Internaut

Interesting article. I'm surprised at how few of the cameras mentioned here have proper stabilisation as opposed to a software fudge. My Panasonic has this feature and it does make a big difference with lower light shots (even hand held night shots at higher ISO levels - an area with Panasonic is anything but class leading).

slawecki

I do not like Sony, as they always have something propriatary stuck on them.

Nikon trades on name, and Canon pays Sharopova a zillion dollars.

Any one of the others in the $2-400 range is fine.

If you are familiar with any camera, buy the same brand, as mfgrs seem to gadegitize everything in the same manner.

If you are going to use it to travel, do not buy a hulking big camera. Do not buy expensive, or you will spend all your time worring about theft.

buy a big memory chip, 0.5 to 1.0 gig, so you do not have to download while in venice or london. buy a spare battery. get a case that will carry camera, chip and extra battery. get something that reviewers say has decent glass.

somewhere around 2-4mega pixil is an 8 x 10 300 dpi image, which is plenty.

I find the 10X optical zoom comes in handy for tourist portraits with famous background.

I have a pair(one for wife) of Olympus C-765's. they are discontinued, but have decent glass, are fairly small, and bounce well. they have a propriotary battery, which was a pain, but it is now available.

here's a bunch of dog pictures. you can see that when I get it right, the photo is quite good and would make a great 8 x 10:

http://slawecki.com/BUTCH/

willyroo

But they still make sensational compact cameras. The IXUS 800 (SD 700 IS) is the sort of point and shoot camera which enables you to keep most of the shots you take. After all, isn't that what it's all about?

FlyingToFly

Thus far, the best pictures I've seen are from the Canon SD-series, and the Fujifilm FinePix F30.

LyfeSaver

Right, if the OP is wiling to spend some more, then Canon SD 700 IS (IXUS 800) is highly recommended as it offers better performance in low light settings and built in Image Stablization support.

doctorj

I am an "instamatic" type of camera user. Last year I purchased a 6 meg Caiso XLIM with anti-shake (very handy when using zoom) for $250.00. I am very happy with it.

ldsant

I used to be a Canon camera person (had three of them over a span of 4 years) until a friend of mine introduced me to the Kodak camera. I LOVE this camera! I travel everywhere and take it with me. Reasons I love it:

GREAT pics (5.1 mp although there is a 7 mp out now)
Fits in my pocket
Gorgeous pictures
Can change on the fly - over 20 selections e.g., snow, fireworks, panoramic (can "stich" pics together)
one touch upload (now there is a wi-fi version)
great optical and digital zoom (dual lens)
ability to take video/audio

All in all this is a great camera. Extremely reasonably priced as well

The ONLY downside is that low-level lighting requires more "fidgeting" sometimes for that "perfect" shot but I highly recommend this camera.

KOStradivarius

Not meaning to thread hijack, but out of curiosity, has anyone been successful taking pics of fireworks with a digital camera? I tried it last year with a digital Rebel (the first model) and exposures longer than 1 sec were worthless due to noise brightening the background. Or, whatever it was due to, it just didn't look right. Granted it was only a few tries and I gave up knowing I could already do it with film.

Madhouse24

just bought Ms. MadHouse24 the SD600 and can say it is an awesome camera!! if you want to read some reviews check out amazon.com or epinions.com ...on either camera^

pinniped

Related question for those of you who know the digicam market well: we are taking a trip in mid-January for which we want to buy a new pocket point & shoot digicam. We already have a higher-end "prosumer" style camera, but for this trip we need something small. An Exilim, Elph, PowerShot, or similar. We do not need the latest model. This camera will never be used to produce posters or anything - 5MP is more than enough.

My question is whether the camera market tends to move out '06 models at a big discount after Christmas. Since I don't need the camera in December, am I better off waiting until after the holiday season is over with and buying then? Or does it really matter a whole lot in the digicam market...

cpx

I often see deals on dell for the cameras. thedailydeals.com usually has
coupons/double coupons for cameras. Keep and eye on it and you may
get something decent.

I think there are several other sites that post coupons too.. it makes a huge
difference on the prices.

I bought my A610 from Amazon ($150 under its average price back then)
through one of these deals/price mistake. I think it was Amazon.

GadgetFreak

I have to say that I have seldom seen a post on a technical type topic with which I have disagreed with almost everything in it until this one.

Both Nikon and Canon make outstanding point and shoot cameras, as do several other manufacturers. The 2-4 MP megapixel range is flat out not worth going to unless you have serious budget limitations or are posting to web pages given todays market. Things with double that range are fairly inexpensive and give a lot better images when printing. My first digital was in that range and I dont think I could go to 8x10 and get a "good" print. Also, a 0.5 to 1 GB chip I would not classify as large now, and as picture image has increased of course so has storage. An 8 MP camera will get about 50 shots on a 0.5 gb chip. 2 gb chips are well under a $100 (closer to 50 even for fast ones) and are probably a minimum.

There are generally two types of "point and shoot" digitals. They can be divided in terms of how much manual intervention is possible. One is totally automatic while the other allows user intervention. For instance, some might allow you to completely overide the automated exposure and set the exposure manually. Others will shoot what they want to shoot no matter what. In between there are things like "exposure compensation" that will let you set predefined exposure overides for known problem exposure situations. Generally, the larger more expensive models have the greater number of options for manual control. Im not sure about the G7 but I suspect it has more manual options since my older Canon G series (G2 I think but Im not sure of the model) has considerable options for manual exposure overide, although they pale in comparison to the options on a DSLR.

Im not sure about the other Canons mentioned in terms of manual control. Can someone comment on that? Im also interested in upgrading the G2 (or whatever). I would like something with some manual capabilities. I have a DSLR but Im looking for something to have with me on business trips, MRs, etc. For vacation I take the DSLR because it can do things with it that I just cant do with a point and shoot. But a smaller, lighter pocket camera would be nice.

GadgetFreak

Ive been looking around at point and shoots and found one that people might find interesting. It is brand new and has 10 megapixels and gives the user either totally point and shoot photography or full manual control and pretty much everything in-between. It even allows manual focusing. It seems to be sold as two cameras, one marketed by Leica (Leica D-Lux 3) and by Panasonic. The Leica version is about $600 and the Panasonic about $100 less. They may be slightly different but are at least nearly identical. Both have a Leica lens and the same electronics it seems. Im thinking seriously about springing for one once they get in stock in stores and the price does the inevitable slide.

TheMadBrewer

When I bought my last camera (this Feb -- a Casio Exilim 7mp) the most important feature was that it used AA batteries. I normally travel with a recharger anyway and I'd had enough of expensive proprietary batteries. It does mean the camera won't be the smallest around, but its small enough.

Internaut

You are referring to the Panasonic DMC-LX2 (aka D-Lux 3). Nice camera IMO (I recently bought one). The only slight dissapointment is the low light performance; anything above ISO 400 is sub par in terms of noise and noise reduction though I have managed some quite decent hand held night shots with it.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasoniclx2/

The killer feature of these cameras is the ability to take 16:9 photos (really good for panoramic shots).

Reading around the internet, the internal photo processing software may or may not be different between the two cameras (sounds unlikely). If you go for the Leica, you are effectively paying the extra for the name (but, possibly also a better gurantee depending on what you can get by shopping arond for the Panasonic).

Oh, and I think you can also get the Panasonic versio in black.