I'm looking for a good compact camera that would make good point and shoot camera. Size is an important consideration since odds are I will have the camera on me while I'm at college.

Some of the camera I have looked at are:

Canon PowerShot S500 Digital ELPH
Canon PowerShot A95

Minolta DiMAGE Xg
Minolta DiMAGE G600
Minolta DiMAGE X50

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W1

Fuji FinePix F700

The truth is I'm about as big of noob as you can get when it comes to digital cameras. So forgive me if I have no idea what to really buy.:confused: Any ideas/comments on the cameras I have listed, if you wish to add some to the list please let me know.

Any of those are decent enough. Buy on price alone is my motto. Any point and shoot is a compromise to begin with so just spend as little as possible. Even megapixels aren't all that important with a P/S camera. Find the best deal from a "major" camera maker and you'll be fine.

Mike

I have a Dimage X, very similar to the Xg, and I love it. Easy to use and excellent quality, but the best feature is it's size. It's thin and light enough to slip in a pocket and not notice it. Remember, it doesn't matter how good or expensive your camera is, it's worthless if you don't have it on you when you need it!!

I'm not familiar with the Canon A95, but I've used other A-- series models: 3mp A70 and 4mp A80, and have been very impressed with them. My father-in-law uses an A70, leaves it set on "auto", and carries it most everywhere. The picture quality is outstanding, really, for fully automatic: Auto white balance is excellent and the auto focus is very accurate (which is something I wish I could say about my G2), and the flash is decent. Combined with a good lens, those are the things that will add up to good, "real-world" digital pictures. A good optical zoom range (3x is enough for most snapshots) and good battery life are also things to look for.

dpreview.com (http://www.dpreview.com) is a good place to read reviews on models you're considering.

Jason

Originally posted by Cerwin Vega Fan
I'm looking for a good compact camera that would make good point and shoot camera. Size is an important consideration since odds are I will have the camera on me while I'm at college.

Some of the camera I have looked at are:

Canon PowerShot S500 Digital ELPH
Canon PowerShot A95

Minolta DiMAGE Xg
Minolta DiMAGE G600
Minolta DiMAGE X50

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W1

Fuji FinePix F700

The truth is I'm about as big of noob as you can get when it comes to digital cameras. So forgive me if I have no idea what to really buy.:confused: Any ideas/comments on the cameras I have listed, if you wish to add some to the list please let me know.



as mentioned, any P/S is a compromise and will be severely outdated in a few year, so don't look to spend a very big sum on them.

IMO (despite what the salesperson will tell you). 3MP is all that most people will need . MP is not an indication of picture quality.

that said, i have some limited experience with the DSC-W1 (lot of bang for the buck)

the canon elph series are nice but IMO, youpay a premium for the looks.

however, the older canon A70 / A75 would be my choice if i were looking for a handy full featured P/S camera . a bit bigger than the small cameras that come out nowadays but that's about the only disadvantage i can think of

Well,if you like the looks,I'd say that you can virtually buy blindly any canon 'A ' model (75-80-95) that's within your budget.

They're all deliver very good picture quality .
I myself use the A60. This cam is easy to
take along;easy to use, offers a very good 'grip ,has lots of manual settings and a trouble-free automatic postion as well.
Even in close up (macro mode) the picture quality is really really good.

I am also looking at a new digital camera. So far, I'm kind of tossed between the Nikon Coolpix and the Canon A series. The Fuji's I've looked at the stores never work??? I hope it's just a missing memory card or something but makes you wonder. One Canon I tested at CC when I did a close-up pic was all washed out, and you have to manually focus at under 20cm. Not a big issue for me, but the Nikon Coolpix autofocused right down to nearly 0" and took a perfect picture, now I went to Walmart they had the new A-85 and still had to manually focus but the picture was very good at nearly 0". CNet rates the Canon higher than the Nikon Coolpix, I found a place that has the Canon A-85 and Nikon Coolpix 4100 for $225.00. Tough choice.

I've been looking at this site : http://www.imaging-resource.com/

So far I think I'm leaning towards either the Nikon or Sony DSC-P73, the fact the Sony does 640x480 30fps video could be a deciding factor. I noticed the Canon isn't as sharp in the resolution screens as either one of those cameras. The Nikon and Sony look like a virtual tie. Color can be compensated for, so can exposure, but you can never add sharpness.

That imaging resource site is awesome, thanks for the link. I have been looking at it for hours. I love the
Digital Rebel, I may have to sell some things, but I like it. Though the D10 has all the autofocus features available. I need the interchangeable lenses, and I love my SLRs, just something nice about looking through a real viewfinder.

I love Wal-mart too, great prices and a decent selection to whet the appetite. With all the great camera's coming out with manual adjustments, I see film taking an eventual ride into the sunset. However, I don't think digital will ever take the place of great slide exposures with their magical saturation and detail.

If I were going with a Professional type digital, I've always been a Nikon user. I've used the Nikon F, F2S, Nikkormat FTN's. Canon would be a great second choice, but Nikon always seemed to have the best systems.

Check also this site for reviews and examples of picture quality.

http://www.dpreview.com

If you want very fast "shutter" response, look at the new Fuji's. I tried a friend's and liked it.

My Canon A70 is a good all-around with better-than-average flash (more powerful and more diffuse). Battery life is good too, and you can compare these things in online reviews.

Think what matters to you: macro, zoom (get more optical zoom, forget the digital number if quality matters), ... be fussy. Read the online reviews to remind you of features etc.

Some have underwater housings for whitewater, snorkeling, diving, and these are usually around $200.

I use a Canon G3.

It will do about everything. Zoom lense, wide angle, close ups, etc. Has very good battery life. Lots of features.

Have used it for outdoor shots, indoor, closeup detail shots.

Have a 256 meg compact flash card that will hold 300+ pictures. Used it for a full week during vacation and took about 275 pictures. Everything came out great.

Had it almost a year. No problems at all.

The reveiws are a must. I looked at the top end Kodak d-SLR which is very expensive and it reveiwed like it was basically an over priced piece of crap. Though at that price range it is all relative, the differences are very small, it is the features you want, and for if I remember correctly was 4,000 bucks or more to only get an ISO of 400 max is rediculous, that kills any hope of doing evening high speed work or indoors without a flash even during the day.
I like the Nikon's, though I like the availability of the Canon EOS lenses and the D-Rebel works much like my trusty EOS 630, so no big learning curve, the depth of field preview sells me every time, though I can't remember if the Nikons have it or not.
Kodak does have a few in the 350-450 range at Wally World that are very sweet, though you lose the lens and filter abilities of the SLR's.
To get back on CVF's needs, keep looking and if you aren't in a big hurry wait till after the Holidays because there is a less than 4 month turn around on D-cameras and thier technology. Which means that this years hot unit will be last years in only about 4-6 months. And talk to the folks at real camera shops, they have better insight than the folks behind the Wal-Mart counter. though I realize that most likely you will buy from a discounter ;)
Most importantly is the optical zoom, a must have. Some of the lower priced models only have a digital zoom, which is useless for quality pics. They cause too much pixelation. We have a Kodak DX-3500 that I got on clearance for a song, well half a song even, but it has only a digital zoom and it is worthless. The camera takes great pictures for the web, or simple prints, but the lenses on those types of point and shoots tend to be a bit wide angled and you have to get pretty close to the action because it isn't the same to think you can just crop them down in Photoshop, you need a full, well framed shot to start with. Anyway, sorry to drone on, I just have the typing bug tonight :)

My Canon G3 has the optical zoom.

The G3 wasn't cheap. I read tons of reviews, articals, etc, before I bought the Canon and found the Canons in general were well recommended and rated good units.

My previous and first digital camera was a Sony. Liked that one too.

Have SLR Nikon 35mm camera (and still do), but rarely use the 35mm now.