Digital Camera help

[azazyel]

Ok, I checked out the Consumer Forum but those guys are at a level way too advanced for me. Basically I just need a good camera. My g/f and I are going to Hawaii soon so we thought we'd upgrade our camera. The one we currently have is so old it weights about the same as my laptop. So we want to get something that will take good pictures of our trip and hopefully some funny ones of our new cat.

I saw from the other forum that people found the Fuji F-series to be pretty good but I was hoping to get some of your guy's opinions. All I want is a point and shoot camera hopefully under $200.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Search Amazon for Canon.

I've had a SD110 since 2005. It's broken twice (both were lense issues). Each time, they sent me a label to ship it back to them and they were able to throw my serial number on another camera body that had been refurbished....

While that story may seem bad for their quality. My point is they are really good with customer and warranty support. Consumer electronics these days are cheap. The Digital Elph series is good because of size, weight, and the stainless steel body makes it pretty tough too.

Almost forgot to mention they have some of the best picture quality and are affordable for their point and shoots.

 

[azazyel]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
Search Amazon for Canon.

I've had a SD110 since 2005. It's broken twice (both were lense issues). Each time, they sent me a label to ship it back to them and they were able to throw my serial number on another camera body that had been refurbished....

While that story may seem bad for their quality. My point is they are really good with customer and warranty support. Consumer electronics these days are cheap. The Digital Elph series is good because of size, weight, and the stainless steel body makes it pretty tough too.

Almost forgot to mention they have some of the best picture quality and are affordable for their point and shoots.

Thanks, the SD1000 looks pretty good and it's on sale right now.

 

[ElFenix]

no, this thread is perfectly appropriate for that forum, so i'm moving it there.

this question comes up quite often there, actually, despite the endless holy wars over whose SLR is better. most of us are not professionals (though there are some).



i was taking a good look at the SD1000 myself, but i could never get in on a good deal for the black one. it seems like a simple basic point n' shoot, and it still has the optical tunnel finder for when you don't want to use your battery.

 

[jpeyton]

Canon SD1100 IS (or the SD1000 if you have a smaller budget)

 

[azazyel]

Yeah the SD1000 looks nice and I would go for the SD1100 but I don't think I'd use it that often. I really don't like being in pictures but this is the first vaction we've taken in a while and we want it documented. My g/f even says she's going to do a scrapbook thing. Anyways I've also been looking that these fuji f-series.

http://www.amazon.com/Fujifilm...qid=1206557629&sr=1-35


http://www.amazon.com/Fujifilm...lization/dp/B0002EQUIA

Which are both marked down on Amazon.

 

[azazyel]

Oh I would also like a camera that can take fast picutres. I'm not sure if every camera can do it with adjustment or not but I'd like to take action shots of my cat. Do you just turn off the redeye reduction or something?

 

[jpeyton]

The F50fd is a good option (no reason to get the F40fd since they are both very close in price).

It's a lot cleaner than the SD1100 IS at high ISOs. DPReview has ISO 800 and 1600 samples of the same scene from both cameras.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: azazyel
Oh I would also like a camera that can take fast picutres. I'm not sure if every camera can do it with adjustment or not but I'd like to take action shots of my cat. Do you just turn off the redeye reduction or something?

there are two things that go into speed. one is just shutter speed, and as long as you don't zoom in, the SD with good light will be able to freeze action without adding too much noise. the fuji is better at it, though. putting either camera into sports mode will help, most likely.

the other thing that goes into speed is called shutter lag. shutter lag how long it takes when you press the button for it to actually take the picture. on some compacts this can be quite long. DPreview.com does a good job of reporting the lag, if you look through the reviews.

one way to reduce shutter lag is to pre-focus. the shutter button is actually a two-position button. pressing halfway down focuses, then pushing all the way activates the shutter. that may not work very well if the cat is really moving around all over the place, but you can try to anticipate the action, focus on where the cat will be, and then trigger the shutter when the cat gets there.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
no, this thread is perfectly appropriate for that forum, so i'm moving it there.

this question comes up quite often there, actually, despite the endless holy wars over whose SLR is better. most of us are not professionals (though there are some).



i was taking a good look at the SD1000 myself, but i could never get in on a good deal for the black one. it seems like a simple basic point n' shoot, and it still has the optical tunnel finder for when you don't want to use your battery.

Meh, I wouldn't call them "wars." The fans of one brand vs. the other *usually* don't get too carried away. Previously, I've had two Fuji P&S cameras. Both performed very well. One was the 4600 or 5600? I loved it as a P&S.

Edit: brain-fart. It was a Nikon P&S (I think) that was the 4600. Regardless, I had two Fuji P&S cameras and loved them both, (loved the Nikon too.)

 

[ThePresence]

I have an old 3MP Fuji S3000, I think it's the best P&S I ever had.

 

[azazyel]

Thanks for the info guys I really appreciate it!

 

[DanMart25]

Fuji Finepix F50 is good; it has image stabilization features.