Looking for a good point and shoot camera

[motorollow]

I was originally looking at a Nikon L22 because it is TCB, but decided I needed something a little better. I was looking at some better cameras at the Sony store and they have a decent one for about $240. I don't want to mess with changing a lot of settings to take a picture. Any suggestions?

[CosmosMpower]

Panasonic Lumix series are good, they utlizie Leica glass.

Check out dpreview.com or steves-digicams.com for reviews and sample pics.

[cone-cerned]

+1 for the Leica lens Panasonic

[HudsonHawk]

My Canon S1 IS died in September I loved that camera. I plan on replacing it with a Canon SX30IS when I can scrape the $$ together. I want the long optical zoom for the outdoor shots I take.

[goofygrin]

Sony TX5. I used it all over the Caribbean in and out of the water last week and it was great!

turtles.jpg

[Radio-Active]

Been real happy with my 7 year old FZ-10 panasonic with the 12x optical zoom. At the time it was reviewed as being one of the best for image stabilization. When I compare it to a casio I bought 2 years ago, cameras have come a long way as far as the speed of taking pictures. All in all, I would go for another Panasonic if I needed another camera.

If you want a smaller camera you could get the Minox DSC with a Leica lens. 5.0 MP, CMOS Sensor (3.2 MP hardware-resolution) DSC: 86mm (L) x 30mm (W) x 21mm (H) DSC flash/display-unit: 76mm (L) x 41mm (W) x 21mm (H)

[Jiggerachi]

+2 on the Lumis series from Panasonic with the leica lens. I had the DMC TZ3 with 10x zoom. When I bought it two of my friends who are ameteur photographers wereso impressed they both went out and bought one for when they didn't want to lug around their big SLRs all day. They still have them.

My dog chewed that one up so I moved up to the newer DMC-ZS3 with the 12x lens with better range in the macro end and it's awesome. The lens was rated as having the best macro to full zoom range on the market when I bought it. It takes stellar photos even on the auto setting. And the auto setting is the best i've seen, really is good at picking the right mode between macro / distance / indoor / outdoor / face recognition / and continuous auto-focus by itself and without killing the battery. I bought it new off amazon a year ago for around $250.



http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...asonic+dmc-zs3

read the reviews and look at the user submitted photos.

[motorollow]

I bought a Sony HX5V for $170 at lunch today. It's not perfect, but it will do what I need it to do. Thanks

[Nails]

i bought a sony hx5v for $170 at lunch today. It's not perfect, but it will do what i need it to do. Thanks

ttiwwp! :)

[motorollow]

sony HX5V.JPGHere is a pic!

[Nails]

Niiice! Thank you.

Seriously though, looks like some neat features on it.

[Matt V]

Canon G12, probably one of the best point and shoot cameras on the market.

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consum.../powershot_g12

The G10 which is an older model is also amazing and can probably be found for cheap now.

[Ataim]

check out www.kenrockwell.com I just bought my wife a new point and shoot Canon SX210 IS as recommended by Ken. Here is an uncompressed JPG from her camera and seconds is from my Nikon D200. Side by side not that much difference in pixels, BUT color, user interface and control, the D200 hands down. But hers shoots HD 1080i and is ten time lighter and smaller. Both pictures are taken within about 10 minutes of each other. IF more time was taken by HER when the picture was teken colors would be closer to mine. But she was taking snapshots compared to my photographs.

[motorollow]

Ok, so I bought the camera and now I need a storage card. The Sony takes either their own memory stick pro card or SD card. I am leaning towards the SD card, but my wife has a new Sony Vaio laptop and I have a Sony HDTV that accepts Sony memory sticks.

Which type of SD card should I be looking for? Does it REALLY matter that much? I do plan on shooting some 1080i video, so what size should I buy? 16 Gb or bigger?

[goofygrin]

it is convenient having the slot in the computer and TV, but MS is typically more expensive than SD. I have SD card slots in my stuff, so I buy SD. Buy 16g ones (32 are more $$ and fragile). I've honestly never filled up my 16g one. The important thing for the high res video and burst mode (10frames/second full res pictures for action shots) is the speed of the memory (if you're buying SD, the higher the class the faster it is). I've got a Patriot one from Frys and it's been good.

[OZMDD]

Buy a good SD card, but don't get suckered into buying one of the super-hi-speed cards; your camera isn't fast enough to need it. A good 16GB SDHC card will be fine.

[goofygrin]

Buy a good SD card, but don't get suckered into buying one of the super-hi-speed cards; your camera isn't fast enough to need it. A good 16GB SDHC card will be fine.

I do not agree with this. The Sony cameras power on and take pictures very, very fast. The slower the memory the less burst pictures you can take. I take a lot of burst with the kiddo (sliding down water slides, monkeying around, etc.) and it's very helpful to have 10 pictures to choose from rather than hoping you get one good one.

A higher speed card is only a couple bucks more ($5-10 on a 16 gig card) and well worth it IMO.

[Nails]

Class 4 will work but I'd look for class 6 or better.

[Ataim]

Class 4 will work but I'd look for class 6 or better.

On Triena camera the video is not as smooth with anything slower than a class 6.

What did you wind up getting?

[motorollow]

I bought a Sony HX5V. I will look for a 16 Gb class 6 SD card at Frys. A 16 Gb Sony memory stick was $90 at the Sony Style store! My new Sony blu ray player is compatible with the HD video format of the camera so I should just be able to plug it into the front of the BD player to watch video.