BenQ DC C60

...easy to obtain - the Benq site failed to reply to my questions in any meaningful way - I suspect their back-up will be poor.
UPDATE:
Easy to obtain on eBay,once you have the battery code number (about £10)
Continued:
The camera can also take short video clips - the size limited by the memory card used. I bought a 512kb card for £15 or so and it gives 160+ top-quality images - more than enough!
The on/off button ...
...a very good point! The instruction book is clear enough and it comes with the usual 'free' image-processing software (by Ulead - my advice - stick with Photoshop Elements,as this is utter rubbish!). This proved to be very simplistic in what it could do to the image and wanted to 'take over' all image work on my PC! Use Google 'picassa' instead - free and most efefctive, whilst Kodak's 'easyshre' is almost as good and also free.
I paid £100 ... more

I have had this camera for over 3 years now - I am a semi-pro film photogrpher and want to take a step into the digital world. This camera is an ideal replacement for a compact camera, PROVIDED the user is happy to fiddle with the buttons! Compared to most compact cameras, these are of reasonable size and are intuitive to use as the options menu is not too full.

The lens and, subsequently, the images are VERY good, and the zoom is smooth; the digital zoom is hard to use smoothly though - far better to use this in the software on your PC. Really, you would NOT want to use this feature - fortunately, it can be turned off in the menu system.
The battery lasts for only about 60 shots -so it is always better to carry a spare and they are not easy to obtain - the Benq site failed to reply to my questions in any meaningful way - I suspect their back-up will be poor.
UPDATE:
Easy to obtain on eBay,once you have the battery code number (about £10)
Continued:
The camera can also take short video clips - the size limited by the memory card used. I bought a 512kb card for £15 or so and it gives 160+ top-quality images - more than enough!
The on/off button is small and CANNOT be turned on by accident - a very good point! The instruction book is clear enough and it comes with the usual 'free' image-processing software (by Ulead - my advice - stick with Photoshop Elements,as this is utter rubbish!). This proved to be very simplistic in what it could do to the image and wanted to 'take over' all image work on my PC! Use Google 'picassa' instead - free and most efefctive, whilst Kodak's 'easyshre' is almost as good and also free.
I paid £100 for mine and it was worth every penny!
UPDATE (24/8/07):
The zoom has the standard x3 (38-105mm) range found on virtually all compact digital cameras, but it is better than most at the economy end of the market. The imaging chip is also well thought of (this camera is actually made by Panasonic) and I have used it to take some highly-thought of pictures both on a cruise and in France.
The colours are reasonably life-like and have decent depth and there is no sign of colour fringing. Distortions from the lens are few and it has a commendably close focussing distance (20cm), so it can be used to copy A4 documents easily.
Compared to more modern designs, it has a small LCD screen, BUT it has an optical viewfinder, so this silly 'take a picture at (very wobbly) arm's length' nonsense is NOT needed - an excellent feature. The screen does not allow for image magnification to check for sharpness etc, which more modern designs do.

The current (Aug 2007) on-line price is £180 or so - quite absurd! I paid £100 for mine, and at that price it is good value and is 'strongly recommended'.
At £180 or so, however, there are much better cameras around and I would rate it only as 'below average'.
NOTE that as it is STILL available 3 years after it first came out, this must be a camera that was well ahead of its time!
Ian 

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