P&S advice please

[Glen]

I am after a little advice as these models seem to change monthly.

I would like to purchase a P&S camera for my daughter to travel with. Brand is irrelevant, would like it to be small enough to fit into a girls pocket and SD would be my choice of storage. Unfortunately she works for a photographic production agency who have told her 7mp is the minimum she needs.

Any suggestions from anyone on something they like, or conversely what to avoid. Had a quick glance at the little Canon Ixus i7 then read the image quality was ordinary, thought of the waterproof Olympus 770SW but read the shutter lag is measured in minutes. All sugestions appreciated.

[Vodka]

Hi Glen,

These are the ones I've played around with recently (owned by friends, so I've seen the shots that come out of them).

- Canon IXUS 800 IS (replaced by 850 IS). Seems to fit your criteria... SD, small, 7 MP (for the 850 IS). Image quality is acceptable, not great.

- Fujifilm F30 (replaced by F31). Fantastic high ISO performance (not in the same league as a 5D of course, but the best I've seen out of all these little P&S's), great image quality. I think this is one of the most under-rated P&S's on the market. Only 6 MP though, and uses xD cards. DPreview shows an F40 which is supposed to have a 8MP sensor and use SD.

Ben

[Yi-P]

D40x + 45mm f/2.8P

[shakey]

I recently got a Canon IXUS 800 for my daughter. Its 6MP, 4xOptical zoom, image stabilised lens. It has a 2.5 " LCD on the back. The deal included a 2GB SD card, an off brand extra battery and a card reader for $438.00 (incl shipping). I've not had a chance to play with it, since my girl's been snowboarding in America for the last 3 weeks (back now), but if it's on your radar I could take a closer look and put some photos on my smugmug site. My daughter is happy with the camera. She loves the large LCD on the back.

As I understand it the 850 has 7MPs, a smaller optical zoom, and costs more...we went with the 800 because of the larger optical zoom.

[Glen]

Thanks Shakey and Vodka, will check those out, the Fuji wasn't even on the radar. Yip, we think similarly, I offered my D70, rejected straight away

[binky]

Glen, have ou considered any in the panasonic range? I've got a friend who bought the TZ1 and she's been really happy with it. Appears to have been superceeded by theTZ3 (7mp and uses SD).

[Glen]

Thanks Binky, will have a look at it

[myarhidia]

I've had the IXUS 850 for about a month now, great little unit, seems to meet all your criteria.

Some observations:
- love the face recognition technology works quite well, great for taking shots with people not in the center of the image & still have them in focus instead of the background
- image quality, I guess like all P&S, no issues in good light, once you start getting into darker areas you start getting the pixilation & noise
- flash is a little too weak for my liking, then again, I'm used to an SB800
- size is fantastic, fits in my pants pocket, wifes handbag (the little one)
- There is a heap of "pre-programed" shooting modes, none of which I've used however looks interesting as they set the aperture & exposure for portraits, fireworks, snow, and a bunch of others I can't remember right now.
- For fiddlers like me, has a somewhat manual mode where you can control a number of shooting variables however does not give control over aperture / shutter. The only way to control these is to manually set the ISO & hope it gets close to what you want.
- It has a viewfinder which reflects the optical zoom. This is a really good when shooting in bright light & there is too much glare to compose the image using the LCD.
- Lag, almost negligible

cheers

[Glen]

Great mini review Myarhidia, that puts the Canon back on the list. A couple of reviews mention image quality and weak flash, seems the image quality is ok, thanks.

[sirhc55]

Glen, how can you not consider the greatest P&S of this century - the Sigma DP1

[Glen]

I had to search far and wide to find info on that one Chris. I have no idea how they stack all 4.6mp into a package only 31mm thick

[shutterbug]

F31

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElmIw_KcYEw

[Glen]

Thanks Vince great review, have just sent it to my daughter to try and explode the megapixel myth. Great result for the Fuji

[dawesy]

Not a popular brand around here but the Pentax s7 is a nice camera. I had the s6 until it got nicked and bought my better half the s7 for christmas. Only real change was upping it to 7MP. She loves it, used to have Nikon Coolpix I think. I found it a good all purpose camera as well, and was quite surprised by th quality of a lot of the images.

It has a bit of lag, mostly when it can't focus, but not too bad. Takes really nice images though, and has a massive screen if that's a selling point.

Not sure how it stands on price though.

Cheers.

[gstark]

Glen,

D40X.

Meets the megapixel challenge, small enough to fit in a (not-too-big) bag, allows for expansion ...

I'd probably look at Canon.

[Greg B]

Glen

I am just about to buy a Canon Powershot S3 IS for our forthcoming overseas trip.

Review here

6 mp
12x zoom
Image stabilisation
Excellent movie mode
4 x AA battereis
SD cards (I just bought a couple of 2 gig at JB for $58 each)
Excellent specs

I have tipped a couple of people into the S2, and they absolutely love them.

The S3 may be a bit too big - your daughter would need to check it out, it is bigger than an IXUS - but a first class camera.

Landmark computers have them for $489, JB have already told me they will beat it.


Rosanne has an IXUS 55, great little girly camera, but a bit restricted featurewise.

[Glen]

Dawesy, saw the Pentax, even comes in a pink hue. Liked it. Greg and Gary, those two don't pass the jeans pocket test for a girl

[dawesy]

Dawesy, saw the Pentax, even comes in a pink hue. Liked it. Greg and Gary, those two don't pass the jeans pocket test for a girl

Pink? Well I never... The Pentax will pass the girl test that's for sure!

[joey]

I'd recommend Canon powershot S80.

It features optical viewfinder, wide angle lens of 28mm in 35mm equiv. 8MPs, 1/1.8 size digital sensor.
It received excellent reviews, it weighs 290gms. I think this model has been discontinued by Canon but you can still find these cameras brand new on eBay for a moderate price.

[gstark]

Dawesy, saw the Pentax, even comes in a pink hue. Liked it. Greg and Gary, those two don't pass the jeans pocket test for a girl

Neither do you, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for you.

[Bugeyes]

As has already been mentioned, Fuji's F31fd is about the best P&S around (image quality wise) worth serious consideration despite megapixels and xD card.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qFiEna9p4U