Any suggestions, Iv'e been looking at the SD900,SD870IS for her, I gave her my 30D which she loves, however she wants something that she can take in her purse that she says she does'nt have to lug around
You can find one under $300 and does almost everything you need. The 3" LCD is great, makes a 2.5" look small. G9 is too big and bulky for a purse, more like a back up camera for a pro.
Bill Lubing wrote:
S3 or S5. Great little camera with a 12X zoom. Easy to shoot with, AA batteries last forever, IS, and shoots decent video in a pinch.
Thanks for the input, like the G9 the S3-5 is a little on the big side for her purse, I'm talking she wants a small camera like the SD870,900,950 etc.
If I had the need, and the spare cash, for a digicompact, I'd get a Fujifilm F31fd. No contest really, because I love doing low light/available light shots.
It's "only" 6 mpixel, but because of that, and because of the bigger-than-usual for a digicompact 1/1.7" Super CCD, it beats any digicompact at high ISO settings. ISO 800 is perfectly usable, 1600 is doable, and 3200 is there for emergency situations and snapshots where noise is no big deal.
The flash system is flexible, it can do double shots, one at high ISO, the other with flash, so you can select the shot that turns out best, and it is able to hold back the flash and raise ISO, so you get much better balanced shots.
Phil Askey puts it like this, along with his Highly Recommended rating:
Unlike so many manufacturers that produce amazing cameras with average sensors, Fuji has an amazing sensor and - to be brutally honest - an average camera. As with the F30 this is a camera that wins a Highly Recommended only if you regularly shoot in low light - if you only ever take pictures in blazing sunshine there are competitors with far more impressive feature lists or lower prices. But you just can't take away from Fuji the fact that - at this moment in time - this unassuming little 6MP camera still sets the benchmark for image quality in the entire compact sector. It's also a surprisingly reliable 'point and shoot' model with excellent color and accurate focus/metering in most circumstances....Show more →
Tentacle wrote:
If I had the need, and the spare cash, for a digicompact, I'd get a Fujifilm F31fd. No contest really, because I love doing low light/available light shots.
It's "only" 6 mpixel, but because of that, and because of the bigger-than-usual for a digicompact 1/1.7" Super CCD, it beats any digicompact at high ISO settings. ISO 800 is perfectly usable, 1600 is doable, and 3200 is there for emergency situations and snapshots where noise is no big deal.
The flash system is flexible, it can do double shots, one at high ISO, the other with flash, so you can select the shot that turns out best, and it is able to hold back the flash and raise ISO, so you get much better balanced shots.
Phil Askey puts it like this, along with his Highly Recommended rating:
canerino wrote:
i never used this camera, but recommended it to two people. they LOVE it. those two people bought one for each of their parents who LOVE it.
This camera is hard to find and over priced IMHO, how about the F50
This camera is hard to find and over priced IMHO, how about the F50?
Speaking for myself, I'd go the extra mile to get the F31. Why? High ISO performance. The F50 pries 12 mpixel from a 1/1.6" ratio sensor. It goes up to ISO 1600 after which it resorts to pixel binning to get ISO 3200 and ISO 6400.
Whereas the F30 and F31 will take 6 Mpixel (which is more than enough for the kind of shots I'd use a digicompact for) from a slightly smaller 1/1.7" sensor. More surface area per pixel translates into less noise. And lo and behold, the F30/31 will do a full stop better. User reports show that you don't really want to take the F50 beyond ISO 400, whereas ISO 800 on the F30/31 isn't a problem.
The SD cameras are great and tough little units, I had a 750 i think, the first one that was 7.1 megapixels with the smaller screen on the back I gave mine all the abuse I did not want to expose to my DSLR too , whether it be snow machining mud digging skiing, it took it with ease, it even handled two fairly major wrecks, one a rollover on a snow machine, the second a tip over on an atv into a creek. It finally gave up the ghost when it fell overboard into the surf at an ocean. I was able to recover it, dried out with a hair dryer and it powered up and came back to life but the CCD had some major banding issues after that and I retired it.
By the time it was done its outer casing was quite ugly, but what im saying is if it can handle me, itll do great in a purse!
it takes great pictures also, some of the more exceptional shots it has taken I have posted up next to my DSLR prints and it fits in with the lot.
First as long as you realize these cameras are good at the beach / bright sun with low iso's I recommend almost all of the Kodak P/S (easy interface, good auto modes) along with the canon digital elph cameras. Non have RAW, anything above iso 100 is bad, lenses are S L O W, the flash systems are horrible. Some of the newer ones are shock and water proof to 15 feet (aka 5 meters). I go for cheap with 35-100 zoom eq, anything around 4-6 Mp. Good luck.
Someone once asked me what was the best camera. After thinking about it for a bit, I answered "The one you happen to have handy when you need to take a picture" I say that because I have a 5D and a mitfull of L lenses but they are collectively so large and heavy that when I'm not on a job I rarely have a camera with me.
My wife has the S3IS and its a nice camera but you're right about the bulk factor, it's large enough that far too often she doesn't have it with her when she needs it, which has me also looking for alternatives. The two cameras listed above seem to fit the bill on the compact side and she really doesn't need anything in the way of 'pro' features.
My wife uses Fuji F10, which is a few generation older than F30. Not as good as F30 for ISO, but good enough for her use... You can probably find it around $100 used.
My girlfriend refused to admit she needed an upgrade from her years-old 3 mp Kodak point and shoot, and she's studying abroad this semester in Japan so I decided I had to buy her something respectable before she went. I would have gone for one of the G-series but they are too expensive. I also didn't have any time to do a lot of research and find a good deal online, so I had to buy what was available in local stores. If they have a sale going on, they are competitive with online places.
I got her the SD1000, which radical just linked to a review of. It was a great price on sale and it's a very nice camera. High ISO is pretty awful, but not totally unusable. If you read the F31fd review on dpreview linked earlier, they compare the noise on that to one of the Canon SD series and the difference is ridiculous. Seeing some of her pictures from Japan with the camera reveals that it's mostly her lack of experience and practice with photography that is holding back the images, not the camera - it's easy to try to push any P&S past its abilities.
Anyway, she loves it and it's stylish and very small. She wanted to not just have it floating around in her purse, so I got her a Crumpler "Thirsty Al" camera case which attaches to the outside of a purse, and she likes that.
I would seriously consider one of the IS models, though; I imagine that would be really useful to avoid the all too common and really awful blurry look that comes from these cameras when used indoors.
My parents have a couple of Kodak P&Ss; my uncle was the head of a research division at Kodak here in Rochester (he retired when digital started taking off) so I think they have some brand loyalty - however, while they are easy to use (they are called easyshare, after all), I am weary about recommending them. I just didn't like using them and the results. Of course, I don't think I'd truly like using any P&S, which is why I have an SLR.
My wife uses the Panasonic LX2 (D Lux-3 at a discount)
28mm wide end but short zoom
OIS Image stabiliser
Leica glass
16:9, 3:2 and 4:3 aspect ratios
we locked the ISO to 100, put in a 4gb SD card and she shoots RAW+jpeg for huge file sizes
90% of the time the in camera Jpegs are more than sufficient for her, but on the odd occasion she has it slightly wrong the raw files can save the day. for exceptional shots I can take the raw file and make good shots even better
when asked I always recommend F31 or LX2 depending on the low light requirement
I see that noone has mentioned the Canon A series. Compared to the Canon SD series, the A series cameras are a bit more bulky, but they give you more "advanced" options, like aperture priority or shutter priority (Av and Tv). I just like to have those options, they give me more control over the camera. If your wife doesn't need this, then you can save her same space in the purse by getting an SD.
I say that because I have a 5D and a mitfull of L lenses but they are collectively so large and heavy that when I'm not on a job I rarely have a camera with me.