Off Mazda Topic: Need advice on new Point & Shoot camera

[table5511]

Looking for some advice from those who are camera/photography savvy.
My wife and I are looking to upgrade from our Sony DSC-W80.

I bought this as a "push present" for my wife shortly before our first child was born fall of 2008.
We have taken about 8,000 pictures with it and hundreds of videos and its just not cutting it anymore.
When we try to get a quick picture of our kids in action, its usually blurry indoors unless a flash is used.
Also video quality is pretty poor, I'd like to get HD video. (I have a cheap waterproof work camera that takes so-so 720p videos) (has a crappy lens)

I don't want to have to use a flash indoors every time.
I don't want an SLR or anything with an interchangeable lens, and I'm looking for something that is somewhat compact.
The 3 cameras that I am looking at are:
Fujifilm F600EXR (costs the cheapest, but is the most compact, but manual controls are in system menu rather than manual dials)
Nikon P7100
Canon G12 (or Canon G13 if it comes out shortly here in November)
The Nikon P7100 seems to come out ahead slightly over the G12, but I'm thinking if they come out with a G13, that would likely be a better
camera than the P7100.
Any thoughts, advice or opinions?
Fujifilm F600EXR

Nikon P7100

Canon G12

 

[danz75]

Don't know about the other cameras but I just got a G12 a couple of weeks ago and am still learning. But so far, I like what I see esp having manual controls easily accessible instead of through the system menu. For more samples and reviews, check out POTN

 

[wernersl]

First post on this forum. I am a professional photographer and have another recommendation for you. Seeing as your budget is probably around 400-500, considering you are looking at a Canon G, I would recommend the Canon SX-40 HS. Just released recently, I have had a chance to play around with it. Lots of power packed into that lil camera. Similar features to a G, considering you could add a hot-shoe flash if you get more serious. Would also work to hold an LED panel for video if need be. The cameras you have selected are all good performers, with my bias more toward the Canon or even the Fujifilm. I mention the SX-40 also because of its vast zoom range, if thats what youre interested in.

Here is a link to it on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

Enjoy

 

[table5511]

Hey thanks for the replies. I'm hoping I can get a great deal on black friday, but we'lle see. After reading some reviews of the F600exr, being that it is a 16mp with a somewhat small sensor, I'm thinking it may have more noise than I would like, and it seems the Canon S100 is a better alternative, however, the canon S100 only has 5x zoom, I'm really wanting a larger lens. The SX-40 HS looks good, but its just too big. I was really hoping Canon would come out with their G13 or G14 (if "13" spooks them) towards the end of this week, but its looking like that may not happen. I really like the high speed video of the compact cameras which the G12 does not have. The slow-mo video is cool. I'm just so conflicted. My budget is up to 500. I'm going to Best Buy today/tomorrow and an gonna check out some high end compacts. I really want to try out the F600exr to see what the photo quality is like. I've heard that on the exr, switching to 8MP yields better pictures @ 1600iso or so. I really like the exr, but the picture noise and video zoom problems are a big issue for me.

 

[wernersl]

Hey thanks for the replies. I'm hoping I can get a great deal on black friday, but we'lle see. After reading some reviews of the F600exr, being that it is a 16mp with a somewhat small sensor, I'm thinking it may have more noise than I would like, and it seems the Canon S100 is a better alternative, however, the canon S100 only has 5x zoom, I'm really wanting a larger lens. The SX-40 HS looks good, but its just too big. I was really hoping Canon would come out with their G13 or G14 (if "13" spooks them) towards the end of this week, but its looking like that may not happen. I really like the high speed video of the compact cameras which the G12 does not have. The slow-mo video is cool. I'm just so conflicted. My budget is up to 500. I'm going to Best Buy today/tomorrow and an gonna check out some high end compacts. I really want to try out the F600exr to see what the photo quality is like. I've heard that on the exr, switching to 8MP yields better pictures @ 1600iso or so. I really like the exr, but the picture noise and video zoom problems are a big issue for me.

The Fiju F series cameras have been well known for performing well in low light. the SX isnt as big as you might think.

 

[fitzz47]

I just got a Canon Power shot SX230HS seems nice

 

[table5511]

Stopped by BestBuy yesterday, they won't carry the F600exr until the spring, and S100's are backordered from Canon. They did have a demo S100. I was shocked by the ability of the S100. I read the tech specs, but actually using it in the store, it outperformed pretty much every camera they had in the store. Mainly zooming into a pricetag label about 10 feet away, the S100 had a much clearer zoom, even over the Canon G12. Zooming across the other end of the store, the S100 also had a much clearer picture than the other cameras as well. The manual controls are fantastic. I really like the S100, just not the battery, and the price is about 75 too high in my book.

 

[wernersl]

Stopped by BestBuy yesterday, they won't carry the F600exr until the spring, and S100's are backordered from Canon. They did have a demo S100. I was shocked by the ability of the S100. I read the tech specs, but actually using it in the store, it outperformed pretty much every camera they had in the store. Mainly zooming into a pricetag label about 10 feet away, the S100 had a much clearer zoom, even over the Canon G12. Zooming across the other end of the store, the S100 also had a much clearer picture than the other cameras as well. The manual controls are fantastic. I really like the S100, just not the battery, and the price is about 75 too high in my book.

what was the price in store?

 

[table5511]

429... which is high, but its a good camera. Now my top 2 are the S100 or the Fujifilm X10... but I still really like the F600exr, just not the zoom blur problems.

 

[table5511]

So I'm pretty sold on the Canon S100. 1/1.7 CMOS, lens shift, Digic 5, 24p, High Speed Video, HDR in "P" mode, high speed burst, Very compact, no blur while zooming, good flash, full manual control except for iso 80 only over 1 second. Only downside is the battery, but I'll just get backups. 2 bucks for a knockoff battery, so I can just get a bunch of them. Just waiting for black friday to see what kind of price I can find it for online. Pretty excited.

 

[shb]

I would recommend Canon S95, it was around $350 and just goes down below $300 as the new S100 came out... but these are powerful little camera...

 

[wernersl]

the f600exr has been drastically reduced on amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

I find it very difficult to choose the perfect pocket camera. All of the offerings do somethings really well. Just wont find one that does ALL things well. I am curious about the f600 though. The S100...seems to have really improved upon the S95 in so many ways. There are some "gotchas" though. Such as limited to iso80 for exposures over 1 second. With my DSLRs i typically use iso settings over 100. Depends on the scene. I would really hate that in the S100. Otherwise looks to be a good little camera, with a relatively high price. That said...I have a hard time resorting to a small point n shoot when I have a 5D and 1D Mark II lying around!

 

[table5511]

Yeah, no doubt. I'm not too worried about being limited to iso80, I've never even thought about taking shots of moving traffic with long exposures, or waterfalls, what have you, just not really into that kinda stuff. My main use is for getting shots of the family when we all get together, and the kids, and our family room tends to be dark, and as kids never stay still, I need something that can get a non blurry picture in somewhat low light. The 24p and high speed video are also very appealing.

The price is high, but i'm hoping I can find an online retailer on black friday who drops the price. If not, I'm prepared to shell out the Benjamins.

 

[table5511]

Ok so I finally made up my mind. Just ordered a Canon G12 this morning from Bestbuy online for 429, less 35.00 in reward zone bucks I had, so ultimately it was 394, which is a great price. The awesome lens, huge battery, manual control knobs vs manual control in the menu on smaller cameras, flip out screen, great reviews it gets. The lens oscillates all the way into the body vs lugging a DSLR around. The S100 just has too much of a weak battery, and manual controls for the most part are in the menu, and its too tiny. I think I'll be really happy with the G12.
It comes with a free 4gb sdhc card from Bestbuy as an incentive....but I'm getting a better one and will use the free one as an emergency backup.

I also ordered David Busch's Canon Powershot G12 Guide to Digital Photography for 18 bucks: https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

I ordered a Sandisk Ultra 16gb SDHC card for 20 bucks: https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

 

[table5511]

So I really like my G12. The only downsides I have encountered are 1) the amount of depth-of-field you can control, which a DSLR has more of due to the massive lenses, but its an acceptable trade-off. 2) When recording video, it only zooms via digital zoom and will not perform any optical zoom for video fuctions, and also does not continually auto-focus while taking video and zooming in, which I did not realize any of this when I bought it. My G12 battery lasts forever. Just a great camera, an awesome piece of equipment.

Here are a couple of example pictures: (the evening picture has some photoshop editing)