Canon SD4000is vs. Sony WX5 - Help me choose

[jtice]

I am in the market for a new tiny point and shoot camera to carry with me.

My main concerns and needs in the camera are:
- Good Video. at least 720 res, and being able to use the optical zoom while recording.
- Taking photos in low light. Low house lighting, around a camp fire, caving. etc.
- Fairly fast burst modes, and little shutter delays.

I record alot of video, mainly some camping and offroading adventures. I often dash mount my cameras also.
I also take alot of photos of moving objects, such as the offroading.
But I also find myself taking alot of shots that are indoors, with low light, or outside at night. Around a camp fire, hiking, etc.
I also like taking photos suck as long exposure night shots, HDR, and other wide range photos like that.
I also do alot of pana photos, I know the Sony has a builtin feature for that, and thats great if it works well. But its not a huge concern, I use a program called AutoStitch that works great for that.

So, I have narrowed it down to two cameras. The Canon SD4000is, and the Sony WX5.

I know that the WX5 isnt out yet, so there may not be much info on it. I have been reading WX1 reviews to get an idea of how the camera might be.

So, I am looking for any advice you guys may have. What the pros and cons of each camera are, and which you think I would be most happy with.

Thanks
~John

 

[Om_Audio]

Hi- did you get more info and make a decision? I've been looking at these 2 and was also looking at the S95 from Canon but a bit more than I want to spend even though it has good image quality compared to the WX5- Imaging Resource "Comparometer" ™ Digital Camera Image Comparison Page
Om

 

[jtice]

I ended up getting the WX5 and LOVE it.
The color was more vivid on all my Canon cameras, but thats nothing that cant be fixed in post processing.
The Sony does what it was meant for REALLY well, photos in low light.
I can take photos of stuff in the house with no flash, handheld and it looks like I did a long exposure.
I have noticed that its images are just a bit less sharp as other cameras, when taking regular photos outdoors, but its not bad at all, well worth the tradeoff for great low light shots.
Oh and the video is EXCELLENT.

~John

 

[Om_Audio]

Thanks jtice- glad you are happy with your new camera. Low light is prob my no. 1 priority. By chance were you able to compare the 2 cameras before you bought the WX5? Thanks again- Om Just called a local shop- think I'm just going to go and get it.

 

[Om_Audio]

So I made a semi impulse buy and ran and got the WX5 from Frye's before they closed. I'm going camping tomorrow and just don't want to use my Blackberry again even though it works fine and has GPS tagging.

+Right of the bat the thing is nice and small and light.
+Boots up and shuts down VERY fast.
+Next- I miss full manual controls like on my Finepix F200 EXR =BUT= if I put the WX5 on 3200ISO it seems to blow the Fuji out of the water in low light which is when the manual controls were most useful.
-I will def miss the 8sec exposure I had on the Fuji. I did some creative things with that.
-The Sony is also a bit frustrating in that the auto modes do not handle extreme low light well even though the camera can do it. It errs on the side of major underexposure.
+The Sony seems to have =far= less barrel distortion than the Fuji which used to really bother me.
+The video on the Sony looks really great- and stereo mics should be really cool as I am also a musician.
+The panorama mode is very cool and seems to work amazingly well.
+I also personally find the back defocus feature to be GOOD- I like it.
-+Holding the camera is awkward until you realize you must place your thumb on the screen for solid one handed shots. i put a screen protector on right when I took it out of the box so no worries- just poor ergonomics for one handed shooting.
-Wrist strap is not adjustable which may seem trivial but isn't IMO.

In any event- wish I could have found it at BestBuy for my rewards points and so forth but Frye's literally just got them in today and I will be very happy to have nice photos from my trip. Aside from the lack of longer exposure option and manual control of that i think this will be a nice upgrade and hopefully I will not destroy it camping like I did my Fuji last year!

Here is an example of 8sec exposure fun that I will miss: