Don't want to make a mistake buying a camera again...help?

[pantera]

Okay, so my old digital camera got stolen a few weeks ago at a party. It was an awesome camera, well for me atleast I just used it to take pictures when I go out or what not. it was Nikon coolpix__ don't remember the number...But it took great pictures, the colours were always bright, sharp photos, not too bright.. So I thought hmm maybe I'll just get the same camera or atleast a coolpix one. So I bought a Nikon coolpix S9. It's very slim and has no lens that pops out it's just flat( if you look it up you can see what I'm talking about) The salesperson said that it wont affect the quality of the pictures or whatnot. But the pictures turn out blurry sometimes..most of thetime the flash is too strong so faces of people look white! basically I hate it! So I'm going to return it and I need suggestions on what a good quality Nikon or Canon camera would be! and I got this one for 250$ (canadian) SO probably in that price range, maybe a bit more.
thanks

 

[sothoth]

The problem with over-flashing (or under-flashing) is very common with P&S cameras since you have little or no control over when it flashes or how intense the flash is. The slim cameras are not so bad for basic snapshots but without having even a little control of zoom you can find that limiting as well.

For my money, I'd get a Canon SD700 IS (IS for Image Stabilization) or a Casio Exilim EX-Z70 (also with stabilization, Casio calls it Anti-Shake). These are just my favorite two. The Casio is quite affordable, compact, and the take good photos for a P&S. Casio uses Sony CCD sensors, which are quite good in my opinion. Canon P&S's are also very nice IMO.

Most camera makers make some great P&S and some not so great ones. My father has a newer Nikon P&S that's just horrible, although that's not characteristic of all Nikon's cameras, to say the least. When you shop, go into a local place where you can try it out before buying, just to make sure you get something that works for YOU.

Hope this helps.

 

[Stevedevil]

The problems that you may be expiriencing with the blurriness of the shots is with a lot of compact Digital cameras, when you press to take the photo, this actually starts a process within the camera to take the shot, and it can take up to a second before the camera takes the shot, and you may have moved by then thinking the shot is taken.

As for compact cameras, the price range you are looking in will provive a Lot of options, maybe ask in a store to actually try some and look at the images on the LCD screen as to see if they appear blured or over exposed etc,

Cheers

Steve

 

[Don Simon]

Regarding the flash being too strong, you may be able to get around that... check the manual for Exposure Compensation or EV. Even without flash, in my experience compact digital cameras tend to overexpose anyway (when it's probably better to do the opposite) so reducing the EV may help.

 

[Alex_B]

hmm, what you are basically saying, is that the new model of that camera is not as good as the old model ... but it is more compact in size ... interesting, since I heard people saying this regarding other brands as well, that a new model sometimes means a step back in image quality (but many more unwanted features or smaller size) ...

 

[w.pasman]

How about just getting the same as you had, it probably dropped significantly in price or even may be dirt cheap as second hand.