Any recommendations for a camera?

The only thing I can say about this is to try and get one with an optical zoom rather than standard cos when you zoom in with a standard lense your picture can go pixely , with an optical zoom its clear. hope that helps a little

Thankyou Kateykerby, I'll remember that, and yes, it is extremely helpful as i know absolutely nothing.

Cant really assess quality of what your buying through e-bay for such an item.Camera shops often sell second hand equipment which they should test before selling.Re- Kateys comment agree and would like to add try to get a good quality camera with fewer pixels rather than a cheaper brand with many more.Its not really the technology inside as millions of pixels not much use if lens quality poor.Should be able to get reduced price camera for your budget .Makes to look for Canon , Nikon ,Olympus,Pentax all good lenses.Question very relevant as site relies on picture postings.

very true bonkers. before i bought mine i googled digital cameras and read revues on them and what people thought of them. you get good tips too about what everything means, like macro is for taking closeup shots, good luck on your quest :-)

I bought a Ricoh Caplio R5 last year - Jessop's had a special deal on them. Brilliant little camera and it has a macro facility so you can get really close to flowers. It was just over the £100 mark if I remember correctly (£110 maybe). I'd thoroughly recommend it

Thankyou all for what has turned out to be excellent advice. I've looked in Argos, bearing in mind what you said about taking pics of small things like flowers with an optical zoom, and ticked the Samsung s1065 to look for in reviews.
It checks out well and is a good price. But is Samsung a good make? Bonkers didn't mention it.
It's true that even with only a little research one quickly learns what things are for and what i thought would be a confusing technical journey turned into a demystifying process.
Of only the world of digital TV stuff could be demystified too!

Hi Merlin most cameras adequate for posting pics on here but if you like to take close ups or intend to print your own then optical quality is best guide.Andrews suggestion is from a camera manufacturer and these the ones to look for as produce best lenses.All makes I qouted produce cameras under £100 and should be fine for you.Think the Samsung uses Schneider lenses which good optically.

I thought the Ricoh Caplio would be out of my price range, unless on special offer,( it sounds very posh) but have managed to order the r7 for £129 with free case, tripod and postage. It sounds much better than most other makes I looked at as it has 7 x optical zoom whilst others have 3 x and the Samsung had 5 x.
There was a new r5 on eBay for 'buy it now' £100 but I missed it.
I'd never even heard of Ricoh cameras before Andrew mentioned his. So thankyou Andrew. And every one else of course. I'm so pleased that i asked for your advice.

Hi Merlinbabydog,
Rather late answering this one as I've been away. We bought a Panasonic Lumix for our 12 yr old son, who is a fanatical photographer. You can take videos with it too. It has intelligent auto mode and Leica lens, doesn't mean a lot to me either but it takes stunning photos.Distant or close up the clarity is superb. My son takes photos like a proffesional and everyone comments how good they are. We submitted a photo on this site ( didn't know what the plant was - about the 22 /23rd Aug ), that he'd taken and someone messaged me just to say don't know the plant, but the photography was great !! You can get lots of excessories for it, it comes in around £100. Can take up to around 250 photos and 25 minutes of video. It's a DMCFX10. Hope thats of some use to you.