need be a nice P/S camera

[T2urtle]

I've been eyeballing camera's left and right now for about 3 weeks.

I want something on the smaller side. I'm mainly taking random photos and quick car pictures. in the past month i've been going back and fourth between SD790 and the SD890 but i felt they were a bit overpriced for what they are. 790 was about 170$ and 890 was in the 200$ range. Then i started to look into canon hack software on the A590 and a SD1100. A590 is about $100-125 but runs on AA batteries and the SD1100 is a nice size but still in the $150 ranges for an old camera.

Ive had one camera in the past and it was a kodak 5.0MP huge thing. The battery life on the camera sucks because it ran on AA. with even 2100mah i only got about 10 photos, i think its more of the camera. I'm not sure if i want to go down that route again.

Reading and seeing all the high end DSLR makes me want one but i KNOW it will be pointless and a waste of money. It will just collect dust in 2 months. a P/S with SOME manual controls will be ideal but i dont think 200$ is going to cut it.

one of the huge reasons why i looked at the A590/SD1100 is because they have the hack CHSK or something. where i can have a BIT more control, shoot in RAW.

fuji had a fd1000 or something like that, and the panasonic tz4/tz5 has peeked my interested. the tz4 is in my budget but the tz5 is so much better.

 

[bobdole369]

Find you a nice dslrlike megazoom - and be sure you can get it into PASM mode. SHould be plenty for a long time.

Since you know kodak already:

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/Pag...2%20IS&pq-locale=en_US

$199

 

[996GT2]

Originally posted by: bobdole369
Find you a nice dslrlike megazoom - and be sure you can get it into PASM mode. SHould be plenty for a long time.

Since you know kodak already:

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/Pag...2%20IS&pq-locale=en_US

$199

That thing's huge! He said he wanted something on the smaller side, like a Canon SD790.



My personal suggestion is the Panasonic LZ8. Winner of the DPReview shootout for budget point and shoots, and for good reason. At $125 it's a no-brainer.

5x Leica Zoom lens, Optical image stabilization, full manual controls (P/A/S/M modes), 2.5 FPS continuous shooting, great high ISO performance for a P&S...the list goes on

I have one of these as a back-up to my DSLR, and I get about 300 shots on a single charge from 2 1800 mAh AAs. If you get some higher capacity NiMH AAs, 400+ shots on a charge is definitely doable.

 

[T2urtle]

I have 2100mah NIMH batteries.

I just came back from bestbuy to look at the panny TZ5, canon a590 and SD790. found out the a590 is dead as of last week. They had the floor model in stock for 129$ with 10% off for being a store model. I wish i as this post before i left so i can take a loot at that as well.

in terms of manual controls, what are the big keys?

How long as the LZ8 been out and are they carried by a local stores? I really want to feel and test a camera out before i make up my mind. Like the SD790 i really hate the flush keys. I love everything else.

 

[bobdole369]

PASM - that they exist.
Program mode, Aperture priority mode, Shutter priority mode, Manual mode.

 

[extra]

Originally posted by: T2urtle

fuji had a fd1000 or something like that, and the panasonic tz4/tz5 has peeked my interested. the tz4 is in my budget but the tz5 is so much better.

Not really. No real image quality diff between the tz4 and tz5. The only thing the 5 has over the 4, iirc, is the wider angle...

Get a panasonic lz8 or canon a590.

 

[T2urtle]

in terms of tz4/5

the 5 has the 790p video, a larger screen and wide angle. I think those are the big things for an extra 40-50$ i didn't take a huge look into it, I only looked because the 10x optical was something i thought i might like but then i thought to myself i really dont have too many usage for it. I sit at the 300 levels at the basketball games so 10x isn't going to cut it.

I saw the a590 in person and now i want to see the lz8. the reviews on the camera functions are great but they say its a bit ugly. I saw pictures and thought it was more of an average looking camera. I really want to see the fit and finish in my hand. On paper i like it a lot more then an a590 with the ChDK mod. I wasn't exactly blow away by the look of the a590, it fit nicely in my hand but i wish the camera was wider, my fingers can hit the lens at times. the pictures from the a590 came out great tho.

Looks like i'll be making a trip to office depot to check out the camera.

http://www.officedepot.com/a/p...nic-Lumix-DMC-LZ8-8-1/

 

[T2urtle]

eh, i just ordered a open box one from JR

lz8 for $96.xx shipped =P

the price was 10times better then what i had hoped for now hopefully the camera can do a nice job. Anyone have good beginner sites with photo comparisions? I come across a lot of how-to take pictures sites but not too many have pictures to show EXACTLY what they are talking about. reading is one thing but seeing is another.

 

[996GT2]

Nice! It's a great beginner point and shoot that you can learn the ropes with. Even if you get a dslr later it will be a great back up

I beat you though...got a like new LZ8 with 2GB eye fi card for $50 on eBay. The card itself is worth $50

 

[T2urtle]

yea, the ebay market place right now was only filled with referbs @ 100 ish.

will one those 50x SD cards make a diffrence compared to normal SD card? I have a sandisck 8GB microSD i had on my old nokia n82 that i'm going to use with the proper adapter.

 

[996GT2]

Originally posted by: T2urtle
yea, the ebay market place right now was only filled with referbs @ 100 ish.

will one those 50x SD cards make a diffrence compared to normal SD card? I have a sandisck 8GB microSD i had on my old nokia n82 that i'm going to use with the proper adapter.

Not at all. Fast SD or CF cards are only really useful if you have a DSLR capable of shooting faster than 5 FPS and you plan to use it in continuous drive for over 20 shots at a time. Otherwise, the buffer on most new cameras will let you shoot full speed for at least 10-20 shots...some of the higher end DSLRs have huge buffers that let you shoot over 100 shots at full speed even with a slow card.

 

[Kelvrick]

Just ordered a Fujifilm F100fd for the wife. Was looking to stay under $200, but these cameras have a $100 rebate, so $270 - 100 rebate. Wife only really uses her camera (at least until she dropped her last Sony T200) when going out with friends, so low-light is a must. Wanted to get the panasonic lx3 but didn't want to spend that kind of money.

The fuji has a good zoom range and low light performance and came in at a price I like. $100 rebate ends today though.

 

[ObiDon]

Originally posted by: T2urtle
lz8 for $96.xx shipped =P

nice! post a few shots if you get a chance! i'm curious to see what it can do