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Can anyone recommend a simple to use point and shoot camera for around the £300 mark. My parents are going on a month long cruise and mother’s iphone 5 isn’t really ideal for the job!
Spend the money on a more modern phone? It's Shirley had its day and even budget modern phones have great cameras.
The Panasonic TZ range is very good. Easy to use and takes good pics.
What's she planning to take photos of? Just holiday snaps? It's a long old time since I last looked at P&S cameras but I'd probably buy an IXUS. I've had two previously and they've been great.
As above, something from the Panasonic TZ range would probably fit the bill. There is a large choice.
It's probably worth going somewhere where you can try them out though, to see how easy they are to use & whether they suit your parents requirements.
For example, I don't really get on with the Canon menu system compared to Nikon. I'm sure the Canon one is fine, I just prefer the Nikon menus.
... or if you don't care about teeny-pocket-sized,
https://www.canon.co.uk/for_home/product_finder/cameras/digital_camera/powershot/powershot_sx620_hs/
Leaves you with £120 budget to spend on SD cards and a case.
SONY RX100 Mk111 or Lumix TZ100 are both compact large sensor P&S cameras that are a cut above the norm. If she needs more zoom from the poop deck and something more tactile / robust, the Lumix FZ330 bridge camera has quite a bright lens for such a long zoom camera and is weather proof. Works well on auto but has a smaller sensor than the two above. If really simple controls + good IQ + compact + robust are the priorities an Olympus Tough TG5 is bombproof.
Definitely research the phone first. £300 gets you an iPhone 8 which has a great camera or £400 gets an iPhone X
(assuming they don't want to switch to Android, in which case I'd recommend a Pixel 2 for about £170)
The benefit of having the photos on you at all times may outweigh the benefits of extra zoom and low-light capability of a Compact Camera.
That said - some people just like a good zoom range and then I would point them towards some of the models mentioned above. My priority would always be shooting Raw and low light performance, but this probably isn't true for your parents, so I'll bow out.
buy them 4 x memory cards and make sure they change them each week, that way if they lose one or corrupt one then they only lose a week.
Spend the money on a more modern phone?
Definitely consider this route. A lot of top-end phones come with multiple lenses now rather than using digital zoom. The optical quality may not be up there with a good point-and-shoot, but they're pretty damn good, and there is a huge benefit in convenience and ease-of use.
I used to use a point-and-shoot on the bike. But given that I have to connect it to a computer, and go through processing all the photos to get the end result I want, it hasn't actually been used in years.
The convenience of having everything in one package, from the camera to a full suite of image editing software, and the ability to upload them anywhere you like, and always having all of this with you...has almost made point and shoot cameras redundant.
That said it depends on your use. There are good reasons to go with the PaS. But they apply to a very niche crowd these days. It's the new film.
Cheers for the advice, I decided to go for the iphone8. The camera menus would confuse my mum and I had to rule out the iphone X as she wouldnt get on with the phone not having the home button.
We bought a Panasonic TZ70 to replace a surprisingly poor Olympus somethingorother. Can't fault it.
I decided to go for the iphone8
Cool - should work well!