Help me find a new camera

[hollieplus2]

I love taking pictures but know nothing about cameras. I have a Canon SD600 ?? right now. I don't like it. The pictures don't print clear they are grainy, heck the disposable cameras print clearer than this thing. I can't zoom very far and if anyone is moving the whole thing is blurry. There is a huge lag time between shots. All around I don't like it and want something new.

I want a camera that will zoom far, take clear pictures when DS is moving, and will look like my old 35mm pictures when I print them. I don't want anything to huge or expensive. I like the small cameras better but I will go a little bigger to get the things I want. Please help.

 

[justcantwait]

If you're looking for a point-and-shoot camera, I just bought a Canon DS1100IS and love it. It's fast, small, takes great pictures with NO blur. Shutter lag is OK, battery life is supposed to be about 210 pictures, but the spare battery I bought (not Canon brand) says 400 pictures. Has face detection, image stabilization, in-camera red-eye reduction. All in all, a great little P&S camera. List price is $249. HTH

Kathy

 

[pjacobi]

Before buying a new camera, you need to understand why your pictures are so poor.

If your problems are truely due to limitations of the SD600, then a new camera would certainly help make better picture.

However, it is more likely that you don't understand how to use your existing camera. A new camera would just be a different set of frustrations.

Good photographs take time and effort which cannot be short cut by spending lots of money on equipment.


-Paul

 

[AlienBrain]

You have to prioritize your needs. Better quality is "usually" accompanied by larger equipment. My best advice to you is to go to a camera shop and actually try out the cameras yourself. The camera that you have right now is a compact digital camera, which usually puts out pretty great pictures for many people's needs ... hence their popularity. I would suggest trying to amend the problem with your current camera or try out a camera in the next class at your local camera shop.

Just a suggestion before you go out buying a new camera ... you said that your pictures are grainy and that usually signifies the use of a higher ISO setting. Make sure that your camera is not set on high ISO. That can be the cause of the grain. To figure out the ISO, look at the EXIF data for the pictures that you have taken with you SD600.

As for the next class of cameras, you are looking at a camera such as the Canon S5 (going for $310 on Amazon) or the G9 (going for $450 on Amazon) which both have Image Stabilization, a nice feature to reduce the camera shake that may result in a blurry image. These are some great cameras that should give you much better image quality, while still remaining compact enough to tote around. The S5 has 12x zoom, which should help with your zoom concerns.

 

[Groucho]

This is why your SD600 (we used to have one, so I am familiar with that particular model) takes photos like you describe:

See that little tiny square in the lower left? That's how big the sensor is in your SD600.

See that huge rectangle at the top? That's how big 35mm film is.

That's why your camera takes blurry, grainy photos. Going to something like a Canon S5 will not cure this. The S5 actually may be slightly worse in terms of pure image quality, it has a sensor that is the same size as the one in the SD600 but more megapixels are squeezed out of it. Image stabilization also won't help when anyone in the photo is moving. The S5 is certainly a much better camera overall, but still saddled with a tiny sensor, just like the vast majority of point-n-shoots.

Unfortunately, your requirements are pretty much impossible to meet. To get better low-light (hence, less blurry and less grainy, or "noisy" is the proper term when talking digital), you pretty much need a bigger sensor. Bigger sensors require a bigger camera and cost more to make, so the camera costs more.

Your best bet will probably be something like the Fuji F40 (which we replaced our SD600 with), which has a larger sensor (1/1.6", slightly larger than the 1/1.8" one in the graphic above) and better low-light ability than the SD600. It's still a long way from the abilities of a digital SLR (which you need if you want 35mm or better levels of image quality) but it's fairly cheap, only very slightly bigger than the SD600, and very easy to use. You can find a list of reviews of it here.

If you want zoom, too, Fuji makes a higher-end point-n-shoot with a similar large sensor (they call them "SuperCCD HR" sensors), which has more zoom, more features, and still above-average low-light performance, but the price tag is a bit more.

 

[hollieplus2]

WOW now I really understand. I really miss 35mm cameras now. They were cheap, compact and took great photos. I'll have to do some more research.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Pick up a copy of this book. It's explains very simply the most basic principles you need to know in order to get good pictures from any digital camera. (I'm pretty sure there's an updated, smaller edition because I had it in my hands at Borders, but I can't find a link. I'd look for that one if possible.) Good luck.