there are days when im just too lazy to bring out my DSLR and so i am looking to buy a compact camera that has
-a wide angle lens,
-with probable controllable flash (i used a ricoh gr before and though its an excellent excelent camera, the flash wasnt fantastic). i just need the flash to look evened out in pictures and not washed out or over exposed.
-manual features.
i own an old sony dsc75 buts its too bulky.
im looking at the leica dlux2 but want to check out canon or other options. You sound just like me, so I'll tell you what I bought to solve the same problem. I'm very happy with my choice. There's a link here for some other cameras that you might consider, as well. I wanted manual controls, also, but finally admitted that, if I wanted manual controls, I'd just take a dSLR with me in the first place. My wife has a D50, which is a bit smaller than my D200, so I'd just go with that if I wanted to be "less obvious" and still wanted manual control. You know what? That never happens anyhow. The SD900 that I bought allows exposure compensation, which is about half-way towards manual control and it also allows you to lock a meter reading on one subject and recompose, which is a way of tricking the camera if you want to deviate from the meter reading of your intended subject.
After answering questions here for about 8 months, I finally decided to get a Canon Powershot SD900. I was going to buy the SD700-IS as I think it is a great camera and a few respected members own it and recommend it highly, but they were out of stock everywhere and it gave me time to re-think my purchase. This is going to be a pocket camera to use when I don't want to carry one of my SLR's with me, but I still want really great image quality from the camera. Anyhow, after months and months of reading reviews, the SD900 was my top choice. I found a review in Popular Photography the day after I ordered my Canon that suggests that maybe the Pentax Optio A20 would have been a better choice, but, I'm happy with my purchase. The Pentax does have shake reduction, so that's a plus, but I doubt this will be necessary in a camera that only zooms to an equivalent of 114 mm.
Go here to see the comparison article on 5 compact camera and see what you think. If you really don't want to read reviews, I am still happy that I am got the Canon SD900 and this would be my recommendation for anyone at this point, since it is what I chose for myself. I ordered from B&H Photo where the price is $345 (today) for the SD900.
http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/3471/hig... Click on the name of each camera to read a detailed review.
After about one month of using the SD900, I am so happy with it that I bought one to give to my niece as an engagement present. I am that confident in the camera.
I also bought a 5-year Mack warranty for $50. If you are even a little paranoid or clutzy, I feel that it is money well-spent. These are somewhat delicate compared to SLR's.
Here is a comparison page with all five 10 MP cameras mentioned in the PopPhoto article. Click on "In-depth review" and "Read Owner Opinions" for each camera. Be sure to note that the reviews are many pages long so you don't stop after page one. Check the sample images, also. You can enlarge these to full size images if you click on the link below the picture. You will have to then put your cursor in the white space to the right of the picture and click once. After that, you can pass your cursor over the image and it will turn into a magnifier. Click it as a magnifier once and the image will go to full size and you can really examine the detail or look for artifacts like fringing or noise.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_...
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_revi...
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canonsd9...
http://www.cameras.co.uk/camera-reviews/...
Here is one photo I put on-line that I took with the SD900. Click on "All Sizes" and view this as large as possible and check out the birds. This was taken right after sunset and there were no enhancements in afterprocessing.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7189769@N04...
Here's another photo with no post-processing at all. It was taken at the full 111 mm (equiv) zoom. It was taken in the fully automatic mode with no help from me at all. The horizon is crooked because the camera was resting on the top of my car. I did not want to alter anything, because this is part of a 3-image series comparing optical zoom with cropping to digital zoom. You can look at the other pictures while you are there and see why optical zoom is all that matters.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7189769@N04...
While you are at Flickr, look at the first photo on my home page that compares the SD900 and SD700-IS, which I think is a pretty good camera, also. It has 4X optical zoom (35-140 mm), image stabilization and 6 MP. I bought one for my daughter's birthday and I played around with it for a couple of days before I gave it to her. I was going to get this model for myself, but it was simply sold out everywhere for a couple of months when I was ready to buy. Maybe I should have waited...
I did a series of side-by-side tests to compare the SD700-IS and the SD900, just to see if I was still happy with my camera. The SD700-IS compares very favorably. Personally, I chose the SD900 images, but another "top contributor" here prefered the SD700-IS images. I found that I could use the "Vivid Colors" setting in the SD900 to get the "snap" that he liked better in the SD700-IS.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7189769@N04...
It costs $300, has good zoom range and the image stabilization to go with it. It's SMALL and good looking. Great LCD and it still has an optical viewfinder.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canonsd7...
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_revi...
(In Europe, this same camera is known as the IXUS 800 IS, so don't let the label on the camera confuse you. This is NOT the SD800-IS, which is known in Europe as the IXUS 850 IS.)
You said that you are looking for a wide angle lens, so someone might suggest the SD800-IS, which has a wider lens than the SD700-IS. I would disagree. The SD800-IS has a slightly wider angle lens, but the reviews say, "there is a slight, but noticeable drop off in sharpness towards the edges and corners in some circumstances." Also, the SD800-IS only zooms to an equivalent of 105 mm while the SD700-IS goes to 140 mm. |
