Topic: Looking for a camera for the wife...

[Teen Wolf Blitzer]

$300 or under,
point and shoot
small 
ability to shoot rapidly 
And the ability to maybe turn on and off flash?  I'm not versed on point and shoots.


The PAS she has now you have wait an eternity before you can shoot another shot.  Also no red eye.  The one she has does it horribly as well even with red eye on.    Any guidance appreciated.

[willndmb]

i just got the canon 850is based on opinions from here
so far i like it a lot

[beanstalk]

Amazing I was just going to post the same thing as I'm looking one for the wife also for her b-day. 
She wants one that has image stabilization, face detection and of course a small size.

Is that particular model you have this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830120208

Not sure if I feel great about dropping 250+ bones on a tiny camera that has more of chance of getting lost than her cellphone. I prefer a larger model but got to make the wife happy I guess. I'd prefer to spend the extra cash and get an rebel X or similar model.

Also:
What's the differance between Optical Image Stabilization and just Image Stabilization? Is there a differance?
Any other recommendations?

[Brian Skalinder]

I really like my Canon SD800IS.  Nice and small, but not too small, IS works well, reasonably good in lowish light, overall happy with the image quality.

I've also tried the Panasonic DMC-TZ3 with the 10x optical zoom.  Overall, happy with the image quality, as well (though I haven't used it as much).  Love the 10x zoom and the bigger LCD display, but it's overall noticeably bigger than the SD800IS.  The TZ3's knobs, buttons, switches, and battery door aren't as tight as the Canon.  Now, if I could have the SD800IS with the TZ3 optical zoom and LCD...that'd be perfect.

Edit to add:  Not sure what's up with 35mm equivalency specs on the TZ3 / SD800IS.  My SD800IS's 35mm equivalency spec:  28mm - 105mm.  The TZ3's 35mm equivalency spec:  28mm - 280mm.  But a pic from the same location reveals a noticeably wider field of view on the SD800IS.  Note, however, that the SD850IS 35mm equivalency is 35mm - 140mm.  There are other models in the SDxxxIS range that have 35mm equivalency of 28mm, however.

[Teen Wolf Blitzer]

Thanks guys.  I've been reading up on this model.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0609/06091404_canon_sd900.asp

I asssume it's just a newer version of the 800 and 850 mentioned above?

[Brian Skalinder]

I asssume it's just a newer version of the 800 and 850 mentioned above?

Looks that way.  But there are differences among versions.  There's a dizzying (to me) array of SDxxxIS digicams in the Canon line, and I've not dug into all the differences.  But there are some.  For example, the 900 you reference has a 35mm equivalency of 37mm - 111mm, whereas the 870 has a 35mm equivalency of 28mm - 105mm.  In other words, the latter has a wider field of view.  There may be other differences across the models, might be worth researching a bit.

[shaunpekar]

Just got a Canon SD750 and I am loving it...

Not really up on the technical side of it yet as its not an SLR, but I'm loving it very much...

and its a relatively inexpensive camera. I think I paid roughly 160 through B&H.

[sunjan]

The PAS she has now you have wait an eternity before you can shoot another shot.

Many buyers tend to forget that the "write time" for each image is very much determined by the speed of the flash memory. Also certain brands also match certain cameras better than others. If you compare two different 133x cards, you could end up with wildly different real world performance.

What does this mean? Don't just buy the megapixel myth. More pixels also has a downside: longer write time. If you don't foresee yourself making larger prints than A4/US Letter, excessive pixels will just drag your camera down and make it slower. Sure, most modern cameras also has a low-res/mid-res mode, but my point is that it's not worth spending extra money on a PAS with 13 mpixels, if you never use the highest resolution.

[beanstalk]

Thanks guys.  I've been reading up on this model.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0609/06091404_canon_sd900.asp

I asssume it's just a newer version of the 800 and 850 mentioned above?

Looks like it. Wonder what the price differances are..
Do all the model have titanium-bodied? sd900 one says it does.

edit: on a couple sites I was just on, looks to be approx. $50 more. Not bad but no No image stabilization which the wife wants.

[sunjan]

What's the differance between Optical Image Stabilization and just Image Stabilization? Is there a differance?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_stabilization#Techniques_of_image_stabilization

If the description of a camera omits "optical", I tend to be sceptical about what stabilization is actually taking place.
Brands like Ricoh have a feature called "anti-blur", which basically means cranking up the ISO to enable a faster shutter speed:
http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/caplio/500se/features/features2.html

Snake oil, IMHO. Get any camera with manual settings and you can do that yourself!

/J

[beanstalk]

What's the differance between Optical Image Stabilization and just Image Stabilization? Is there a differance?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_stabilization#Techniques_of_image_stabilization

If the description of a camera omits "optical", I tend to be sceptical about what stabilization is actually taking place.
Brands like Ricoh have a feature called "anti-blur", which basically means cranking up the ISO to enable a faster shutter speed:
http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/caplio/500se/features/features2.html

Snake oil, IMHO. Get any camera with manual settings and you can do that yourself!

/J

the wife doesn't want to mess with manual settings. she wants to just to point and shoot.

[beanstalk]

just pulled the trigger on the Canon SD850IS for her from newegg. about $243 shipped.

[sunjan]

What's the differance between Optical Image Stabilization and just Image Stabilization? Is there a differance?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_stabilization#Techniques_of_image_stabilization

If the description of a camera omits "optical", I tend to be sceptical about what stabilization is actually taking place.
Brands like Ricoh have a feature called "anti-blur", which basically means cranking up the ISO to enable a faster shutter speed:
http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/caplio/500se/features/features2.html

Snake oil, IMHO. Get any camera with manual settings and you can do that yourself!

the wife doesn't want to mess with manual settings. she wants to just to point and shoot.

Sorry, it wasn't intended as a recommendation to go manual. What I was trying to say is that it's better to go for a camera with "real" optical image stabilization than the pseudo one. Good luck with your SD850IS. It's got the real OIS, so you're home safe!

/J

[Teen Wolf Blitzer]

Well I ended up getting the wife the Canon PowerShot SD950-IS.  Hopefully she'll be happy with it.  Now I get to buy my Hi Ho stubbies.  Tradeoffs are nice.

[willndmb]

The PAS she has now you have wait an eternity before you can shoot another shot.

Many buyers tend to forget that the "write time" for each image is very much determined by the speed of the flash memory. Also certain brands also match certain cameras better than others. If you compare two different 133x cards, you could end up with wildly different real world performance.

What does this mean? Don't just buy the megapixel myth. More pixels also has a downside: longer write time. If you don't foresee yourself making larger prints than A4/US Letter, excessive pixels will just drag your camera down and make it slower. Sure, most modern cameras also has a low-res/mid-res mode, but my point is that it's not worth spending extra money on a PAS with 13 mpixels, if you never use the highest resolution.

thats true
but the plus to me with extra MP is the ability to crop after the fast
when i had a 4MP i had to use the zoom to get it where i wanted for the most part
with 8MP i can take it a little farther back and zoom/crop after if i want it closer