Opinions on Sony P&S please? Gift for son

[jpmom97]

For Christmas I would like to get my son a camera. He is very interested in photography. Anyway, he is also the historian in his Boy Scout troop, he is responsible for taking pictures at meetings and trips and then documenting who was there, what they did etc. He has been using my little Canon powershot but I know he still thinks of it as 'my' camera and it's 'old' to him,which I guess a 4 year old camera is old to a 12 year old. So I was looking at a few camera's and I found the Sony Basic W Cybershot DSC W220 does anyone have an opinion on this camera or any other? Thanks! PS, I wouldn't get it in Pink LOL
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+...7092.p?id=1218069752075&skuId=9257092&st=Sony Cybershot w220

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

Ok, at least we have established that we are't picking a pink one!
If you say he is interested in photography I would choose a camera that has more manual controls. Also consider a book explaining the meanings of things like ISO, aperture, depth of field, crop factor(mainly for dslr users), raw/jpeg files.
Finding a camera that shoots in RAW format would be a bonus.

At the very least his camera should have shooting modes like Aperture(av on canon)Shutter(tv on canon) and full manual mode.
One more thing to consider is the memory, Sony cards tend to be more expensive than an SD card.

 

[jpmom97]

thanks! I didn't think about the card either. I will have to go check out some other ones.

 

[zackiedawg]

I have a slightly different opinion, in that I wouldn't worry about RAW shooting on a compact for a 12 year old - just doesn't seem as likely to me he's going to want to process and convert every shot in RAW software.

That said, nothing wrong with the W-series cams - they should offer a reasonable resolution and image quality, are nicely compact, and still have some nice features like some manually changeable functions, live histogram while shooting, spot meter and focus modes, etc.

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much on cards either - the price difference between Sony memory stick pro cards and SD cards is often no more than a few dollars - so wouldn't seem worth deciding on a multi-hundred dollar camera purchase over a few dollar savings. But that's just my opinion...many people have been against Sony for 'proprietary' cards for so long that they remain so on principal (Olympus and Fuji push Xd cards, but seem to avoid the same flack that befalls Sony).

Honestly, pick on features and price, maybe reviews on image quality and reliability...let brand be just about the least important factor, as they all make some pretty good models.

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

true that raw may be too much for the youngster. However in a few years he may grow to enjoy shooting and processing. But it could be a feature that he might not worry to much about and shooting raw files does raise the price I imagine....descisions, descisions...
still say sony memory sticks are really expensive....I have a sony video camera that has a 130 dollar 16 gig card. You could find that on sd for cheaper imo

 

[disneyboy2003]

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much on cards either - the price difference between Sony memory stick pro cards and SD cards is often no more than a few dollars - so wouldn't seem worth deciding on a multi-hundred dollar camera purchase over a few dollar savings. But that's just my opinion...many people have been against Sony for 'proprietary' cards for so long that they remain so on principal (Olympus and Fuji push Xd cards, but seem to avoid the same flack that befalls Sony).

I agree with zackiedawg on this. Don't worry too much on which camera uses what memory cards. If you have (or will have) other Sony electronics around the house (ex. other Sony cameras, Sony laptops, Sony camcorders, Sony PlayStation, Sony DSLRs, etc), they all use the same Sony Memory Stick.

If you really need to use the most popular memory card, then you'll probably need to look at cameras that take the SD (or SDHC) card. SD cards (and their associated mini-SD and micro-SD cards) are used in many many electronic devices. My cell phone has a micro-SD card, for example, and using an adapter, I can convert it to a regular SD card and plug it into my digital camera, laptop, older PDA (handheld computer), GPS receiver, camcorder, netbook, some DSLRs, etc.

Even so, I still wouldn't let a camera's memory card determine what camera I end up buying.

 

[jpmom97]

Thanks everyone! I am still looking around but I think I like this camera. I also have to take into consideration how it looks and I think he will like this one LOL. In a few years if he is super into photography, he can have my camera (Xti) and I can buy a new one for myself (good plan right?). I used to have a Sony and the only thing I didn't like about it was actually, 2 things, when you took a picture useing the LCD screen the picture would not be in focus and 2, it fell off my bed onto carpet and died. Other than that I had no complaints. My little Canon Powershot has fallen off the bed many times and has survived and you can use the screen to take pics, which I know he will like when taking pictures of his friends. I will go to the store and check them out but I am still leaning towards the Sony. I also like that it has a rechargable battery, most of the others in this price range all take AA's. Plus I can get this for even a better price than Best Buy, it's onsale at the PX. If anyone has other suggestions let me know,thanks!