Help with choosing a digital camera, please...

[skiHOG]

I have posted this a few times, but at the end of May I am heading to NZ for the winter season and then staying around for the summer to do some tramping. I am in the market for a digital camera to help document this trip, but with so many cameras to choose from I have no clue where to look or even what I should be looking for. Obviously, I will be taking it with to ski mountains to hopefully do TRs, but I will also have it when I go tramping or just randomly traveling around the South Island. I definately know I want at least 4 megapixel. It needs to be small, smaller than a SLR camera, so it's easy to carry and not too much of a hassle seeing how I will have to carry all of my other shit with me as well. Not too sure about the zoom; most digi cameras have a 3x zoom, but I might want more than that. I have also heard that shutter lag is an issue with digital cameras, and ones with quite a bit of shutter lag tend to take blurry/noisy pictures. If I'm going to spend several hundred dollars I want to make sure this thing is going to take good pictures.

Any suggestions or places to look would help a lot. Or, if anyone here has a camera that they have been happy with or willing to recommend that would be helpful, too.

[Grange]

We got my mother a Cannon A95 for Christmas. 5 megapixel camera that is smaller than a SLR. Takes very nice pictures, but it only has 3X optical zoom. I forget what the digital zoom is. We decided on this camera because she can still play around with shutter speed, focal length and other features. It's not as customizable as a SLR but you can get a few different lens such as wide angle. Its little screen also pops out is able to be rotated, which is a nice little feature.

I saw this camera as cheap as $288 on zipzoomfly.com with free 2nd day shipping.

[jonski]

Second the A95...

Had the same situation as you, and was recommend to look at it by other mags too.

Have been playing with it at home and, so far, only slight downside (if you can call it one considering the price!) is the number of frames per second (fps) in the drive mode.

Otherwise, I can't fault it yet. Although if you have more cash (this was the decider for me) the G6 is that extra step up....and should be way more camera than you would need.

Oh, and don't worry about the zoom too much - 3x is enough for most things, and digital zoom will just screw with the picture quality if you rely on it too much

check this out too: dp review

[shmerham]

Is this going in a jacket pocket or do you want it to go in some jeans too?

If jacket is your only requirement you have a lots of options, if you want to carry around in your jeans, you'll want an ultracompact. There are a few that take decent photos with 3x and 4mp.

[lemon boy]

just ordered a nikon 5200.

butterfly photo has em for 214 after rebate. 3xzoom, lots of other stuff. Got decent reviews.

[SkiingBear]

I've been using the Sony P-100 through the winter and have been incredibly happy. It's a 5 megapixel. I bought it after using my buddy's, he picked it up right after it's release in the US...did a bunch of research and decided on it. My other buddy has the P-150 which steps up to 7 megapixel. I've noticed very little/no shutter lag...when I want the pic I push the button and it's there. Also like the burst mode to get 8 pics in series (I think most cameras wil do that) One of the best features is full speed video. You can set the fps rate for more vid for the memory or for better quality vid. If I remember right, it's not cheap and you're gonna wanna blow some more money to step up to a bigger memory stick, but it's been so worth it. I think one of the only cons to it might be size, it's just that right size that I'll probably lose it someday.

If you're wondering about the pics, all pics in my TRs this year have been taken with either the 100 or the 150...just check my posts and you'll see them. Of course, the pics have been reduced by a lot to get them posted, but you'll get the idea.

[Big Blue]

Try here.

I personally own a casio Z50. Great camera for my uses, which sound similar to yours.

Pros: Size (about the size of a deck of cards), Zoom (3x), shutter lag (none), battery life (390 pictures on one charge), 5MP

Cons: Not a lot of stuff you can control, not a ton of zoom

Summary: It fits easily in any pocket so you'll always have it. Bulky cameras tend to get left behind on adventures. You can hold just about as many pictures on a 1GB card (<$100 on pricegrabber) as the camera will take on a full charge (390 at full resolution/quality). I've gone on a week long trip and not even bothered to bring the charger. It's pretty competitively priced (<$260 on PG), and it has no shutter lag so great for ski photos. I'd highly recommend it, but check out the site above to see what fits your uses best.

[backpack]

if you have more cash (this was the decider for me) the G6 is that extra step up....and should be way more camera than you would need.

check this out too: dp review

I have the G6 (bought it to replace my G2) and it's a great camera, though its "drive mode" is only about 1.6 FPS, so shooting fast action takes some practice. It takes great photos and if you pre-focus it has almost no shutter lag.

It is also fairly large... it's not a pocketable-type camera. Much smaller than an SLR but much larger than, say, an SD400. It also has amazing battery life, though, due to its large standard camcorder-type battery.

I'd personally shy away from sony, fuji, or olympus cameras that use memory stick or XD flash memory cards, if only because then you lock yourself into buying non-standard media and if you move to any other camera maker you'll have to buy new memory cards. Not to mention that both the original Memory Sticks and Smart Media cards (precursors to the MSPro and XD formats) were limited to 128MB capacities by poor design. CF and SD have not had any such problems and are open formats that most manufacturers use and can be utilized in PDAs, cell phones, etc.

Also, SD seems to be slowly replacing CF, and you can use SD cards in a CF slot with an adapter, so I personally recommend getting the adapter and then using SD cards if you get a CF camera.

dpreview is a good place to go for info

[skiHOG]

Is this going in a jacket pocket or do you want it to go in some jeans too?

If jacket is your only requirement you have a lots of options, if you want to carry around in your jeans, you'll want an ultracompact. There are a few that take decent photos with 3x and 4mp.

It will probably be in a jacket pocket or in my backpack. I know that getting a digital SLR is not an option....way too big for what I'm going for.

I appreciate all the recommendations. As of right now I am looking at the Canon A95 and the Canon SD500. I have also considered the Nikon Coolpix 5200/5400/5700(something around 5MP), and the Minolta Z3/Z5, but I heard the Z3/Z5 has a lot of noise in it's pictures and has a noticeable shutter lag.

[backpack]

Canon SD500

The guy sitting next to me on the plane had one of those. It is tiny. The lens extended so fast he jumped. I want one.

[Grange]

It will probably be in a jacket pocket or in my backpack. I know that getting a digital SLR is not an option....way too big for what I'm going for.

I appreciate all the recommendations. As of right now I am looking at the Canon A95 and the Canon SD500. I have also considered the Nikon Coolpix 5200/5400/5700(something around 5MP), and the Minolta Z3/Z5, but I heard the Z3/Z5 has a lot of noise in it's pictures and has a noticeable shutter lag.

I had a Minolta SLR and the damn thing broke on me after a year while I was on vacation. The lens went first then the body shortly after. I hope the digital cameras fair better than the film cameras.

[fondigley]

I just picked up a Nikon Coolpix 4800. I can't complain too much. The battery lasts forever, the zoom is 8x optical which is why I got it cause that is one thing a lot of people bitch about, not enough zoom. All the features you really can ask for. Slightly bigger than some of the latest super compact pocket size cameras, but still fits fine in my pockets. Only 4 mega pixel, but it seems to be plenty. Read some reviews on cameras, but I couldn't find one on my camera before I bought it. I haven't played with it on actions shots too much, but it says there is a great mode for it. Found it at www.buydig.com

[Obstruction]

It will probably be in a jacket pocket or in my backpack. I know that getting a digital SLR is not an option....way too big for what I'm going for.

I appreciate all the recommendations. As of right now I am looking at the Canon A95 and the Canon SD500. I have also considered the Nikon Coolpix 5200/5400/5700(something around 5MP), and the Minolta Z3/Z5, but I heard the Z3/Z5 has a lot of noise in it's pictures and has a noticeable shutter lag.

I'll add my vote for the A95. I have an A85 (bought before prices dropped) and like it a lot, the shot quality has been great and there is enough information in the picture to zoom and crop. I also have a G5 at the office for PR shots and its what drove me to get the A85. The G6 which replaced the G5 looks sweet but as backpack mentioned, its not made for pocket packing. From the way you describe your needs the A95 looks like it would fit the bill. It's is a nice simple, versatile and reliable camera. One other note, the A85 I own get outstanding battery life. Every other digital camera I have owned sucked batterys dry in about 50-70 shots this one goes on forever and drains very slowly when not in use.

Good luck and post some pics.

[SkiingBear]

If you're willing to go $500 on the Canon SD500, take a look at the P150...you'll be sold on it just like me.

Sony DSC-P150

[Grange]

I just read about the Cannon Powershot S2 IS. Damn thing sounds nice. 12X optical zoom, 5 megapixel, able to take up to an hour of video, and it has digital sound. It uses SD memory too. It is supposed to be available in June and retail for around $500.

I was leaning toward the A95 but may have to increase my budget for this camera. Too bad it won't be available until after my trip to the Boundary Waters (Quetico Park Actually).

[SLCFreshies]

I looked at both the Canon SD500 ($499) and the Sony DSC-P200 ($399). They're both 7 megapixel, compact, and have 2-inch LCDs. The Sony has better battery life than the Canon, and it displays the battery-time remaining, which is incredibly useful. The Sony also has a "sports" mode with a fast shutter to catch action. The Canon is a bit sturdier, and it seems to focus more reliably.

I ultimately got the Sony because I didn't think the Canon was worth $100 more. Also, the SD500 has been getting rather mediocre reviews, while the Sony has been more well-recieved.

EDIT: The P200 is the successor to the P150 mentioned by SkiingBear.

[backpack]

If you want side-by-side features for the canon and sony:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/comp...cp200&show=all


The biggest difference I see is in the continuous mode, where the canon gets 2.0 FPS until your memory card fills up while the Sony gets 0.6 FPS for 5 frames. I suspect the faster processor/larger cache in the canon is the primary reason for the price difference.

To quote DP review on the SD500:

"not only does the SD500 manage to maintain a good 2.0 frames per second at most file sizes and quality settings, the buffering is so fast that you can shoot pretty much indefinitely, even at the top 7MP/Super Fine setting, as long as you have a fast enough SD card. It seems impossible to fill the buffer when using a fast card, meaning you can keep shooting for as long as you have the battery power and card capacity to do so."

Also, I hate the whole memory stick thing. And the xD picture card. Proprietary memory formats suck, especially when they're slower and less flexible than the standard.