Suggestions for my Nephew wanting first camera

Hello all .. my nephew is wanting a new camera and he sent me a link to a canon powershot sx160. I then asked him if he was wanting to learn how to shoot in manual mode and he said no. I'm thinking he is just looking to find a point and shoot with HD. I know there are plenty of them out there, but I haven't been "looking" .. so thought some of you may have experienced a point and shoot that is worth the money. They are getting much better now after taking a quick look on the internet.

Thanks in advance!!

Update: I just talked with him and he wants one that looks cool like mine not one that fits in your pocket. But ... he can't spend more than 150.00 ... oh to be young again!

Sounds like he needs something used. A camera a few generations back (Digital Rebel XT, XS or so) might fill the bill.

Find a used 20D or something similar. Of course...the lenses are the expensive bit.

Look at my posting:

LINK

The second option, Nikon in Red color is too hot to handle and I am sure he will love it for a long time.

It comes with: Full 1080p HD Cinematic Video with full-time autofocus and sound lets you record cinematic-quality movies in Full 1080p HD format (1920 x 1080 pixels)
Do you have anything short of WOW here?

Quality of pictures he gets are no match for any pns camera.
Price is surely a match under $300 but then he needs to act fast, deal wont last long.

Well yes it is higher than $150 but then the added benefits are way higher in proportion to the price rise.
Also if you try to sell it on ebay in say two years, you will be getting a big chunk of that money back (Unlike PnS that would bring no money in resale) with bonus of all the images, then more importantly lesson learned.

How old is your nephew? May want to look at the hybrids. No interchangeable lenses, but they look like dslrs, and the zoom range is insane on most of them.

KirkS518 wrote in post #15857037
How old is your nephew? May want to look at the hybrids. No interchangeable lenses, but they look like dslrs, and the zoom range is insane on most of them.

^^ +1

An older SX30 or something would probably do the trick.

Jon wrote in post #15856403
Sounds like he needs something used. A camera a few generations back (Digital Rebel XT, XS or so) might fill the bill.

Thank you for the response ... I was thinking about a used Rebel too. I think he likes the ability to take movies though, and the Rebel doesn't do that. Or at least they didn't way back when. I will keep looking.

Numenorean wrote in post #15856471
Find a used 20D or something similar. Of course...the lenses are the expensive bit.

Thank you for the response. Thought about that also.

samsen wrote in post #15856500
Look at my posting:

LINK

The second option, Nikon in Red color is too hot to handle and I am sure he will love it for a long time.

It comes with: Full 1080p HD Cinematic Video with full-time autofocus and sound lets you record cinematic-quality movies in Full 1080p HD format (1920 x 1080 pixels)
Do you have anything short of WOW here?

Quality of pictures he gets are no match for any pns camera.
Price is surely a match under $300 but then he needs to act fast, deal wont last long.

Thank you for the info ... his top price is 150.00. I wouldn't mind helping him out, but I think he needs to spend what he has in order for him to appreciate and take care of his equipment. This would be his first camera (other than a pocket size).

KirkS518 wrote in post #15857037
How old is your nephew? May want to look at the hybrids. No interchangeable lenses, but they look like dslrs, and the zoom range is insane on most of them.

My nephew is 15. He is a good kid, but I think he lacks the desire to learn about shooting in manual mode, etc. I'm thinking he wants to "impress" his friends - and also take good pictures.

My thoughts are to steer him in the direction of the best that his 150.00 can buy and let him deal with his desire to pursue knowledge about a better camera later on. If that desire isn't there ... he won't be out too much money and will have learned and appreciated what he has.

I also found a Fuji camera in the same price range, but I know nothing about Fuji cameras, so I rely mostly on the comments given by buyers.

Sorry for not getting back to everyone sooner, but I couldn't find my post! I think it was moved Thank you all so much for your help!

OK.
I fully understand your point.
In fact from two almost teenage kids I know how they feel. More importantly my kids despite access to all my tools, have their cellphones as their best know picturing device and do successfully shoot well with it. You know about the thousand softwares out there for in cellphone post processing and what not so in reality a good cellphone like iphone 5 or Samsung galaxy SIII are more than enough, needless to say by no means cheap...

But then if you are going for a pns, then given all your criteria, I suggest ELPH 110 HS.
It is ranked as top ten choice of 2013see This LINK. Where you can have a good comparison with other choices too. Price is just what you want or slightly lower if you cleverly shop on Amazon or Ebay.
See this Amozon LINK. Right now including shipping is $135. It is a wonderful camera and have no doubt, can take better pictures than a DSLR, off the camera.
Have a look. You may like it.

No one has interest in shooting in manual when they first start out, because you have no freaking idea what that is!

It's great that you're getting him one that has manual settings though, he'll thank you later.
But at first let him use it in auto so he can learn the limitations, that will encourage him to shoot manually. If you just tell him what he should do, it'll just put him off.

And even then manual is not the holy grail, there's times where AV/TV kicks it's butt.

You have a great opportunity here, don't waste it...

Give him your oldest DSLR and buy yourself a new one. That's a great excuse to upgrade. No one would question you.

In addition to my above recommendation, he can pick up a used XT/350D with the kit lens for the $150, or less. Good starter dSLR.