Reccommendations please

[Bridie]

Could anyone reccommend a good, cheap (not more than £200) camera for taking bird pics in the garden.

Thanks

Bridie

[postcardcv]

For what you want to do you would be best off looking a bridge cameras - these sit between compacts and dslrs. They are fairly chunky and offer 10-12x optical zoom range, along with good image quality. Unfortunately the current models (the Canon S3 seems a poplular one) would be over your budget at ~£250-300. Bear in mind when you do buy a camera that you'll also need to budget for memory cards too.

If you have a look at some of the older models you shoudl be able to get a decent camera within your budget. I notice that warehouseexpress have the Fuji S5600 (5mp, 10x optical zoom) listed at £142. It is an older model, but at that price seems like a very good deal (it was certainly well reviewed when it came out).

[Claymore]

Try a Fuji S7000 they sell on Ebay for less than £200 now and again! Brilliant cameras too (if you get one you can always invest in a TCON 17 tele adaptor for more range, standard zoom should suit normal gardens etc)
Cheers
Brian

[RAH]

I think a new Olympus SP-500 might be found at about that price, on closeout (it was replaced by the SP-510). You definitely want a super-zoom.