Looking for a new Digital Camera - Got the new Camera!

Stuart Ablett

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Tokyo Japan
Well our old Sony Cybershot has bit the dust, and my lovely wife has decided we need a new one.

We ALL have decent cameras for snapshots on our cell phones, thus I see little gain in buying a simple point and shoot type of camera. We went down to an electronics shop today, and looked, some of the lower end SLR cameras are quite interesting, but man, they weigh a ton, and are WAY overwhelming for my wife, she kind of went "TOO MUCH INFO" and put them down.

I'm looking at the "Bridge" cameras.

Some contenders.....

lumix_dmc-fz8.jpg
Panasonic DMC-FZ8 << Review $300 street price

lumix_dmc-fz50.jpg
Panasonic DMC-FZ50 << Review $440 Street Price

Canon_S3_3q-001.jpg
Canon PowerShot S3 IS << Review $290 Street Price

CanonS5_3q-001.jpg
Canon PowerShot S5 IS << Review $310 Street Price

Well that is just a sample, I've only been doing the research for a while.

I do not thing we want to spend over $500, and we do NOT what a full bodied SLR.

Any advice, comments etc that you can offer, would be GREAT

Cheers!
 
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Gotta say - with all the auto focus and what-not the SLR can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be. Certainly capable of "point and shoot", but having all the extras when you need them.

I, too, wanted to save some bucks so I went with the nikon D50 - discontinued model and available at a good price if you shop around a bit.
 
Hey guys, if I had my way, we'd get a SLR, for sure, but Emiko just does not want to haul around the bulk of an SLR, so that is off the table :dunno:

I do think that the bridge cameras I listed will be pretty darn good....?
 
Hey guys, if I had my way, we'd get a SLR, for sure, but Emiko just does not want to haul around the bulk of an SLR, so that is off the table :dunno:
Then those you mentioned would be a good choice - I've not done a lot of research, but I don't remember coming across anything negative on the Canon Powershots.
 
Stu - you're right about the SLR. I had a Nikon D100 a while back, with all the options, including the strobe mounted on the top. My wife refused to use it - it was too heavy and too complicated. So I bought a Kodak Z740 (now, an old, obsolete camera).

I don't remember which camera it was, but one (Canon??) has a feature that identifies faces and focus on them. One problem my wife has is pointing the camera at two people (say, sitting at a table) and having it focus on the wall in back of them. If I were buying right now, I'd look for that feature, as well as image stabilization. Almost all new cameras have enough pixels and good image quality.

Oh, and the camera should use standard batteries - not special batteries made just for that camera.

Mike
 
I wouldn’t let that be a show stopper. The new Lithium Ion batteries are vastly superior to any rechargeable AA type battery that I’m aware of.

I would. I'm not convinced, Bruce. Last time I was in the store the guy was telling me that many new cameras are going back to special-purpose batteries and I was not thrilled. I've had it happen too often that my batteries dies at the wrong time, and with AA batteries, it is very easy to pop in our spare set. Also, if you just happen to have forgotten the spare batteries, then virtually any store will have some AAs that you can use as a short term emergency.

The problem I have with special purpose batteries is that they're darn expensive, and you only have one of them! What happens when that battery dies in mid shoot?

Stu, I don't have either of those, but they're both well rated, from what I've heard. We've already got two Canon cameras in the family, and I'd probably lean towards those just for the familiarity factor.

(and I echo what others have said about Image Stabilization - heard many good things on that one)
 
I've had the S5IS since Christmas and absolutely love it. FWIW it went about 200 shots on the generic alkaline AAs that came with it...I've got a set of lithium AAs in it now that'll probably last until sometime next year.:thumb:

So far the only thing I don't like about it is that the battery/memory-card access cover: there's only one cover for both and it's on the bottom. That means (1) the batteries want to fall out when you open it to get to the memory card and (2) my quick-change tripod adapter plate has to come off to open it. It's not an issue if you use the USB cable to download pictures, it's just I normally find it easier to yank the card out and stuff it into the laptop than to find the USB cable.
 
Art, the first charge of the Nikon lithium-ion battery for my D40X lasted 2 months and hundreds of high res pictures, probably 50% with flash, it was only down to half charge when I stuck it in the charger. I always have spare battery/batteries in the bag but I’ve yet to need the spare Li-I that I bought.
The four AA Ni-MH of my Olympus point & shoot last a couple of days before needing recharging, the backup set of CAD batteries were even worse.
Granted, lithium-ion batteries aren’t on the shelf at 7-11 but that’s a non-issue as far as I’m concerned.
 
Stu, I don't know which model Sony Cybershot you had but there are several. Mine is a DSC-H2. I believe they are up to an H8 or 9 now. It is a 'bridge' model between P&S and SLR. Mine has a 12X optical zoom which I love. As you know, the Sony uses it's own proprietary (expensive) memory card and you already have one, or more. I suggest you reconsider the Sony. I believe it will fit your needs. On mine, I especially like the 'steady' and macro features.
 
I use a Fuji Finepix S7000 for my work shots. Its a discontinued model but is in the category of a "bridge" camera and I deeply love it. It can be used as a point and shoot autofocus autoexposure snapshot camera but with a bit of tweeking will manage bracketted exposures and off depth of field manipulation and all the other good stuff that my expensive 35mm slr barely managed. I keep trying to persuade myself that I need a digital SLR but the simple truth is that I don't and can't see the day when I will.

I can't speak for the models you have highlighted but can say that this category of cameras are a joy to use. Like the best of all products, they just do what it says on the tin.

And I'm with Art. One of the important factors for me was the use of standard batteries. If the batteries go and I don't have a replacement, every filling station and corner shop can sell me a set of AA's.
 
I bought a used Olympus c3000 zoom last year that has way more features than I will ever use and does a pretty good job in auto mode.

My only complaint is Linux doesnt recognize it if you plug it into the usb which in itself really isn't a big deal I just pop the card out and put in the reader.

For $70 bucks I'm not complaining :D

Olympus c3000

Takes standard AA batteries oh though I use the Energizer 2500 MaH nih batteries which seem to last pretty long
 
Thanks for all of the info folks, we really do appreciate it.

Greg, that comparo of the three Canon cameras is right on, I guess it is now between the G9 and the PowerShot S5 IS, they are very similar, with the main differences things I could live with, price wise, the G9 is about $410 and the S5 IS is about $290 :dunno:

Frank, the Sony camera we have is the DSC-P7 ......

so_p7f.jpg

Not a bad little camera, and it still works on occasion, but at 3.2 mega pixels, my cell phone has that much now :rolleyes: :D

The Sony Memory sticks it uses are the older larger ones, I don't think they fit in the newer cameras.

I do like the idea of using the SD cards, we have readers for SD cards on all of the computers.

Again, thanks for the info guys! :wave:
 
Yeah, thanks Greg, we did that too with that website.

I have to say, it is really a tough choice, all four are good, if not great cameras, and I'm sure that they would all serve well, but you really do not know if one is that much better than the others until you use it for a while :dunno:

For me, the biggest drawback of the Canon G9 is the 6x zoom, our old Sony camera had 6x zoom, and for taking pics of the kids at sports day, or such, it was NO WHERE near enough zoom. The other three have 12x or 18x zoom, though the review of the Panasonic DMC-FZ18 says that the 18x zoom is great, but it suffers at the extreme, so I do not know if that is much of an advantage over the 12x zoom....

Lots of questions!

I was not thrilled about the Olympus range of cameras, as they use the "xD" media for storage, everything I have is SD compatible :doh:

But then I noticed this camera

OlyE420-001.jpg
Olympus E420 <<

Sure looks like one heck of a good camera, and it is actually lighter than most of the "Bridge" cameras, while being an actual digital SLR :rolleyes:

:dunno:
 
The E420 looks like it would hit all the points both of you are looking for. I'm assuming it accepts other lenses in addition to the pancake lens?
 
:thumb: I agree, that Olympus looks really nice. Interesting they are using/expanding on "all digital lenses". I didn't realize the characteristics you have with "film lens" were different.

What's the price with the standard 25mm lens, Stu?
 
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