Advice on digital camera purchase please

[snatch]

I am buying a digital camera for my partner for Christmas. Neither of us knows a huge amount about these, and the camera will be used mainly for family occasions, events etc.

I've read some of the posts on here, and have browsed pixmania and dpreview as a result, but having left buying till this late stage, I'm pretty much restricted to purchasing in a high street shop. Dixon's have a couple of offers on at the moment - anyone have any comments on these? (Suggestions of others I should be looking at in same price bracket are welcome!)

Nikon Coolpix L1 €289 6.2million pixels, 5xOptical zoom, 2.5" LCD screen but no viewfinder

Nikon Coolpix 5600 €249

Olympus FE120 €199 6million pixels, 3xOptical zoom

Thanks

 

[MonsieurBond]

I am buying a digital camera for my partner for Christmas. Neither of us knows a huge amount about these, and the camera will be used mainly for family occasions, events etc.

I've read some of the posts on here, and have browsed pixmania and dpreview as a result, but having left buying till this late stage, I'm pretty much restricted to purchasing in a high street shop. Dixon's have a couple of offers on at the moment - anyone have any comments on these? (Suggestions of others I should be looking at in same price bracket are welcome!)

Nikon Coolpix L1 €289 6.2million pixels, 5xOptical zoom, 2.5" LCD screen but no viewfinder

Nikon Coolpix 5600 €249

Olympus FE120 €199 6million pixels, 3xOptical zoom

Thanks

The Nikon Coolpix is a good camera - €209 on [broken link removed] plus a tenner postage but they are out of stock. You will need to buy rechargeable AA batteries - €249 is not too bad a deal, especially if you can get a battery charger thrown in for the price or for a small bit more. c10% extra to buy from a local supplier seems like a reasonable mark-up to me.

Don't know much about Olympus but I'm sure you'll find reviews on the Net. Note that the xD cards it takes are more expensive than the SD cards which you will need to buy for the Nikon - again, maybe you can get a deal on some cards around town, but in my experience, the consumables / accessories (cards, cases etc.) are cheaper online, especially if you buy more than one item together for the one postage cost.

 

[DrMoriarty]

You can compare all three (and read reviews, user opinions, etc.) [broken link removed]. [broken link removed] is another very popular brand, and their 'Powershot' range of compacts usually gets good reviews...

 

[tiger]

In Dublin, I found pixels.ie quite good. Bought a camera in their liffey st. branch about 18 mths ago. Staff was v.knowledgeable, might be a bit busier this time of year!