Cheap digital camera - Jenotpik?

[michaelmorris]

My son and girlfriend are off to do a years voluntary work in Nepal in a couple of weeks and we thought we'd get them a digital camera each so that they can e-mail photos home.

We have a maximum budget of £70 each. We preferably want to get them something with non-proprietary batteries, reasonable battery life and an optical zoom. A tall order for £70 each! We have seen a couple of places advertsiing Jenotpik cameras (JD 3300 and JD 3.1 and JD 3.3) within our budget. Has anyone got any experience of these cameras? What are they like on reliabaility and battery life?
Has anyone got any other suggestions?

[another view]

I've never heard of Jenoptik, and don't see any reviews on this site for them. Proprietary batteries are getting to be the norm for most digitals, too. You might look at closeout models, like last year's models, for a bargain. My wife has a Canon A60 which is 2mp and uses 4xAA's but at two years old, you probably won't find one of these anywhere. Not sure if it's replacement uses AA's or a proprietary battery.

If they are only using them for email, I'd go with the lowest resolution you can find. I say this for a couple of reasons - if sending by email, you'll want the files small, maybe 450x600 pixels and it will take a computer (and a program like Photoshop) to do this. Will they have access to a computer? They'll also need a computer to burn CD's of the images, otherwise a lot of memory cards... Having never been to Nepal I don't know this for sure, but I'd imagine that they'll mostly (or always) be on a slow connection, which would make small file sizes even more important.

The downside to a lower resolution camera is that print size and quality can be reduced. However, a decent 8x10 can be made from a 2mp camera.

[Stina]

How about this Canon Powershot A410 3.2MP is uses AA batteries. It cost $150 USD(£85?) a little more than you planned on spending but it is a Canon and not an unknown brand.

Canon Powershot A410 from Adorama

[Stina]

Here is a Kodak EasyShare C300 for $110 USD (£63) at www.bhphoto.com

Kodak EasyShare C310 4.0 mp $125 USD

both use AA batteries according to the specs