A nice Point and Shoot??

[bluetek]

I am looking for some recommendations as I am looking to pick up a nice P&S camera for the summer. Something with decent zoom and MP's, and looks nice.

Post up what you have or what you recommend. I am looking to spend around ~$400.

Thanks.

[szw]

I don't know much about cameras but I think 400 is pretty damn high for a nice P&S these days isn't it? Anyway I always just go canon since I've always been happy. My family has bought panasonic and sony and I always prefer my own picture quality.

[HyperZell]

I'm about to pick up one myself. I'm going to go for the new Canon 790IS. It's a redesigned refresh of their current Digital Elph lineup, which has been stellar. You can get it for $360 at BB or FS, but once MemX gets it I think we'll have it for $320.

[Grogador]

No idea what you're after, but if you want something pocket-size, I just picked up a Canon SD1000 at Staples for $150, it is fawking amazing, just like every Canon I've ever bought :thumbsup:

[bspot]

I've got a Panasonic now, and it's pretty decent, the price was awesome and some of theirs have pretty good optical zoom, but all in all I still prefer the Canon's I've used/owned.

[zarge]

canon!

[Grogador]

oh yeah look up dpreview (digital photo, not ... you sickos) and Steve's digicams, should give you a good idea of what to get for your budget (hint: Canon ; )

[Mitsu3000gt]

How much zoom do you want? How big do you want the camera to be? What are you expecting to take pictures of and get out of the camera? There a TON of cameras that fit your initial criteria. Also, you can get a decent digital SLR and a kit lens for just a bit more than $400.

[soupey]

450ish = Canon G9

[tom_9109]

Canon g9 kicks ass. Leave it set to Auto speed and auto settings and your pictures are incredible.

[lint]

Originally posted by tom_9109
Canon g9 kicks ass. Leave it set to Auto speed and auto settings and your pictures are incredible.

Why buy a big bulky p&s with the same manual features of an SLR if you're just going to leave it in auto mode all the time? Save yourself a couple hundred $$$s and weight and buy a compact p&s.

[Alterac]

Canon SD1100 IS FTW.

[Unknown303]

I have an SD1000 and it performs really well for a P&S. Then my XTi is for the big pictures.

[soupey]

Originally posted by lint


Why buy a big bulky p&s with the same manual features of an SLR if you're just going to leave it in auto mode all the time? Save yourself a couple hundred $$$s and weight and buy a compact p&s.

because some of us can't afford to dish out extra for the lenses, G9 has IS and has prettymuch all the entry-level manual features an SLR would...

[lint]

Originally posted by soupey


because some of us can't afford to dish out extra for the lenses, G9 has IS and has prettymuch all the entry-level manual features an SLR would...

Re-read the post that I was replying to and my reply again. If you're going to leave a camera in auto mode all the time, why bother with a bigger bulkier p&s with all the manual features of an SLR?

[Velox]

i've got a Panasonic DMC-FX33 and it does some really good pictures for a point and shoot

[bluetek]

Ya mostly looking for something small, that would fit in your pocket. Going to use it alot for traveling and don't really want to carry an SLR around all the time.

My only expectations would be small but can pack a punch at the same time.

Anyone have any experience with a Canon 870IS or 95OIS?? No matter what I choose it will be a huge upgrade from my 4 or 5 MP Canon.

Keep the advice coming. That should narrow it down a bit.

[lint]

The SD870IS would be my pick mainly because it has a wide angle lens (28 vs 35 mm) and you really don't need 12mp on that tiny sensor. 8 vs 12 mp means less noise.

[bluetek]

^Thanks. That means it will be capable of capturing wider angles and what not?

So would the 8MP vs the 12 make up a noticeable difference? and also the 950 has 5x optical zoom compared to the 870 having 3.8x optical. I know optical is important but again how important would this be?

[Gibson]

Panasonic TZ5. Fantastic camera. Also, the aforementioned SD1000 (which is discontinued) and it's succesor the SD1100 IS. The new Sony Cyber-shot Series (W110-190) also rock, as does most of Pentax's and Olympus's cameras, and SURPRISINGLY, some of the new Casio's are quite good.

[lint]

Personal preference, I prefer the extra few mms at the wide end vs having more zoom. Much more useful when using the camera indoors.

12mp will have more noise than 8mp, and you really won't notice much difference unless you're blowing up to poster size. The one advantage with 12mp is that you can crop an image smaller and still retain detail vs lower mp. But if you can frame for the shoot, then this shouldn't be a big issue either.

[bspot]

If you're going to Europe wide angle comes in handy so much trying to catch shots of buildings in narrow streets.

[Mitsu3000gt]

If you want a pocketable point and shoot, in my opinion Fuji makes some of the best stuff out there. The F40, F50, or new F100 will all do a fantastic job and have better ISO performance than any of the competition that I'm aware of, which to me at least is very important in a P&S camera. Doesn't matter so much for daylight shots but I find I use ISO 400-800 a lot with my P&S camera and its nice to have grain/noise-free images. I know I'm always going on and on about Fuji but there is a reason why the discontinued Fuji F30/31 sells for 2-3 times retail at $450-$600 USD on eBay and amazon.com. The F50 and F100 also have image stabilization. I know the F100 at least has 28mm on the wide end which is pretty good and a 5X zoom instead of the 3X the F40/50 have. I don't know if the other cameras have it as well but I find the customizable auto ISO feature on the Fuji's very useful. The Fuji's also all have full manual controls i.e. apeture/shutter priority modes, etc. if you are into that.

If I were you I'd get the Fuji F100 - plenty of MP's if you care about that, excellent ISO performance, wide angle lens for the landscapes, 5X zoom, excellent build and all the features/manual controls you would likely need. If for some reason you don't like it I'd get the Canon G9 as a second choice but its $200 more expensive. Head down to The Camera Store and check everything out.

[van]

I just picked up a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS3 -- I love it!

[cityhunter2501]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
If you want a pocketable point and shoot, in my opinion Fuji makes some of the best stuff out there. The F40, F50, or new F100 will all do a fantastic job and have better ISO performance than any of the competition that I'm aware of, which to me at least is very important in a P&S camera. Doesn't matter so much for daylight shots but I find I use ISO 400-800 a lot with my P&S camera and its nice to have grain/noise-free images. I know I'm always going on and on about Fuji but there is a reason why the discontinued Fuji F30/31 sells for 2-3 times retail at $450-$600 USD on eBay and amazon.com. The F50 and F100 also have image stabilization. I know the F100 at least has 28mm on the wide end which is pretty good and a 5X zoom instead of the 3X the F40/50 have. I don't know if the other cameras have it as well but I find the customizable auto ISO feature on the Fuji's very useful. The Fuji's also all have full manual controls i.e. apeture/shutter priority modes, etc. if you are into that.

If I were you I'd get the Fuji F100 - plenty of MP's if you care about that, excellent ISO performance, wide angle lens for the landscapes, 5X zoom, excellent build and all the features/manual controls you would likely need. If for some reason you don't like it I'd get the Canon G9 as a second choice but its $200 more expensive. Head down to The Camera Store and check everything out.

was looking at the F50..only 269$ at BB or FS..so tempted to grab one as my daily P&S
question...how does it fair with say F30 and the Canon SD series?

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by cityhunter2501


was looking at the F50..only 269$ at BB or FS..so tempted to grab one as my daily P&S
question...how does it fair with say F30 and the Canon SD series?

I don't know exactly what features you plan on comparing, but where it is most different is its ISO performance and customizable controls. The F30 has a bit better ISO performance than the F50 and both cameras will blow any of the Canon SD cameras out of the water at anything above ISO 100. I would take it over a Canon SD any day but thats just my opinion. I can't remember what the SD's have but the Fujis have full manual controls, have metal bodies, very good flashes, great out of camera JPEGs and a good LCD. For daylight pics and stuff they are going to look virtually identical. I have an F30 and what I use the most is programmable manual mode with auto ISO 400 or 1600 and fast focus mode. I bought an underwater housing for it and it worked awesome under water. The F50 has updated face detection, image stabilization, and a bunch more megapixels when compared to the F30. The F100 is out now too and I think thats worth a look if you can spend another $100. If you don't care about manual controls/options and are always taking pictures at the beach or whatever you aren't going to notice much of a difference between any point and shoot. If you want the best possible pictures in any situation from a camera that can fit in your pocket, I don't think anyone really can compete with Fuji until they start putting bigger sensors in their cameras. Anyways, this is all just my opinion but you will find the same things being said most places that you read. Oh yeah, I didn't charge my F30 for a year (never needed to), and I took it with me on holidays and took EASILY 600+ pics and several videos with it using plenty of flashes and fast focus mode before I got a low battery warning. It seems to last forever.

Neither are technically good pics at all but here are a couple samples I could find super quick. I attached some larger samples so you can actually see.

ISO 400:
http://Mschlosser.smugmug.com/photos/306975109_vNPZq-X2.jpg

ISO 1600

http://Mschlosser.smugmug.com/photos/306975584_vRZjS-X2.jpg

[cityhunter2501]

good stuff :thumbsup:

if only the F30 was cheap I would get one as well, but looks like I'll have to go with a F50 or a F100 as my next P&S camera.

that 2nd pic really impressed me, what shutter speed was it at?

[ExtraSlow]

small point and shoot cmeras have vastly improved over the last few years. Nikon, Canon and the rest make some excellent models.

I'm a nikon guy myself.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by cityhunter2501
good stuff :thumbsup:

if only the F30 was cheap I would get one as well, but looks like I'll have to go with a F50 or a F100 as my next P&S camera.

that 2nd pic really impressed me, what shutter speed was it at?

Yeah considering its a very compact P&S camera ISO 1600 is pretty damn impressive and most certainly usable for a web photo or smaller print. I'll check on the exact shutter speed for you when I get home, I can't view my smugmug account from work. I know it was handheld, probably around 1/40 or 1/60, and the F30 does not have image stabilization (wasn't introduced until the F50).

EDIT: It was taken at 1/75 sec and f2.8

[Gibson]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
small point and shoot cmeras have vastly improved over the last few years. Nikon, Canon and the rest make some excellent models.

I'm a nikon guy myself.

That's almost true, but Nikon's made some slip-ups in the past couple of years. The S210 has some major focusing problems, and the whole L-series is pretty um...lame.