Camera with viewfinder

I've had a Fuji camera for about 12 years now and although it still works, the charger unit has given up the ghost, rendering the camera useless of course :-( I contacted Fuji via e-mail (twice) about a possible replacement charger unit, but got no response at all so I've given up on them now :-(
Can anyone suggest a digital compact camera that has a viewfinder as well as a screen please?
Thank you :-)

You have very little choice. Do you have a budget?

Hi Dr G....because I know there is very little available, I haven't set a budget. I suspect I won't get what I really want so will probably end up buying something cheap and cheerful with a view to going towards an SLR when funds allow :-) Thanks for your interest :-) x

Have a look at a similar thread in the photography forum "Compact system camera under £550"
I have just posted about the truly awful optical viewfinder on the Canon G12 (and 11 and 10). The viwfinder only sees 78% of what the sensor sees. That's like seeing the view of a 35mm lens when the camera is seeing 28mm. It's hopeless.
I'd check the Nikon equivalent to see if it's any better.

Hello again Dr. G,
I took your advice and looked at the other thread....some very interesting comments there :-) I'm still no wiser and think I'd better visit a decent camera shop and have a look at a few cameras and try to get a 'feel' for which one might be suitable for my arthritis-riddled hands, before I decide. Having had a bad experience with Jessops I am wary of going back there, so may have to visit one of the larger cities such as Liverpool or Manchester to get a better choice :-) Don't mind doing that as both are just over an hour's train journey and both have plenty of shops to satisfy my retail therapy urges :-) Thanks again for your interest :-)

Hello again Dr. G,
I took your advice and looked at the other thread....some very interesting comments there :-) I'm still no wiser and think I'd better visit a decent camera shop and have a look at a few cameras and try to get a 'feel' for which one might be suitable for my arthritis-riddled hands, before I decide. Having had a bad experience with Jessops I am wary of going back there, so may have to visit one of the larger cities such as Liverpool or Manchester to get a better choice :-) Don't mind doing that as both are just over an hour's train journey and both have plenty of shops to satisfy my retail therapy urges :-) Thanks again for your interest :-)

Have you checked that big auction site for a replacement charger? If the batteries are still available, I would expect someone to be selling a third party charger.

Jessops are only as good as the manager. The young woman at our nearest (Merry Hill) is very good.

Is it worth spending money on a 12 year old digital camera? It's archaic, surely.

Dr. G I agree about Jessops, and think they probably need to work on training their staff/managers in the art of people skills :-) My camera may be archaic, (so am I!!) but it still works and produces decent photos. It is slightly larger than those currently available, but that suits my swollen, twisted fingers down to the ground, whereas modern cameras are made for more dainty fingers in my opinion :-) My little gem also has a good optical viewfinder :-)
It's only the charger base unit that's given up the ghost, which is why I'm reluctantly shopping for a new one. However, I've spoken to someone at PC World today and he advised me to ring their head office and see if they have a replacement charger in the spares department....so that's my next option :-) Needless to say they didn't have a suitable camera in-store that I could try :-(

Hi LE
Good luck with your quest.

Thanks Dr. G....I'm not holding my breath though :-)

Hello again Dr. G... Just had an e-mail from PCWorld....no joy with the charger cradle :-( They haven't got one in their spares department, but say they will 'keep trying to source one' So I think I need to bite the bullet and buy a new camera....probably without an optical viewfinder :-)

I just saw that the Canon shop on Ebay has one of the last refurbed A1200 IS cameras with viewfinder (pokey admittedly) for £40. They used to retail for £200. I have an A1100 and it's OK for a compact but realistically would not be a good enough first camera - at least not for me.

Thanks Dr. G :-) I've more or less resigned myself to moving up a bit and am now looking at Panasonic and Fuji cameras which are a bit bigger than a compact, and which do have the viewfinder I want. Can't decide which to choose though, so I may spend some time in Currys/PCWorld having a look at what they've got and seeing how they 'feel' in my hands :-) At least you don't get bothered by staff there, so it's easy to 'try before you buy' so to speak :-) I suspect I'll come to a decision and then come home and shop online for a bargain :-)
Thanks again for all your help and advice :-) x

Hope you find something you like.

Well here I am again :-) Just got back from a window shopping trip, and feel very happy :-) Went to Currys/PCWorld and although they had several cameras that looked 'just the job' they were so busy that I couldn't really speak to anyone about them. However, my daughter was with me and she managed to grab someone to ask. Having listened to all the spiel, I thought the best one for me would be a Panasonic Lumix FZ45. Light in weight, comfortable in my hands and with the all-important optical viewfinder :-) So we left with a plan to order one online :-) We called at Tesco to do some shopping and lo and behold they had one there....reduced from £249.99 down to £216...brand new, not refurbished or anything! It was reduced because it was the last one they had :-) I also had a £10 off voucher when you spend £80 and the really nice man said if we had two of those we could use them both :-) My daughter handed hers over so that was a total of £20 off, plus I get my clubcard reward points as well :-) So all in all a very successful day, and this old lady is a very happy bunny :-) All I have to do now is learn how to use it of course!! But, another bonus, there is a small paper instruction booklet giving all the basics to get started, so I should be fine. There's also the cd with instructions and another with relevant software.....goodness me it was never like this when I used a film camera, but that was about a million years ago of course :-)
Thanks again for all your help and advice Dr. G :-)xx

Sounds good to me - (although strictly speaking it's an EVF not optical).
I bet you'll have lots of fun getting to know it.

Well whatever it is, I can use it the way I need to and that's what matters :-) I'm charging the battery now and hopefully tomorrow I'll spend a few hours getting to know what's what :-) Hope it's a sunny day so I can perhaps get outside and take a few pics :-)
Now then, what's an EVF when it's at home? LOL xx

EVF - Electronic ViewFinder.

I'm none the wiser for that Dr. G but thanks anyway :-) x

Hi LE,
Well an EVF is a small TV screen in the top of the camera (a smaller version of the one on the back) and a traditional optical viewfinder is a series of lenses and/or mirror which let you see the actual scene - as through a telescope.
You got a lot of camera for your money anyway.

Hi Dr. G, Well I've been out all afternoon and I think I've managed to take a few photos...... haven't checked yet as I'm still working out how to put them on the computer. Think I've got it figured now....with a little help from my grand-daughter :-)
I feel quite comfortable with the camera and had no trouble 'pointing and shooting' except when the sun shone directly on the screen of course :-)
Thank you again for all your help and advice and I look forward to getting to know my new toy as well as I knew the old one :-) As you say, it's a lot of camera :-) x

From Frank Jackson

Further to this discussion, I should appreciate some advice in which the question of an optical viewfinder is relevant.

I need a camera (Wow!). My requirements are so modest that I could almost pick one at random from dozens of mid-range point and shoot models. And yet I can't make up my mind.

Let me explain: I am not a "photographer". I have no wish to become a "photographer". I edit and contribute to the magazine of a small campaigning organisation, and my need is just to take pictures of speakers at the conferences we organise, contribute to or simply attend, to illustrate the meeting reports, and of the exhibition displays that accompany the conferences. So as I say, almost any camera with a reasonable number of pixels and a modest optical zoom would be perfectly adequate. But I have two funny ideas. Like Lilian I dislike the tiny ones with their equally tiny controls, and it has always seemd to me to be more natural to hold the camera up to one's eye rather than hold it at arm's length. which leads to the optical viewfinder question. I appreciate the parallax problem, but for my purposes I think I could cope with that. Incidentally, I do mean an optical finder, not an EVF. With these criteria my choice seems to boil down to the Canon Powershot G12 and the Fuji X10. I note Dr Austin's comments on the former. So finally, getting to the crux of the matter, am I being silly in making so much of this point, at perhaps two to three times what a simpler, pefectly adequate, model might cost? And if I am not being silly, which should I choose?

Thanks in anticipation of your helpful replies.

FJ

Morning Frank,
You will have seen from my previous posts that I finally settled for Panasonic Lumix FZ45 which had the viewfinder I was after. (although this appears to be an EVF) I have taken several photos with it, and despite the weather I've been quite pleased with the results :-) The only 'problem' is I have very large hands, not helped by being swollen and twisted with Rheumatoid Arthritis, so I find myself pressing buttons that are suddenly under my thumb! I have also discovered that I am 'growing' a cataract in my right eye, which is the eye I naturally put the camera to of course, and the result of that is I can't actually see a thing through the viewfinder!! However, the screen is quite large and I have managed fairly well with it. That's not to say I like it....I don't, but needs must I suppose :-)
So in summary, my camera is perfectly fine, but I will be so happy when I can use the viewfinder again. That may be a few years off though, as the cataract has to 'ripen' apparently and it takes time, so by then I suspect I'll be looking for a new camera again :-)
I have come across several with viewfinders since buying mine, notably made by Canon and Fuji, so they are out there, it's just a question of spending hours on the internet seeking them out :-) Start with Amazon, move on to Currys/PCWorld and by the time you've scoured the country your brain will hurt, you will be crosseyed and exhausted, but hopefully you will be successful and find what you want :-) I hope you have many happy hours with your new toy :-)x