a really really good point and shoot for my wife

[joe weed]

as the title states, i need a really good p&s that's EASY to use. my wife has NO interest in learning how to shoot, she just wants something that does it and does it well. she's tired of all the blurry, missed shots she's been getting with cameras she "thought" was decent ($150-$300 range). last one was a sony, the one taylor swift was endorsing with the panoramic feature. budget is around $500-$600 or so (maybe more if it will do what she wants). everthing i looked has has limited zoom (5x and lower-g12, s100). would like at least 10x zoom if possible and nothing too large. she would be taking pics of our kids; everything from birthdays, soccer, wrestling, judo, football, class functions, graduations, etc., so everything from bright light to low light, indoor, outdoor, etc. so yeah, not asking much. does such a camera even exist? i can't always be there and/or bring my stuff and she won't touch it anyway. a camera should be something that creates good memories. not tear a family apart. please help. mahalo.

 

[mjhoward]

Hilarious. Need at least 10x zoom, size of an iphone, at least a usable 51,200 ISO and under $500! Oh and it has to take artistic photos with no skill involved!

That camera doesn't exist.

The best P&S combo you can get in my opinion is the G12 with a speedlight. But it doesn't have the zoom you want, and the speedlight/hotshoe is going to require some skill. You are still going to end up with the same crappy photos with a new point and shoot as you did with the old one without understanding why your photos were crappy and the limitations of camera sensor and optics.

 

[Tony S]

Save some money and get her the Hello Kitty digital camera because there is no such camera that fits what you are asking for.

 

[StandingBear1983]

There is no short cut to good photos. she can get AMAZING photos with what she already has....she shouldn't complain about taking blurry pictures when she's unwilling to learn photography...i know a LOT of people that have the same kind of thinking so I'm sorry...it just pisses me off because people can save a LOT of money if they only knew that its not the camera most of the time...its the human behind it...

My point is, she will continue to take blurry\out of focus photos even with a 10000$ camera.

 

[Solarflare]

Oh, thats easy.

Just employ a 2-3 professional photographers with a full set of photographic equipment fulltime to follow your wife around.

On a more serious note, theres plenty of 20x zoom point and shoot around ? With just some googling, I found the apparently recently released Canon PowerShot SX240 HS which doesnt look so bad and is very cheap. Theres probably many more.

 

[Dao]

Sorry, no such camera exist. Even if major camera manufacturers have the technology to make such a camera now (I doubt that), they will not make it. Simply because of the cost and market.

 

[manny212]

Hey Joe , take a look at the Panny LX-5 i have it and that little camera is a charm .

 

[Designer]

Hi, Joe. The camera that she has is probably not the problem. I don't have an answer for how to get your wife interested in learning photography, but perhaps someone other than yourself should try to teach her. You know it is nearly impossible to teach your own wife how to drive a car, for instance, and photography is not much different.

Just guessing, but I suspect that part (or most) of the blurry photos are caused by camera movement. (check the lens to make sure there are not fingerprints on it.)If she is wanting to make snapshots without holding the camera steady, the photos will always be blurry.

Good luck!

 

[davisphotos]

Most super-zoom P&S cameras have pretty slow lenses, so that combined with the smaller sensor is not going to give you very good low light performance. I have a FujiFilm X10, which is very good in low light and has a very fast lens, but it's only a 3x zoom.

Maybe the Leica V-Lux 30? $650, and it has a 16x zoom. There are plenty of superzoom compacts out there, but cramming that much zoom in a small camera leads to trade-offs.

 

[joe weed]

thanks to all who have left constructive replies. i know i deserve the rest of them too for posting a question i kinda knew the answer to. i'll look into these suggestions. thanks.

 

[fjrabon]

I think the toughest thing is that you didn't prioritize her wishes in a camera. Like if you had listed them in order of importance, or even "has to have" "really wants to have" and "would like" you may have gotten better advice.

 

[jwbryson1]

Canon S100 Review

 

[sovietdoc]

I got my mother a PowerShot ELPH 520HS

I can already tell how a lot of photo folks here will go "Oh God" but that's because they think in different terms. Remember, for most people pictures coming out of their iphone look great.

No camera will prevent your wife from ruining shots because her job as the photographer is to understand how the camera works, at least on the very basic level, so if she gets a blurred picture, she knows what she did wrong. If she has no idea of how to take pictures in different conditions, no camera will ever substitute the lack of skill.

 

[StandingBear1983]

I thought of an 'ugly' shortcut, *puts on flame suit with automatic cooling* - she can use flash all the time and get more light in every shot - which will up her shutter speeds - which will cause less of a blurry picture - but that can bring unreal lighting to most situations...and as i said its an "ugly" shortcut from actually learning the basics.

 

[Orrin]

as the title states, i need a really good p&s that's EASY to use. my wife has NO interest in learning how to shoot, she just wants something that does it and does it well. she's tired of all the blurry, missed shots she's been getting with cameras she "thought" was decent .

Maybe reading the manual for the camera she has.... the part about pushing the shutter halfway down and alowing the camera to focus. That could greatly improve those blurry shots!