The Canon is a 4MP digital camera with 4X optical zoom and 3.6 digital zoom and the Sony Cyber-Shot is a 6MP digital camera with a 3X optical zoom with a 6X digital zoom....??? THX In general a long optical zoom is much better then a long digital zoom (digital zoom degrades pictures)
4 mp is enough pixels for 95% of things that people want a camera for.
I would go for the canon as I also like the build better then the Sony.
Go for the Canon A530 instead and you have a very nice camera sounds like the sony cybershot. the higher the megapixels, the better the picture. although it has a smaller optical zoom, it has a much better digital zoom. dunno the difference, but the numbers are higher, so go with those! It would make more sense to compare the Sony to the Canon Powershot A530. Check out this page:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_...
At least the sensors are the same size. The A430's is smaller.
Ignore digital zoom, as it is useless. Compare actual focal lengths of the lenses. The Canon goes from 35-to-140 mm and the Sony goes from 38-to-114 mm. 35 and 38 are practically the same, but 140 is quite a jump up from 114, so you could zoom in closer. The Sony Zeiss lens, is excellent quality, though.
The Canon uses "AA" batteries, which might come in handy in a pinch.
The owner opinions seem about the same.
Read Steve's reviews here:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_revi...
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_revi...
Steve suggests getting the W50 for only $20 more, because it has a bigger LCD. This might drain the battery faster, though. | 