What camera should I buy? - 1

I want to buy a camera that takes much better quality pictures than my iPhone. It's mostly for taking pictures with my partner and 1 year old son. It would be nice if it was a compact camera but that's not all that important. My budget is up to £500

Partner & son? Why don't you buy a ring instead of a camera?

At that price range you have a lot to choose from.

Firstly, any camera will be able to take generic photos of someone. You need to be more specific. What kinds of things do you need from a camera? What types of photos do you want/need to take? You can say my partner and son, but is that standing still in front of some tourist location? Riding a bull? Playing some indoor sport? There are a lot things people do other than just standing still for the camera.

Do you need the camera to not only be able to make videos, but to do it well and have the ability to add external microphone and headphones? Do you plan on vlogging or posting to YouTube? If so, then you will need a camera with a headphone and mic jack.

Do you plan on photographing anything moving like someone running in the park, a dog, someone playing a sport? If so, then you will need a camera with a very fast continuous AF system which isn't going to be found in a point-and-shoot camera. For that, you'd need a DSLR.

Do you want to be able to control the exposure? If so, then you'd need a mirrorless or dslr.

Do you want to shoot hand held in low light situations? Then you need a camera with a large sensor and aperture.

What do you plan on doing with the images? Do you just post to the web or do you want to make prints? If printing is something that you want to do, then what is the largest print you can see yourself ever making? The larger the print, the more pixels you'll need.

It's sounds like all you want is something that's better than a phone, which is pretty much every single digital camera on the market today. No camera will be as bad as a £5 camera module used in an iPhone.

I suggest going to dpreview.com and checking out their buying guides. Avoid websites like amazon when shopping since they do not have the ability to narrow search results based upon features. Go to a dedicated camera shop instead.