Any Digital Camera Suggestions?

[mintve]

I am so glad to hear about the canon lag time. I thougth my camera as S-L-O-W, so I timed it the other day. with my new memory card, it was TWENTY seconds between pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[aljdewey]

Date: 1/22/2008 9:36:46 AM
Author: mintve
I am so glad to hear about the canon lag time. I thougth my camera as S-L-O-W, so I timed it the other day. with my new memory card, it was TWENTY seconds between pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh good LORD! That''s RIDICULOUS.

The Canon will be an ENORMOUS improvement, then. Here''s where you can see the specs of the camera: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=canon_sd850is&show=all

On continuous drive mode, it shoots at a speed of 1.3 frames-per-second.

Regardless of how strong the camera is, two other things can impact performance....battery life and how full the memory card is.

When the batteries get low, it takes them longer to recycle in flash-required situations.
As the memory card gets fuller, it can take longer to write new data to the card.

 

[onvacation]

If you''re looking for a simple point and shoot with good picture quality, I HIGHLY recommendd the Sony H7. It''s super easy to use, and in auto-focus mode you can use it like any other point and shoot, except that it will give you near SLR quality pictures. Please go into a store and try it out yourself! Of course, compared to real DSLRs, there is a noticeable difference, but it blows other point and shoot pictures away, and it''s very compact in comparison to SLRs. You know the kind; sharply focused objects with tastefully blurred backgrounds, which is nearly impossible to get without an SLR. The bulk is definitely worth it. For its size, it''s also really light and I had no problem sticking it in my reasonably larger bags. While it can shoot up to 1/4000 of a second, I found it''s not so great with fast-moving objects, but diamonds don''t have legs..

Anyhow, other people claim that it''s good for moving objects, so I suggest you test it out yourself. It has 15X OPTICAL zoom, which is amazing! The H7 has a very quick processing speed (it uses the Bionz processing engine, which is shared by Sony''s Alpha DSLR), especially if you pair it with their highspeed memory sticks.

I had the H7 until I upgraded to the D40x last year, which I''m loving, but you''re right in that it takes FOREVER to adjust the settings if I want to do it manually. My bf seems to prefer the H7 for its ease of use. For him, it was a lot easier to get nicer pictures with the H7, since the Nikon requires precision... I kinda miss the old camera too, and since the price has gone down to nearly $200 these days, we''re thinking about getting it again as the carry-everywhere camera.

(I don''t recommend the H9, not because it''s a bad camera, but because it costs so much more now than the H7 when pretty much the only difference is the larger, flip out LCD screen and added infrared (= night )mode, which you probably have no use for, since it takes green pictures anyway. Although green diamonds are yummy, it''s not so hot when the gold comes out green too! lol)

Here are some performance specs from CNET for comparison.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Lower numbers indicate better performance)
Typical shot-to-shot time Time to first shot Shutter lag (dim) Shutter lag (typical)
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7 : 1.5 2.2 1.2 0.5
Canon PowerShot S5 IS : 1.6 1.3 0.8 0.5
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 : 1.4 2.1 1.3 0.6
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 : 1.8 2.7 1.3 0.6


Typical continuous-shooting speed (in frames per second)
(Higher numbers indicate better performance)

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 : 2
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7 : 2
Canon PowerShot S5 IS : 1.6
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 : 1.5

 

[mintve]

i just ordered my canon SD 850!! can''t wait to play with it

 

[peridot83]

For posterity''s sake:

Another good option is the Canon Powershot SD870IS (if you''re in the US). It''s basically the same as the 850, except its a wide angle lens (one of the only widely available point n shoots with this feature, basically more things will fit into the frame SUPER useful for group pictures and landscape shots). Because its a wide-angle, you may be sacrificing a lil in the zoom department. But not much.

Also, the old version was the SD800IS and I''m sure you can get that pretty cheap on amazon; it also still has an optical viewfinder so that you don''t have to rely on the screen if you don''t want to.