Having missed lots of insanely great photos - though we still have plenty of kid pictures - because our Canon Powershot S40 is just too slow to take a picture from when you click, a little birdie told me that I should look seriously at a new camera or 2 for Christmas and birthday.. Any advice/experience on recent camera selection is appreciated..
Powershot S40
I like the S40's range of settings (outdoor, portrait, ..) and manual control, though I don't use them all that often. The quality of the photos seems good. The things I don't like are:
- the time to picture acquisition from first press of the button. It can take many seconds, missing that crucial Bryce kissing Gwen's head shot. There seem to be two big factors: the time to focus and then the flash recharge rate. DPReview rates the Off to Record time at 4.0 seconds, Off to Shot take at 5.5 seconds, and shot to shot time at 2.2 seconds.
- the flash amounts. I regularly have to adjust the amount of flash used. A new camera would have to either have a better flash amount selection or retain the manual flash amount control.
- form factor. The S40 is really quite large. I always drool over smaller cameras.
- Video. It's just not very good at all.
- Portrait. The 3 x zoom is ok, but it doesn't really do well at close-up head shots.
- Fast still mode. We want the camera to take pictures as fast as it can, say a couple every second, to catch that one amazing shot.
I'm also intrigued by where cameras are going with WiFi enabling, like the Nikon coolpix P2. It would be pretty handy to have pictures auto-downloaded to a computer rather than cabling up. But I'm not sure how much of a deal that is.
Motorola camera phone
Not nearly good enough, maybe in a year or so the camera phones will be there.
Requirements
Now the vexing problem that I think I need 3 cameras: a really small one for portability (like the Canon SD450), a great zoom/portrait camera (like the Canon S2), and a camcorder. As good as I've been this year, I doubt that Santa will be that generous. But let's look at each of the categories for a second.
Super Portable
I really like the SD300/450/550. They have the "kids/pets" mode that takes fast stills, they are way faster on the discrete shots, nice small form factor, 2 1/2" lcd. It has less modes/controls than the Powershot S40 though. DPReviews say that image quality is better than the coolpix, but it would be nice to have the red-eye reduction. There is an SD430 with WiFi but first review on DP isn't that positive.
Comparisons
SD 550: 1/1.8" sensor size, DPReview rates the Off to Record time at 1.0 seconds, Off to Shot take at 1.4 seconds, shot to shot time w/out flash at 1.4 seconds, shot to shot w/flash and no red-eye reduction at 1.8 seconds, half-press lag of around .35 seconds. The Continuous shot mode (burst) for 3k by 2.4k JPEG fine is 2 frame/second for unlimited frames.
SD 300: 1/2.5" sensor size, DPReview rates the Off to Record time at 1.4 seconds, Off to Shot take at 1.9 seconds, shot to shot time w/out flash at 1.3 seconds, shot to shot w/flash and no red-eye reduction at 2.4 seconds, half-press lag of around .6 seconds. The Continuous shot mode (burst) for 2.2k by 1.7k JPEG fine is 2.4 frame/second for unlimited frames.
Lumix DMC LX-1 is 8 mpx, 1/1.65" sensor size, 2 1/2" lcd, 16:9 aspect ratio, 4x zoom, image stabilization, better battery than canon, Off to Record time at 2.9 seconds, Off to Shot take at 3.6 seconds, shot to shot time w/out flash at 1.4 seconds, shot to shot w/flash and no red-eye reduction at 1.6 seconds, half-press lag of around .65 seconds, continuous shot mode (burst) for 8/7/6Mp JPEG fine is 3 frame/second for up to 5 frames. Recommended by DPReview but they had some very bad things to say about noise "To release a camera so obviously aimed at the serious photographer, to add so many usable manual controls, to put a razor-sharp Leica lens on the front and then to drop in a chip / processor that is so noisy you can't use it above ISO 100 is quite simply unforgivable. It's like buying a Ferrari and discovering it maxes out at 55 mph."
Lumix DMC FX-9 is 6 mpx, 1/2.5" sensor size, 2 1/2" lcd, 3x zoom, image stabilization, better battery than canon, Off to Record time at 1.4 seconds, Off to Shot take at 2.3 seconds, shot to shot time w/out flash at 1.75 seconds, shot to shot w/flash and no red-eye reduction at 2.75 seconds, half-press lag of around .25 seconds, continuous shot mode (burst) for 8/7/6Mp JPEG fine is 2.6 frame/second for up to 6 frames. Recommended by DPReview and they say "And noise is an issue (as it is for all small-sensor cameras)"
P200 is 7 mpx, 1/1.8" sensor size, 2" lcd, Off to Record time at 1.4 seconds, Off to Shot take at 1.4 seconds, shot to shot time w/out flash at 1.5 seconds, shot to shot w/flash and no red-eye reduction at 2.0 seconds, half-press lag of around .3 seconds, continuous shot mode (burst) for 3k by 2.4k JPEG fine is 1 frame/second for up to 5 frames. Highly Recommended by DPReview
The sony T7 seems really stylish but DPreviewers seemed to say the interior/low light shots weren't great. That would be a killer for me.
Nikon Coolpix S3 TBD
FinePix Z2 TBD
Any comments on the ultra-portable range?
Portraits
The Canon S2 seems to have a lot of great features. It has a 30 fps stereo movie mode, image stabilization, 12x optical zoom. I worry about it having only 5 megapixels for a pretty pricey camera and it seems a little "old". I'm not sure if it's a good enough substitute for a camcorder..
The Sony DSC-R1 seems really good. It has a .9 second "off to ready/shot".
Camcorder
I know almost nothing about camcorders. The little bit of research I've done suggests that HD camcorders aren't really out yet. They also don't seem that great for stills, I've seen a JVC with 1.1 megapixel camera.
The SD450 and SD550 seriously rock; they both have the Digic II processor, which is *very* fast, often feeling like a traditional camera. They're very well-built. In combination with a decent 1G SD card (e.g., SanDisk; no-name brands can compromise performance, esp. with movies), I think you'll be more than fine.
I've settled on an SD200 for snapshots (would have got an SD450, but I'm an early adopter, and I don't need that many pixels for that purpose) and a Nikon D50 (now available on Amazon for $600!) for more serious stuff; I've been playing with the D50 for a few days now (nice bday pressie) and it's verrrry nice.
Stay away from small wifi cameras; it's murder on batteries.
Some of the best advice I ever got was, "Don't buy a digital camera that isn't made by a camera company."
That being said, Canon products have made me very happy. I've had an S500 for about 15 months and have taken many pictures.
I wanted a small camera that I would actually TAKE with me to take pictures. Other people like the larger cameras with optical zoom, accessories and stuff. It's just more likely for me that I'm going to leave it all at home.
The Canon S2 IS seems to make people happy for those who want large optical zoom in not too huge a package.
Red-eye reduction is a problem for most group shots. Most people think the first flash is the picture and will often move before the second flash goes off. Photoshop and many other programs will quickly remove red-eye.
There is an ongoing debate about flashes bothering/harming newborns eyes. One less flash isn't such a bad idea in this case.
If you need a camera with more than 5MP you're likely going to be blowing up small portions of your pictures to make 8 * 10's. 5MP for most camera usage is more than enough data to make excellent prints.
Besides, that's what the optical zoom is for, isn't it?
With more MP comes more memory requirements, larger delays in processing and saving the pictures to the memory device. So quick rapid shots in succession are less likely to happen.
My two bits.
Bob
Fujifilm Z1 is my small footprint, fast digital.
I bought it for the same reason, except for a
granddaughter in my case. It is fast enough to catch her when she's on the move (18months old). It is small enough to go in my shirt pocket. It is good enough to get good enlargements from.
Assuming the Z2 is an update on mine, I'd recommend it.
regards DaveP
My Canon S400 LCD was damaged so I needed a replacement. My selection, Lumix DMC-LX1. It's in the mail so I haven't played with it yet. It can capture 16:9 photos and video. It should also be small enough to fit in most pockets. Camera is 8 megapixels.
Carlos
Note: Ever since I started using 512MB flash, I've never touched my camcorder again.
I just did this exercise a month or two ago and ended up buying the Sony Cyber-Shot p200. It's insanely small, it goes from power up to having taken a picture in under 2 seconds (and power up to ready in under 1 second). It's movie mode is great and has changed the way I take pictures. I now will take one or two short 15 or 30 second movies with it during a vacation day. It really captures the flavor of the situation without creating long winded movies I have to edit and deal with. But the movie mode is no substitute for a cam corder if you want to do anything extended, it can't zoom during movie mode for example. But all in all it's perfect for running after kids since you can easily carry it with you always and it powers up instantly. Highly recommended.
In my 'if I could have two cameras' category I really wanted to get the Panasonic DMC-FZ5. It takes luscious shots (don't let the low mega pixel rating fool you, mega pixels are NOT where the action is at, you want to look at sensor size and and lens size, remember, this is about collecting light and the more surface area you have the more light you will get). It's actually not that big and the zoom is wonderful but it was too big to go into a pocket and we weren't ready to get two cameras.
In my 'If I were a rich man' category my dream camera is the Sony DSC-R1 which you listed above. All it does is take pictures but oh lord, what pictures!!!!
- Still have my old S40. Use it mostly for underwater shots with the accessory waterproof body.
- My primary camera is a Canon 350D, with a 300D as a backup. But I do photography professionally on the side, and those are expensive toys once you start adding lenses, etc.
- I highly recommend the 5MP and above SD series cameras from Canon. Have several happy friends who use them.
- A pocket digicam will never match the image quality (especially bokeh) or response time of an SLR. The Digital Rebel series is excellent if you can live with something a bit larger and pricier.
- A digital camera having a "movie mode" is nice, but does NOT replace the need for a camcorder. Any device that tries to do both succeeds at neither.
- 5MP is plenty for decent family photos *IF* there is a decent optical zoom (4x or better). Noise is a LOT more important than raw pixels, and Canon's sensors kick everyone else's around the block from what I've seen.
- DPReview has never led me astray. The quality of the reviews far outweighs those of the Ziff-Davis-type publications.
We bought the Canon Digital Rebel XT. It takes great photos and is really easy to use. It can do 3 pics/sec so it is plenty fast.
We bought a camcorder and have only really used it once -- to catch our daughter's first xmas. we find that most of the time a still is what you want. and, as yaron said, you can take some great videos with good digital camera -- easier to carry the small camera, and seems like we're more interested in capturing moments than in taking extended video. besides, we just upgraded to a high-speed 2gb SD card -- we captured 7 minutes of video with our canon sd300 before we got tired of the experiment -- that's about as much as I want to edit anyway :).
we love our sd300, but just broke the lcd; we're looking at the sd450 as a replacement.