help with new compact camera

[poohbear15]

I've always had point and shoot cameras. I'm more the ride type person and not sure I'd lik to carry around a bulky camera so I thought I'd look into the new compact cameras. Does anyone have any advice on which one would be the best? I'm not very good at understanding cameras which is why i always had esy point and shoot ones. I have 2 disney vacations and a cruise planned in the next 6 months and would love to get some great pics. Any advice would be great. Thanks

 

[SplashMo]

I really like the Canon S95 and/or Canon S100. The Sony NEX-5 with an 18-55 lens is very nice as well as is the SONY RX-100. There are others of course...

The Canon S95/S100 are very small, take excellent pictures and you are most likely to carry a small camera...

 

[havoc315]

The reality is, most cheaper point and shoots are not better than good camera phones. That's partially just because camera phones have gotten fairly good.

More expensive point & shoots start to add potential higher quality. But, the more expensive the camera gets, the more complex it gets, and they still require a greater expertise to get great pictures.

The RX100 mentioned above (which I recently bought and will be using at Disney tomorrow), is probably the best point & shoot currently on the market. But it's 2-3 times the price of most point & shoots. ($650). And for someone who just quickly points and clicks, it won't necessarily do a that much more than a cheaper camera. But if you want the portability of a compact camera, with the potential of a much bigger camera, then the RX100 is a great camera.

There are several cameras in the $200-$400 range, which take pretty good pictures, and are pretty easy to use. The Canon S95 and S100 are probably the overall best in this price range for pure quality.
Many Point & shoot owners value having super zoom abilities -- The ability to zoom into fine detail from a great distance. The best quality point & shoots, including the 3 listed so far, have limited zoom ability. It's often a trade off between zoom potential and overall picture quality.

The best travel superzoom cameras are probably the Panasonic Lumix and the Sony Cybershot HX20, and Canon SX260.

For camera comparisons, I'd recommend snapsort.com

 

[photo_chick]

The reality is, most cheaper point and shoots are not better than good camera phones. That's partially just because camera phones have gotten fairly good.

I'm going to disagree here. While cameras on phones have gotten really good, they still miss some things. Like decent optical zoom for one. There are still some low cost point and shoots that are worth buying if they fill a need you have.


poohbear15... best is a really subjective term and honestly no one can tell you which camera is best for you. It's like shoes, we can say what works for us, but they might be really uncomfortable for you. Know what I mean?

I personally tend to lean toward Canon, Panasonic and Fuji for smaller cameras. But everyone has their own preferences. I'd think about the features you want (read up on them at sites like dpreview.com) and look at cameras in your price range that have those features. Then go to the store and play to see which one really fits well for you.

 

[wdw1976]

I have a Canon powershot SX40. I am amazed at what it can do!

 

[poohbear15]

I was looking at those new compact cameras such as the Nikon J1 or sony where you do the zoom manuelly, rather than a point and shoot. Does anyone know anything about these.

 

[hakepb]

I was looking at those new compact cameras such as the Nikon J1 or sony where you do the zoom manuelly, rather than a point and shoot. Does anyone know anything about these.

Those are generally called mirrorless cameras.

There are 3 main sensor sizes used in mirrorless cameras

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/key=sensor sizes

The Sony NEX has the largest sensor, APSc the same as most crop body DSLr
Then there are the micro 4/3 sensor cameras like the Oly and Panasonic
The smallest is the Nikon J1 with its 1" sensor. The RX-100 also has a 1" sensor which is still much larger than other point and shoots (and with its Zeiss lens the RX is a very compelling alternative to a mirrorless with only the kit lens)

There are several mirrorless threads around here.

 

[photo_chick]

I was looking at those new compact cameras such as the Nikon J1 or sony where you do the zoom manuelly, rather than a point and shoot. Does anyone know anything about these.

The Nikon J1 is a mirrorless camera.... theres a few different names for the class but the bottom line is that the interchangable lens puts it into a different class than point and shoots or what most people think of as compact cameras. As far as mirrorless cameras go, I've been a lot more impressed by what I've seen from Panasonic and Sony than the other brands. But again, that's personal opinion.

 

[havoc315]

I'm going to disagree here. While cameras on phones have gotten really good, they still miss some things. Like decent optical zoom for one. There are still some low cost point and shoots that are worth buying if they fill a need you have..

I haven't seen a point and shoot for under $100 that has optics any better than the iPhone 4s.

 

[havoc315]

I was looking at those new compact cameras such as the Nikon J1 or sony where you do the zoom manuelly, rather than a point and shoot. Does anyone know anything about these.

Not sure which Sony you're referring to. The Nikon J1 is not technically a compact, but it is a good compromise between size and quality. It is a bit bigger than a true compact, and has an interchangeable lens system.

The advantage of the J1, in addition to the interchangeable lenses, is a super advanced focus system. It focuses fast and accurately. I considered it, but got the Sony Rx100 instead, for better manual controls, a better "included" lens, and more advanced features.

 

[hakepb]

I haven't seen a point and shoot for under $100 that has optics any better than the iPhone 4s.

I'm not sure if it's optics and/or the sensor and/or electronics using that sensor, but I agree with the sentiment.

Last fall a thief stole my slightly better PnS so I had to grab something for vacation and got a Nikon Coplpix s3200. This year I upgraded to an iPhone and my overall experience with the iPhone was as good (faster, less noisy pictures, same 720p video) or better than the Nikon except when I needed the 5x zoom. Overall, I hated using that Nikon and much preferred using the iPhone.

I have a friend with a Canon SX230, carried it everywhere, until he got his iPhone 4s. And while I love a long 16x + zoom, to him the sx230 was just a camera with GPS tagging, and the iPhone does that good enough for him.

Personally I love the results from my HX30 that I look forward to carrying it around. That's the fun of camera shopping, deciding on what features/quality/speed/ergonomics.. That will result in you capturing the most memories.

 

[photo_chick]

I haven't seen a point and shoot for under $100 that has optics any better than the iPhone 4s.

Try reading what I actually said for once.

 

[boBQuincy]

I was looking at those new compact cameras such as the Nikon J1 or sony where you do the zoom manuelly, rather than a point and shoot. Does anyone know anything about these.

One of the reasons, and probably *the* main reason to buy a mirrorless camera is the interchangeable lens. Lenses for micro 4/3 range from 7mm to 300mm, far more than any fixed lens camera that I know of. Lenses can also be had for specific purposes, such as a wide fisheye, a portrait lens, a low light lens, or even a mirror telephoto lens. The versatility of such a system allows photography under almost any condition or to suit almost any specific purpose.

As for phones, the lens is often about equivalent to 35mm (in 35mm film terms) and that is all we get. I want more than that from a camera.