$200 Camera for the Holidays

[sanyasi]

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A friend wants to buy his daughter a $200 camera for Christmas this year. She may have an interest in photography and wants to explore it beyond her smartphone camera. She just started college, so telling him to buy a $1,200 mirrorless camera or DSLR is not an option.

 

I know nothing about this product category. In my quick research, I thought a Lumix DMC-LF1 Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LF1 Digital Camera (Black) DMC-LF1K B&H might make sense. It is 12.1 megapixels, which isn't a lot, but I suspect most photos will be posted online and it is hard to imagine her printing anything above 8.5 by 11 inches if she prints at all. It has a focal length range of 21mm to 200mm, which is a nice range. And it has a Leica lens, although I am not sure that matters much. It retails for $229, so it is in the ballpark.

 

Any better ideas?

[Ulrik]

Before spending a long summer holiday in Botswana with my kids this year I bought them relatively cheap Micro-Fourthirds-cameras from Olympus with two zoom lenses each (14-42 mm and 45-150 mm consumer zooms). I consider these cameras excellent value and less limiting than a fixed lens/very small sensor compact camera. And there is a Leica macro-lens available in MFT ;-)

 

Ulrik

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[timde]

An RX100 is a good camera. Fuji XF1's also sell for a good price, as the the XQ1 I guess.

 

An old OM-D film camera, 50mm lens and a six pack of film ... if she is interested, you will quickly know.

[bocaburger]

I recently picked up a mint-used Panny Lumix ZS40 for $250. Thing has a 24-720mm effective zoom, and a built-in EVF! I bought it specifically to take to rock concerts where they won't let you bring in a "real" camera, but the versatility is amazing, and the IQ while it obviously won't match even an APS-C DSLR at high ISO, it pretty decent. A lot better than my iPhone 5 which is one of the better cameraphones.