Suggestions for a budget Point and Shoot

[haightonline]

Hello all,

Recently my point and shoot bit it, so I'm on the hunt for a new one and was wondering if anyone here had some advice.

I'm looking for something under $150. It doesn't have to be fancy, as long as it kicks out quality pictures. Primarily, I use it for various hikes around the state, so some form of durability would be nice.

I realize that most of the conversation here revolves around DSLRs, but if anyone could offer me a recommendation, I'd really appreciate it as I trust the opinions of the users here much more so than some random camera review site.

Thanks for your time.

[swintonphoto]

I'd look at an Olympus Stylus.

[NikonsandVstroms]

And going to recommend the Nikon S210, I haven't used this exact camera but I have its big brother the s600 and love it. The 210 has a eight megapixel sensor so the resolution should be big enough for most things. Plus the thing is tiny which is always great, I can always just throw it in my pocket while walking out the door

[ziggy53]

Haightonline,

What camera were you using before?

What features did you like and what did you dislike about the previous camera?

Did you feel limited in any way with the old camera (zoom range, indoor shots, sports, etc.)?

Do you need true weather resistance?

[haightonline]

Thank you so much everyone for your suggestions, that Nikon S210 looks really nice.

My previous camera was a Samsung S700. I was happy with its performance across the board, images came out crisp, it was realitively quickly, etc. The only thing I wasn't entirely happy about was its performance in low light (for example under heavy tree cover) images would come out too grainy. I learned to work around that, and never felt horribly limited by the camera.

While I don't know nearly enough about cameras to understand the technical specs of what I'm looking for, I do understand that A.) It's not all about megapixels, and B.) I'm shopping in the budget end of things, so I shouldn't expect the best.

Here's my smugmug page, as you can see, 90% of my pictures are out on the trails.

http://haightonline.smugmug.com

True weather resistance isn't horribly important to me as it's probably beyond my budget, and I'd much rather have a more sensitive camera that takes great pictures, than a tank that takes mediocre pictures.

Thanks again for the help. :-)

[ziggy53]

I do like the low-light capabilities of the FujiFilm F40fd. It does not do very well for macros and the zoom range is not great, but for family event images, even indoor stuff in natural light, it's just hard to beat.

Resonably responsive and, I think, just a lot of fun.

I think they are still available new and you can get them around $180USD.

Here are a couple of my cousins recently at Chicago's O'Hare airport, shot with the F30 (similar camera)(severe crop):

http://ziggy53.smugmug.com/photos/345105349_XR8sK-O.jpg

BTW, one of our members (Martyn) suggested a simple "pouch" called the DiCaPac and comes in sizes suitable for many small cameras. I got one for my son and I am pretty impressed with how it works.

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=652811&postcount=7