Looking for a new P&S to replace a Canon A510

[worknman]

Hey guys,

I'm looking to purchase a new P&S camera. Most of my picture taking would be of close-ups indoors, and I don't care about video or geotagging. I bought a Canon Powershot A510 back in 2005-ish, which is 3.2MP/4x optical zoom, which I paid around $200 for at the time. I'm guessing these things have gotten a bit better since then I've been checking out new models and most manufacturers seem to have about 800 different ones to choose from, so I am completely overwhelmed.

The 510 is ok, but it's bulkier than I would like, and sucks down battery life like a Hoover. I'm looking for something that is easier to fit in a pocket, is not so harsh on batteries, and has at least a 5x optical zoom.

Amazon is selling the Canon S100 for $250, but I'm not sure if that would be overkill for me. My 510 has about 12 different modes on it, but has never left 'Auto' since I've had it. The S100 is said to be for P&S 'enthusiasts', and I'm definitely not an enthusiast I don't mind paying that much for better image quality, but if you have to twiddle with all those controls to take a better picture than a camera in 'Auto' mode that is $100 cheaper, it probably won't do me much good. I MIGHT be inclined to play with the manual settings if I ever get a wild hair, but I haven't so far in the 7 years that I've had the 510 So a higher-end model that's good on the auto setting is a big plus for me.

 

[brunerww]

Hi worknman - not to worry, even with all of the fancy new features, all of these cameras have easy-to-use auto modes.

If you want to stick with Canon, the $249 S100 is a really good camera with a relatively large sensor for a camera in its class. If budget is a consideration, you may also want to consider the smaller-sensor Canon SX260, which has a longer zoom and GPS, and is on sale right now for $199.

The SX260 also won the "Best Travel-Zoom Camera" award on the 2012 Digital Camera Info Best of the Year Awards list.

Here is what the two cameras can do:

S100: Flickr: The Canon PowerShot S100 Pool

SX260: Flickr: The Canon SX260 HS Pool

Hope this is helpful and best of the holidays!

Bill