I am looking for a good 'point and shoot' digital camera, but can't seem to make up my mind. I am looking for a camera with:
- good digital and regular zoom (prefer 5x or 4x)
- high ISO (for taking pictures at concerts, so around 1800)
- great image quality (of course) in low and high light
- under $400CAD (including tax)
- 7.1 mg pixels or higher
So far, I've looked at Olympus FE240, Fuji FinePix F40 fd and Canon PowerShot SD750 but not sure if these are good choices to begin with. Please help!!
Thanks. Some advices:
- Don't pay attention to the digital zoom feature, it's next to useless: it means that the actual pixels captured by the sensor are digitally enlarged, to... well, to _appear_ larger, but without adding any further detail; and there are many programs that will enlarge pictures with far better (visual) quality than the camera's internal digital zoom. Optical zoom is fine, digital zoom is not.
- Many cameras could go as high as ISO 10000 (and some actually do), and it would be essentially as useless as digital zoom: it's an electronic amplification, not exactly as crude as that of the digital zoom, but still. The important thing is that the camera has a good image quality, with as little noise as possible, at any ISO sensitivity.
That said, the Fujifilm F40fd is by far the best camera, for low-light situations, of those you mentioned; the Canon SD750 doesn't even come close and, as for the Olympus, it's largely out of the question if you want a minimum quality at anything over ISO 400 (if the camera goes that high, and I don't think I care if it does). The only problem, as far as matching your requirements, is that it has a 3x optical zoom.
May I recommend the Fuji E900 instead? It has 4x optical zoom alright, and an ISO performance equal, if not better, than the F40fd's, as well as many more manual control options: manual exposure and focus, RAW format, etc. It only goes as far as ISO 800, I think, but that should be enough for most situations, and there are tricks to effectively 鈥減ush鈥?the ISO sensitivity beyond that, if necessary.
Then there's the Fuji S6000fd: it matches all your specifications (10x zoom, high ISO, good ISO performance, goot image & optical quality, full manual controls), except that it is a 6 megapixel camera... but you might find that that's more than enough, especially considering that you always can use its more powerful zoom to 鈥渃oom closer鈥?to the scene, and thus maximize the image quality, without needing to crop the image in post-processing. About the only real problem it has, is that it's obviously larger, because you just can't have that much zoom and ISO performance in a small, pocket camera. Keep in mind that megapixel's are no good without A decent image processor...for instance I would rather take my Kodak V550 over an olympus anyday but for my money the Kodak V803 or V1003 does the trick! sony cybershot 299.99 on sonystyle.com
I just bought one and I love it =)
Here is some info on it:
Stylish Color in Ultra-Slim Dimensions
With sleek metallic case white, the DSC-T20 makes a dramatic fashion statement that fits any lifestyle -- and also fits easily into your pocket, briefcase, purse or handbag, so you鈥檒l always have a great little Sony Cyber-Shot庐 camera on hand to save your memories.
8.1 MP Super HAD鈩?CCD
More megapixels give you more detail and definition when you make big prints or crop in tight on your subject. The advanced Sony庐 Super HAD鈩?(Hole Accumulated Diode) CCD design allows more light to pass to each pixel, increasing sensitivity and reducing noise.
Carl Zeiss庐 3X Optical Zoom Lens Design
An ingenious Carl Zeiss庐 lens design provides 3X Optical zoom in amazingly compact dimensions -- and even at full zoom the lens doesn鈥檛 project beyond the camera body, preserving its ultra-slim styling.
Face Detection-2
By automatically controlling focus, exposure, color and flash, this new Sony feature reveals faces in shadow, makes skin tones look more natural and eliminates harsh facial glare -- to help bring out every expression on every face in every shot, so you鈥檒l capture the personalities and emotions that make memories come alive.
The Sony Double Anti-Blur Solution
With Super SteadyShot庐 Image Stabilization and high sensitivity (ISO 3200), the DSC-T20 compensates for shaky hands, minimizes blur, brightens images and allows flash-free shooting to preserve the mood -- and Sony Clear RAW鈩?Noise Reduction reduces the picture noise that can ruin low-light shots.
HD Output1
Thanks to Sony, your photo album can go high-def -- with direct HD output1 to your HDTV screen, so you can view DSC-T20 still photos in spectacular high definition clarity and detail. Your life never looked so exciting!
HD Slide Show with Music
It鈥檚 the high-definition viewing experience that makes photos come alive on HDTV screens, accompanied by your choice of visual effects and any of four preset musical selections stored in memory or your favorite MP3 tunes downloaded from PC to your camera for use as background music.
9-Point Auto Focus
Because an off-center subject can make your shot more interesting, the DSC-T20 can measure auto-focus precision at 9 points on your screen -- giving you greater creative freedom to compose your image.
D-Range Optimization
The DSC-T20 lets you add creative effects to photos after you shoot -- including soft edge filter to soften backgrounds, cross filter to place starry 鈥渄azzles鈥?at highlight points, partial color filter to mute surrounding colors, even fish-eye filter to create interesting fish-eye lens effects.
In-Camera Red-Eye Reduction
Irritating 鈥済lowing eyes鈥?can ruin even the most creative photos -- so the DSC-T20 provides in-camera correction at the touch of a button to reduce lingering red-eye effect that other systems might miss.
2.5鈥? Clear Photo LCD Plus鈩?Screen
With its Clear Photo LCD Plus鈩?design, the big, bright 2.5鈥? screen of the DSC-T20 makes photos look more natural when you鈥檙e sharing on location -- and gives you adjustable brightness for viewing even in bright sunlight.
Simple Setup Controls
A quick press of the Home button opens your user-friendly GUI -- and you can select functions by simply moving a cursor vertically or horizontally to the appropriate icon. Function names and the on-screen Function Guide display make it easier to learn camera setup operations.
31 MB Internal Memory
The DSC-T20 allows you to capture a large number of images without a flash memory card, so it鈥檚 great for traveling or for quick candid snapshots.
Memory Stick Duo鈩?Media Convenience
A built-in slot accepts optional Memory Stick Duo鈩?media or Memory Stick PRO Duo鈩?media -- the compact, high-capacity storage media that make it easily to upload photos to your computer or make lab-quality prints at home on your Sony Picture Station鈩?digital printer (sold separately).
15X Smart Zoom庐 Feature4
The Sony Smart Zoom庐 feature intelligently 鈥渃rops into鈥?the central portion of interest in your photo, avoiding the image degradation of other digital zooms.
MPEG Movie VX Fine Mode
Captures VGA (640 x 480) audio/video clips at high frame rate (up to 30 frames per second5), with length limited only by the capacity of your media.
Stamina庐 Battery Power
The DSC-T20 provides up to 380 shots3 with a fully charged NP-BG1 Lithium Ion battery -- enough shooting capacity to cover a long weekend or a whole vacation.
Picture Motion Browser Software
Supplied software makes it easier to upload, organize and search photos on your PC -- and provides a convenient map view function to sort photos by location and display their origin on a world map by using an optional GPS unit. sony's
cybershot
youll love it I really don't have the answer for you, but I can assure you great image quality at ISO 1800 you won't get. At 1800 it would be much too grainy. Maybe we have a huge difference of opinion of what great image quality is,haha. I really believe buying a camera is an individual choice.
The person needs to read alot of reviews on cameras and learn as much as they can from the internet.
Go to the store and hold them and try them to see what they feel like and how they take pictures.
I can only give a suggestion of what to look for in a new digital camera.
Good Luck
my suggestion
go to yahoo shopping
digital cameras
digital camera GUIDE
be sure to check titles on the left side
the guide should answer your questions you can find some great deals this time of year. year end sales..holiday sales..new model..old models out. we just picked up a cam canon a710is..its 7.1 mp..big lcd screen.6x optical zoom.all those modes.. tkaes recharge batteries or reg.remeber DIGITAL zoom is really crap to sell the cam..optical is what your looking for. anyways..this was under $200 as a closeout |
