Looking for a new point and shoot camera
I love my Canon PowerShot A620. But, it's on it's way out. I've had it for 4 years and with several drops and being covered over and over again in wet snow or blasted with dirt/dust... it's just had it. It's tired.
So, I'm looking for a new point and shoot camera. Actually, I've been kind of keeping my eye out for a year or so now. But, the things I love about my A620 seem to be non-existent in point and shoot cameras anymore. Maybe you folks could help me out.
What I love:
-custom setting so I can just having it set default on continous shooting for action shots
- swivel LCD screen so I can use it or not when I want, saves battery power, can also swivel it around to take pics when I can't actually see what I'm taking a pic of
- view finder- because using the LCD for action shots is impossible as the skier/biker usually goes faster than the LCD can keep up with
So, I've noticed that most point-and-shoot cameras don't have these things anymore. My main concern is that they don't seem to have view finder. Photogs- How do the new screens work with action shots? Do that have a lag time? Can you actually see the screen on a sunny day?
Any recommendations for a camera? Yeah, I can pay $500 for a Canon G12 that has these things. But, I paid $150 for the A620 in 2006. So, it seems odd that I would have to pay $500 now. I am looking for a camera that fits easily into a pocket that takes a variety of good pics, has easy settings that can be adjusted on the fly, has continuous shooting, and is good for action shots....
Any advice is welcome, please! And if there is a thread on this already, please point me to the right direction. I searched for one, but could not find it... Thanks!
Canon G12 -v- Nikon P7000
From the comments section of http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...hread=37237297 - the OP's review is a joke:
Quote:
Performance is still the main issue. IQ is about evens. While the Raw write times have improved on the P7000, it is still nearly twice as slow.
When you go from playback to shooting by half pressing the shutter, it takes about two seconds longer for the Nikon to get it's LCD to brighten up to view the scene in front of you.
AF is about on a par now. But going into the menus is real slow on the Nikon. And you will have to do so often as the ISOs are buried in there. The ISO Auto implementation is ancient and what you would have found on the 3 year old Fuji F30. Even the Fuji F31 had a ISO Auto 800 and 1600. The Nikon stops at ISO400. The G12's ISO Auto is a lot more usable in real world shooting and now you can have a say in how fast it bumbs it up too.
The G12's LCD is cool being articulated, but I find the P7000's OVF a lot better to use for framing. Battery life is pretty good on both cams, so no problems here. The two areas where the Nikon trouces the G12 (and the reason I bought it) is the extra reach out to 200mm which is quite sharp, and for it's video. The video is pretty good, and you can zoom and AF during video which is excellent. The G12's video is a joke by comparison and so was the G9's. And the P7000 was about 1 stop better in high ISO performance over the G9 which spelled the end of this lovely camera for me.
There are my thoughts in a nutshell. I bought the P7000 first, with concert photography in mind. I waited to see if they would fix the performance issues with a firmware to use the Nikon as an everyday cam also. But after downloading the firmware, I found that they only addressed half the issues in performance. The slow access to the menus, the slow recovery times from playback, the bad ISO Auto implemtation, the poor custom and funtion button, left me real frustrated to use the P7000 as a day to day camera. Hence why I bought the G12.
If you want a good everyday walkaround camera and are willing to give up the 140-200mm range....it's hard to beat the G12. Probably one of the best G's I have used to date having owned the G7,9, and 10.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS2 P/S - Waterproof!
Besides my digital SLR (Canon 40D), I've have several Canon G series camera's including the G2, G7, G9, and most recently the G12. I photograph wildlife and scenery with my digital SLR but use the G series for sports oriented photography - mountaineering, climbing, skiing, and Mtn Biking. The fps is an important spec, esp. for skiing, and I always want the best IQ I can get.
Due to the potential damage of pocketing a camera while skiing or climbing, I recently purchased a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS2. It is waterproof, shock proof, dust proof, and freeze proof. Condensation can be a problem for a digital camera, e.g. when walking into the lodge after skiing (the solution is put the camera in a ziplock bag before entering the lodge) but it is not a problem with the Panasonic - in fact you could drop it in the snow. Similarly, when rock climbing, I hang the Panasonic from my harness and don't worry about it getting knocked around (a bit). However, while on the ground, I still use the G12.
There are several competing cameras in this category from Canon, Pentax, Olympus, etc. All of them have compromises on IQ and fps and in researching the market with www.DPreview.com or www.imaging-resource.com, I found the Panasonic to be the clear winner.
Bottom line the Panasonic won't replace the G12 or digital SLR but it is very convenient for sports, especially in good light. The fps is about 1.8 fps. Here is pic using the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS2 from just a couple weeks ago.
Good hunting!
http://live.tetongravity.com/_Pebble...852/75233.html
