A camera that can do all this?

[beatle]

I have a Canon A80 right now. It's been good to me, but I want more features:

• Faster processor for shorter autofocusing time. This would be nice to have for taking pictures of my fish. My A80 is abysmally slow in focusing, so getting good shots of moving targets at close range is very difficult.

• Wide angle lens of 28mm or wider. The Canon Pro1, S80, Olympus C-7070, Nikon 8400 all have this which is something I really like from using my girlfriend's 28-105mm SLR lens.

• Flip out + twist LCD. I can't live without this. I use it so much on my A80 to get a better angle on a shot without actually having to be behind the camera directly.

• Price under $800. Most of these cameras are under $800, but finding them is impossible, as most were released 2 years ago and manufacturers seem to have forgotten about their market.

• Movie mode @ 30fps for at least 60 sec. I really like the newer Canons' ability to do movies. Quality is comparable to a camcorder, IMO.

I've looked at the following cameras, but they've fallen short in one or more ways:
Nikon 8400, Canon Pro1, Canon S80, Olympus C-7070WZ, Olympus C-8080WZ. Are there any on the horizon that I should wait for?

 

[jlbenedict]

have you checked out the Canon S2IS? I believe it has those features you are looking for; plus it can be found for under $400
Reviews and discussion forum reviews really tout its movie mode on this camera. Canon must excel with movie mode over other manufacturers

 

[shortylickens]

If you could buy the Sony F-717 it would be under 800 bucks. But since you cant buy it anywhere (new) I would look around and see about getting the F-828.
The LCD doesnt flip out but the camera lens can be bent with respect to the body.

 

[beatle]

The S2 is not wide angle, unfortunately. This is the camera that prompted me to look at other cameras, however.

The Sony is just too huge for me.

I tried out the Nikon 8400 in person today. It's a steal @ $400, but I have a few gripes:
Confusing menu modes. You can't just push a button to change into macro mode, I found. There is one setting on the wheel for "scenes" which include a lot of different options (portrait, landscape, macro, etc.) I preferred having control over things like macro with a button that I can use in any mode.
It also has the mount for the strap right on the grip! This is something I didn't read about and wouldn't have thought about prior to holding the camera. The small dangling loop digs into your palm while you're holding the camera. I believe the loop is removable with some pliers, but the post where it connects seems to be part of the camera. What a glaring defect in an otherwise very easy to hold camera.

None of the stores I visited had the Olympus 7070 or 8080 or the Canon Pro1. The (district) manager mentioned that a lot of these cameras were being squeezed out because many people are moving to DSLR. He also said the Canon Pro1 was very slow to autofocus, which I was afraid of.

I've thought about going back to the idea of an A610 with a wide angle converter, but it seems like this is a hack that would lead to relatively inferior pictures when compared to a proper wide angle lens. I'm not a fan of barrel distortion, and the A610's size advantage over these cameras is nullified when I'm carrying the converter and the lens adapter around with me.

 

[Rottie]

new Canon Powershot A610 and 620 has new DIGIC II FAAAST processor and also have flip out twist LCD. They are 5.0 and 7.1 mp respectively

 

[justlnluck]

I currently own an A75, and ordered an A610 yesterday. Hopefully I will be able to comment on it by the end of the week. I could have easily purchased the A620, but opted for the A610 after reading many forum discussions that say the A620 doesn't take advantage of the extra megapixels because of it's aggressive noise reduction, causing the photographs to appear soft.

I love the form factor of the A75 and hope the A610 is of similar build quality. What is the megapixel resolution of the A80? The A75 is 3.1mp and does not have a flip out screen, so the 5mp A610 should be a good step up. I also had to purchase an SD card since it doesn't support the Compact Flash cards I use for my A75. I currently use a 2GB Kingston Elite Pro CF card for the A75. I purchased a 2GB Sandisk SD Ultra II for the A610. Hopefully this card will be of comparable quality.

 

[beatle]

The A80 is 4.0MP. I had an A70 before that which was good to me as well.

I'm leaning towards the S2IS with a wide angle converter. I just hate the EVF. It seems to be polluting lots of higher end cameras these days which is a shame. I really don't see the point in having a slow LCD viewfinder that duplicates the flipout LCD screen, especially when it's just as difficult to see in bright light. An optical viewfinder, even if it's not TTL, is much more helpful in shooting fast moving objects or objects in poor lighting conditions (bright or dim) when the LCD just doesn't cut it.

I found the S2 to be faster, but not quite as fast as Sony or Panasonic. I'd really like to see the Panasonic Z230 in person. It's supposed to be one of the fastest focusing cameras this side of an SLR. I'd also like to see how its LCD compares to the Canon. It's much higher resolution, but I've read that it doesn't offer the same amount of flexibility that the Canon's display does. The camera itself is much larger and heavier than the S2. I hope it's not unbearably large to tote around.

 

[beatle]

I thought I had a winner with the Panasonic until I found out just how inflexible the LCD is. You cannot rotate the LCD towards the right side of the camera (looking from the back). Unfortunately, this is how I generally use the LCD on my A80, so I didn't even bother powering on the Panasonic. I wonder how the S2 compares to the A610 or A620. Obviously the S2 has the more flexible lens, but do the A series hold any advantages over the S2 aside from size and weight?

 

[jlbenedict]

You would have not been happy with the Panasonic's movie capture mode as well..

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: justlnluck
I currently own an A75, and ordered an A610 yesterday. Hopefully I will be able to comment on it by the end of the week. I could have easily purchased the A620, but opted for the A610 after reading many forum discussions that say the A620 doesn't take advantage of the extra megapixels because of it's aggressive noise reduction, causing the photographs to appear soft.

I love the form factor of the A75 and hope the A610 is of similar build quality. What is the megapixel resolution of the A80? The A75 is 3.1mp and does not have a flip out screen, so the 5mp A610 should be a good step up. I also had to purchase an SD card since it doesn't support the Compact Flash cards I use for my A75. I currently use a 2GB Kingston Elite Pro CF card for the A75. I purchased a 2GB Sandisk SD Ultra II for the A610. Hopefully this card will be of comparable quality.

I am sure you'll love A610 very much. I never heard of A80 I think you meant S80? In that case it is 7.0MP

 

[beatle]

Nope, the A80 was Canon's first non-G series camera to have a flipout LCD. It's the successor to the A70.

 

[Rottie]

Beatle you are right I goggled it and found some review about A80. sorry about that.

 

[justlnluck]

Actually there was the A30, A40, A60, A70, A75, A80, A85, A90, A95...now A610, A620...whew, that's a lot of cameras...and that's just part of the A series!

BTW, the old, archaic A30 was released back in 2002...not that long ago!!

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: justlnluck
Actually there was the A30, A40, A60, A70, A75, A80, A85, A90, A95...now A610, A620...whew, that's a lot of cameras...and that's just part of the A series!

BTW, the old, archaic A30 was released back in 2002...not that long ago!!

mega pixel is getting bigger every year and in my opinon canon is trying to make image processor improvement every year like old Digic and new Digic 2 processor.