Digital Camera Advice (with Cyber Monday coming up)

Canon has produced numerous digital elph's through the years, and if you have an older one, simply replacing it with a newer, more advanced model might be all you need. Photography and cameras are all about tradeoffs, and the things that you say you want (speed) can actually describe more than one aspect of the camera. For instance, the number of shots you can take in a second, the time it takes for the lens to autofocus, and the fastest F stop your aperature can acheive all desribe "speed" aspects of a camera. For general photography, I place the most emphasis on the fastest lens aperature, then autofocus, and lastly the number of shots that you can take in a given amount of time. Honestly, for what you are describing, I would go with the new Canon S95. If you want to play around and learn some photography skills, it will have enough manual control for you to do some, but at it's heart, it is a really fast (f 2.0) point and shoot that is about the same size as your digital elph.

If you want to just take as many shots as you possibly can and hope to pick out a few good ones, the Casio EX-FH25 offers a new technology that allows for 40 frames per second at full resolution; it also offers a much longer zoom, so when your kid starts playing soccer, you can get those longer shots. Your image quality won't be as good as with the canon, but those are some of the tradeoffs. Also, that faster f 2.0 lens on the canon will better allow you to "stop" action..........so if that kid is moving fast, or if you are shooting in low light, you will have fewer blurry pictures.

I wish there was an easy answer.........but there really isn't. You CAN have a camera that will just about do it all; but it will weigh a ton, and cost a fortune. Otherwise, you have to live with the tradeoffs.

 

If you have a regular point and shoot PowerShot you might want to look into the higher-end PowerShots as an upgrade. I've owned about 6 PowerShots over the years, and last year I upgraded to the PowerShot SX20 IS... it's an amazing camera, especially for the price. Here are some high resolution photos I took at a music festival from about 100 feet away. And here's an HD video I took at the same festival and from the same distance. I take photos and videos all the time, but I'm far from an expert... but this camera makes me look like one.

It works great from the stands at my nephew's football games at Klein. The "sports" setting takes a few pictures a second as you hold the button down, and the vast majority of the images come out great. You will have some blurring in night action shots like most cameras but that is only for really fast movements like a guitarist jumping around. Even then, you can still manage to get some great night action shots. It shoots amazing video (720p) and even better photos. It's cheaper than the SLRs and you can get it in to places you wouldn't normally be able to get a SLR in because it is technically still a point and shoot, but one with a 20x zoom lens and auto-focus. The only downfall is it doesn't have a battery pack, which I like about the point and shoots.

Hope this helps, good luck in your quest!

 

Canon G12...best point and shoot on the market, IMO.

 

Nikon D3100 14.2MP and takes pictures quickly. Your local Best Buy or Target should have a display model. Check it out for yourself, its a great entry level DSLR and just released a couple months ago.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ZYF3LO/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

At $500, pretty much any camera you buy will fit your needs. The only thing you forgot that affects the speed of the camera is the memory card. The camera can take pictures fast, but you'll be hampered by a slow memory card because it'll take time for the camera to write the information into the card. Look for a Kingston made in Japan and you'll be good to go. Right now, the majority of the memory cards are made in Taiwan and they're a pos. My old school Kingston MIJ have a transfer rate of up to 20mb although they're rated at 4mb.

 

Get a Sony NEX-3. Its a DSLR camera in a point and shoot size. The sensor is like 13x bigger than any point and shoot camera. Its great in low light and takes really fast pictures (7 pics a sec). I bought one a month ago and really like it. You can switch out the lenses if you really want to get deeper into photography. You can get it with the 18-55mm lens for $550.

Sony NEX Cameras

 

The biggest improvement you will find in most of the newer elphs is image stabilzation, and canon is consistently the best with this feature. Also, better ISO (better low light peformance), and of course, more megapixels. Do a search on the S95........it is one of the most highly regarded Canons to come out in a while, and the again.......the f2.0 lens would be the THE selling point for me. Although it isn't an elph, it is about the same size.

 

Bought a G12 a few weeks ago, and I absolutely love it. Fast pictures, great quality, good video, easy to use. Couldn't have asked for much more

 

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 or Sony NEX-3.

 

BTW........if you ever want to really see how a camera performs in terms of edge to edge sharpness, color reproduction and other things, I highly recommend the studio comparison widget from dpreview.com

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Guides/dpreview_comparison_widget_01.htm

Also, not to muddy the waters, but dpreview gives awards to certain cameras now, and their highest award going is "gold." in the past 12 months, they've given out five gold awards and four of them went to DSLR's..........the only point and shoot given a gold was the Canon SD4000 IS (although the S95 that I've been touting only scored 2 percentage points lower and the Panasonic DMC-LX5 that Cowboy_Bebop mentioned only scored 1 percentage point lower)

 

Try not to get ripped off on "Cyber Monday", too... I see a lot of deals on places like Amazon that aren't really deals. Do some research on prices across the 'Net before buying that "was $1999, now $49.99" item.

 

My only problem with the G12 is that it is only a 5X zoom lens. Once you have a camera that can zoom 20x and do it really, really well it's hard to go back to a single-digit zoom.

 

Care to share the model of your said camera here? I mean the one that can shoot 20x zoom well. Thanks.

 

Canon Powershot SX10 and SX20 can do it.

 

I will go out on a limb and say that from what I've seen, the larger the LCD screen that, according to the manufacturer is a "feature" and contains so many features like "face detection" or "focus technology" or some other crap, is what slows down the shot.

If it has a small LCD screen or you turn it off, you can make the camera take the shot FASTER. That's just my take. Experiment this with the cameras at WorstBuy or Fried or Radio Quacks.

I did this last night, while taking photos at a wedding, and most people who gave me their cameras for me to shoot their families with the wedding couple had these point-and-shoot cameras with huge LCD screens, and it took forever for them to focus.

SLRs like Nikon and Canon (I'm a Canon guy, by the way), will shoot a lot faster if you know how to work the AUTO-FOCUS faster or know at what distance the subject is, and let the camera just take the shot without AUTO-FOCUS. I did this last night because the couple took so many shots at the same distance, I didn't need to refocus.