in canadian dollars but I can really really recommend the Canon PowerShot A620 (7.1 Megapixels). I just recently bought this cam for $CAD 399 and i'm in love with it. It records very crisp videos too.

Check out this review right here to help you make up your mind. I highly recommend this camera.

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon ... ndex.shtml

[SnipaMasta]

I use an EOS 350D, but then that's about £300 over your budget

The one you were looking at seems pretty good, not excessive MP (which you wouldn't want for a lower-budget camera, because you sacrifice image quality), and it looks cool. So I'd say you made the right choice.

[Patrick_H]

Yeah, that Canon Powershot looks really nice. The movie clip was impressive too. I am starting to stretch the limits of my Nikon, which is only 4 MP. I might consider trading up.

[NormySan]

£180 isn't very much, if you can get a powershot for the money i would go for that.

This site has pretty thorough reviews with pictures and stuff: http://www.dpreview.com/