Please help recommend a beginner with a £250 budget

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Steerpike

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I'm looking for a decent-ish camera to do some wildlife photography. I understand 'decent' is subjective and that a lot of the expense is based on the lens.

I would like something that is a jack of all trades in that it can cope with taking a decent sunset over a hillside as well as a close up of a dragonfly.

I can justify spending up to £250 which I know is not much in this game but I'm happy to go second hand.

I have been recommended the following (from my Amazon wishlist) and am having trouble identifying which might be best:-


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Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR Digital Camera (16MP EXR-CMOS Sensor, 30x Manual Optical Zoom) 3 inch Tiltable LCD Screen

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Sony Cybershot DSC-RX100 Digital Camera (20.2MP, 3.6x Optical Zoom) 3 inch LCD
Offered by L&J Photo. £272.00

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Panasonic Lumix FZ200 Bridge Camera - Black (12MP, 24x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD
Offered by Nexlynx. £269.00

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Canon Powershot G16 ( 12.1 MP,5 x Optical Zoom,3 -inch LCD )
Offered by bargain express. £270.00

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Nikon Coolpix P7800 Compact Digital Camera (12MP, CMOS Sensor)
Offered by BitsAndBobs4U. £309.50
 
Are you happy to go second hand? A slightly older dslr will leave you enough for a (admittedly budget) longer lens.
 
If your budget is limited i would forget the DSLR as no matter what you get it will never be enough without spending more money,i am in the situation where i cant always lug my DSLR and long lens around,i opted for a bridge camera on these occasions rather than not have a camera with me.You will not get the quality you see posted on here but you could easily be enjoying your photography with a jack of all trades camera.
I chose the Nikon P610 which would stretch you budget a bit but not much,the samples below are about as good as it gets,all DSLRs could blow it out the water but i think you have accepted a compromise in IQ so you can stay within budget,or close.

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The Fuji and the Panasonic are the two best options from that selection as they have zoom ranges more suited to taking wildlife (birds and other far away things) photographs. I've heard good reports of both.

Although the others might manage the dragonfly - if you can get close to it!

Nikon P7800:

 
Alternatives to "Bridge" Cameras

If you plan to build a system ..... and you can build a good Nikon or Canon system inexpensively by buying used ......

I would start with something like a used Nikon D300 with the 50mm f1.8 and then add lenses when you have more money - a 70 300mm f4.5/f5.6VR and then maybe one of the "cheaper" 60mm third party macros, or an old nikon fit MF 300mm which will take good macro shots .........

a good lens will be good forever

you could also consider a Nikon V1 + FT-1 if you can pick up one cheaply enough to add lens to it within you budget
 
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Blah, ignore i didnt see the wildlife bit.
 
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Thanks for the prompt and useful advice all.

I am starting to learn some of the terminology so I now understand what I want (I think) is a 'bridge' camera. It is predominantly to help get my daughter into the hobby as she's expressed an interest. I am personally not interested in competitive photography or in having perfect razor sharp images every time - it's more to document some time we have together and we happen to be in a really naturally beautiful area. So, it very much needs to be a jack of all trades - able to take a long distance shot of deer or capture a kingfisher if we stumble across one and needs to double up to take family shots too!
I am leaning towards the Panasonic Lumix.
 
When you say wildlife what situations do you mean...

One big minus on the Pana over the Fuji is motored zoom, the Fuji has conventional twist turn zoom which means getting on the subject quicker, a lot quicker.

I had the HS20 for a while and what I remember was the Macro function was pretty darn good..

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I also bought an HS20 for my daughter, whose requirements are very similar to yours. She really enjoys using it.
 
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