Am I asking too much? It seems a shame to buy a separate webcam these days but I suppose I could drop that requirement if good hybrid cams don't exist. Are there any coming I should wait for (since I will probably not buy until the post-xmas sales anyway at the earliest).

Why don't more digital cameras have optical zoom? Am I right in thinking that digital zoom just means you lose resolution on your pic, right? Same with digital resolution enhancement - just a gimmick?

[melliott1963]

It depends on how much you will be using the webcam. If it's quite a lot, then they're so cheap these days (£20 - £30) it's probably best to get a dedicated one that's permanently attached to your PC.

As far a zooms go, I don't even bother looking at the digital zoom ratings. As you rightly said, all they do is increase the pixel size of the image, so lose resolution. As to why more digital cameras don't have optical zooms, it's all down to cost. Having said that, just having a quick look on the internet, you can get an Olympus C720UZ for £240 (Comet.co.uk). This is a 3 megapixel camera with an 8x optical zoom. I don't know if it's got a web cam feature, but even if it hasn't, at this price, it still leaves you with £60 from your £300 budget to get a dedicated web cam.

But is the Olympus particularly good or just OK? An 8x zoom might be a little more powerful than I would actually need - I am not a bird watcher - just want it for seeing bits of churches etc in holiday pix. I have to confess being tempted by the NISIS Pocket DV4 http://www.nisis.com/Products/Digita.../PocketDVs.asp or the Mustek DV4000 http://www.mustek.com/html/prod_camra/dv4000.html which are pretty cheap (though less than 3 "real" MP resolution). I imagine the optics must be pretty dodgy but what a lot of features!

Maybe I should get one of those as a webcam/take anywhere low spec video camera and save for a "proper" still camera in another year? Anyone tried them?

[buns]

the fuji s5000 can be had at £320 and is able to do webcam as well as having 10x optical and 3mp

ad

That's about £120 more than my budget and much more zoom than I need. I have heard the Minolta 414 gives 4MP at around £200 with "X zoom - I am currently deciding between it and the Minolta XT but I am open to other options...

[seany]

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_.../s414_pg5.html Given a very good review. In the top 5 of 4mb cams of the year (on that site)

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_...4_samples.html

The XT
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_...agext_pg5.html

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_...t_samples.html


Or the Canon A70

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_...s/a70_pg5.html

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_...0_samples.html

[calscot]

I got the Olympus C-750 ultrazoom from pixmania for £302. It has 4mpix and 10x optical zoom.

It got the best reviews from about 3 sites including steve's digicams.

Also here, where it was also top of Dave's picks overall never mind just that type of camera.

Third review here.

[calscot]

PS I bought it here

and an Olympus 128mb xd card for £35, here.

[calscot]

PPS You can never have enough zoom...

A 4x zoom means you will probably get an equivalent to a 35mm camera's 40 to 160mm lens. That's slightly wide angle to 3 times closer.

With 10x zoom you get 38 to 380mm which is slightly wider to 7 times closer. This can be used for holiday snaps when something is in the distance which you want more detail, candid portraits from a discrete distance, macro photography.

I've done a little more looking around and discovered that the <A HREF="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000B3OX8/davidbrakeswe-21">Kodak EasyShare DX4530</A> is a startlingly good deal at the moment. It has had good reviews (http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/dx4530.html) and is less than £200 for a 5MP camera! I am considering getting that and getting a webcam separately later.

[calscot]

Looks like a great camera for the money.

I would look for a large memory card as 5mpix will have very large file sizes especially if you're taking photos to print later.

128mB cards are around £30.