DSLRUsers.com

hope this thread hasn't been done to death but am looking to get an ultra slim p&s cam. just want a small camera for going out and party shots that can print decent 4x6 maybe 6x8 but mainly for emailing/web. and looking to spend $4-600. only looking at ultra slim cameras. have been looking at the casio exilim s600 and sony dsc-t10. does anyone have any experience with these cameras or can suggest any other ulta slilm p&s cameras? tia

Jerry,

Avoid Sony.

Have you looked at the Canon offerings in this market? I think you may find some very worthy contenders there.

we just bought my wife a Canon Ixus 65, for about $500, including 100 free prints and a free photography course.

that sounds really commercial!!! sorry.

but anyway, she's really happy with it, it's really tiny, fits in her handbag and she doesn't even notice that it's there. Being the DSLR user in the family, I find it limiting, the flash gives nice washed out faces etc, but the missus is more than happy with the photos it produces.

My advice is to go for something with WIDE ANGLE

Canon, Panasonic & Ricoh should have a wide angle P&S from memory.

cya

I've been using the feature search at DPReview for this as I'm also looking for something like this. If I plug in "under $600, wider than 28mm and stablised" I get four cameras:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX07
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX50
Canon PowerShot SD800 IS / IXUS 850IS
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp

Checking the reviews I decided that the Panasonics have too much noise to be usable, and the Canon is now fairly affordable at about $AUS600: http://staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search. ... XUS+850+IS
(read past the accessories)

Add a couple of hundred more for a spare battery and a memory card from Poon though. Orbuy off DigitalRev or someone similar on eBay, $550 including battery and 1GB card (I'd want a bigger card, but YMMV)

Another camera you may want to consider is the fujifilm finepix Z3

We recently purchased the Panasonic DMC-FX01 and are reasonably happy with it. I think being a DSLR user I too, naturally find lots of limitations, however, as a P&S it's pretty good. The battery life in it is outstanding, picture quality is ok, again - the flash tends to wash out faces etc but in good natural lighting it's a winner

jerrysk8 wrote:hope this thread hasn't been done to death but am looking to get an ultra slim p&s cam. just want a small camera for going out and party shots that can print decent 4x6 maybe 6x8 but mainly for emailing/web. and looking to spend $4-600. only looking at ultra slim cameras. have been looking at the casio exilim s600 and sony dsc-t10. does anyone have any experience with these cameras or can suggest any other ulta slilm p&s cameras? tia

I would recommend Fujifilm FinePix F31 fd. I've seen many images captured on its earlier version, the F30, - quite impressive for a camera of this size. The camera is popular too. I won't be discussing the reasons of its popularity; there are many resources on the net which provide technical reviews on these two cameras.

It's not Ultra compact camera but it is still small 185g. Coming from *SLR world anything less than 400gm is small.

Here are the samples captured on F30.

http://www.dpreview.com/gallery/fujifinepixf30_samples/

We have just purchased Ricoh R5 as our pocket camera and it has given some good results so far. Has a 1cm macro, VR, good zoom. Zoom switch is a bit fiddly but as a wide setting was wanted, this made our choice. Price was $549

I purchased the aforementioned Casio Exilim S600 last May in USA ($240 USD) and I am very happy with it. You can check out my posts here on dslrusers and a number of times I have posted shots from this camera (which has now passed on to my daughter...and I borrow it back from time to time).

It is tiny, made from stainless steel and feels indestructible. Shot quality is good, zoom is limited and you won't notice it in any pocket. Most probably not in the class of the Canon or Lumix but it is tiny and does an excellent job for what it is. The quality "feels" as good as any P&S I have owned.

Just my two bob's worth of opinion.

Ozi.

Another thought, I purchased a Canon A530 for Christmas, fairly bulky but does a good job as far as image quality is concerned, I think I paid $229 at Hardly Normals.