Canon Digital Elf S230 or Sony Cybershot DSC-P9

[Finality]

Anyone have any opinions on these two cameras. I've seen the Sony in action and its very good nice image quality etc.

Basically I see the two as competitors even though the S230 is only a 3.2 MP camera vs a 3.9 from Sony. Both are compact and light which is what I am after. The Elf is about $100 cheaper and also has the advantage of using CF cards so basically no limit on storage space plus its cheap vs the Sony who is maxed @ 128 MB and is about 2X as much as the same size flash card.

If the sony used CF cards I would definetley go for it but it does not....

Basically it comes down to higher MP vs cheaper better solution. I'm leaning really heavily towards the S230 for now even though I was very keen on the DSC-P9. Any views would be appreciated.

 

[LordJezo]

Elph is a great line of cameras.

I dont see why you would need anythign more.

My roommate has the s300 which is a megapixel lower but pretty much the same thing. If you are just going to be taking snapshots like most people do with digi cameras I don't see why you would need to spend an extra $100 on the sony.

 

[0roo0roo]

canon all the way, canon quality, build quality, uses compact flash instead of expensive proprietary sony memory....

 

[Gujski]

I have the s230, i got it for christmas and I love it. Easy to use and the pictures look great, a bit more red eye than i expected but that may be me. I burned about 50 of my best 400 or so pics ive taken with it and took them to one of those digital cam kiosks at sams club and got prints (.19 per 4x6) they looked awesome.

I also like being able to keep it in my pocket.

 

[UCDznutz]

i've got a canon s230 and i love it. small, light, compact, and the chicks think its saucy

 

[Aceshigh]

I'd go with the Sony DSC-P9. I like the on camera menu interface alot better than the Canon's. Also it is higher resolution, and it really is very small, just a bit bigger than the Canon.

I have a Sony Vaio desktop and it is so cool to just pop the memory stick out of my camera, inset it into my PC, and just drag and drop the photos from the memory stick to the PC.

 

[Furor]

The S230, since it's $100 cheaper..if it was the same price, it would be a better comparison, mainly because the cameras are very identical.

With the extra $100, buy another battery, tripod, and case(or a big CF card, because you're going to need something better than the supplied 16mb card)

 

[AkumaX]

p9 cuz i got my 128mb mem sticks for $38

s230 can record about 3min of mpeg, whereas p9 could go as long as 5min on highest quality, 90min on lowest (plug in to wall socket for 2nd option)

well actually i got a p7 for $293 from dell (yay coupons!) ive seen p9 as low as $3xx

 

[ElFenix]

s230 since its cheaper and uses cheaper ram (wtf was sony thinking with memory stick?)

plus canon actually makes cameras while sony makes tvs and crappy consumerific audio products

 

[SCSIfreek]

I was a all Sony guy since I own Sony DSC-F505V, Sony TV, Sony DVD player, Sony VHS, Sony headphones, Sony Monitor, Sony Discman, Sony earbuds, Sony card, etc. But I didn't get the P9 and got the S230 instead. You might ask why? well memory stick sucks the big one. New memory stick pro are coming out and existing cameras won't be able to use it. Now isn't that great.

--Scsi

 

[0roo0roo]

u gotta wonder why sony cameras aren't smaller canon did a great job with size and the elph even with the cf card being twice as large as a memory stick

and wtf was sony thinking? they love proprietary formats and shafting the customer, they do it every chance they get.

 

[Finality]

Originally posted by: AkumaX
p9 cuz i got my 128mb mem sticks for $38

s230 can record about 3min of mpeg, whereas p9 could go as long as 5min on highest quality, 90min on lowest (plug in to wall socket for 2nd option)

well actually i got a p7 for $293 from dell (yay coupons!) ive seen p9 as low as $3xx

Where did you see the P9 for $3xx thats a really really good price.

http://www.powershot.com/powershot2/s230/specs.html

Take a look there for the movie length time upto 1,954 seconds with a 256 MB CF card more if you throw in more memory. Thats something like 30 minutes in low quality and 4 in high quality.


SCSIfreek do you have any redeye problems? How do you find image sharpness I've seen P9 pics and they are very sharp especially in high res.

 

[codeyf]

Lexar has annouched the Duo memory stick. Basically 1 stick with 2 128mb chips in it. Has a switch on it to flip between the two. Thing is gonna be pricey though. As big of a Sony fan I am (I have a DSC-S75) I'm gonna have to go with the S230 based solely on media format.

 

[Packy]

Originally posted by: SCSIfreek
I was a all Sony guy since I own Sony DSC-F505V, Sony TV, Sony DVD player, Sony VHS, Sony headphones, Sony Monitor, Sony Discman, Sony earbuds, Sony card, etc. But I didn't get the P9 and got the S230 instead. You might ask why? well memory stick sucks the big one. New memory stick pro are coming out and existing cameras won't be able to use it. Now isn't that great.

--Scsi

The DSC-F717 can use the new "pro" ones, but that's the only available model so far

 

[manly]

Only problem with the S230 is only 2X optical zoom.

 

[0roo0roo]

mostly because its smaller, probably way smaller.

whats the memory limit for dscp9 anyways? when are 256mb memsticks coming out, 128 feels cramped with 3mega pixels. 1gb cf are out already yeesh

 

[Omegachi]

did you know they have a 1 gigbyte memory stick now? anyways, s230 is definitely better, canon's line of cameras are amongst the best. I did research on this camera and i am sure it is well worth it. trust me, can't go wrong with a canon.

 

[Centaur6]

Canon makes the best digicams.