Thinking about a p&s. help me

logan9967 · Mar 1, 2008

i've been praying that i could go to brazil this summer for 6 months. of course i want to take pictures there, but a couple reasons are keeping me from bringing my dslr. the first being the difficulty of brining all the equipment and a tripood through airport security and having to lug it around anytime i want to take pictures even if its just when im out with friends. the next being that americans and sometimes pried upon and i don't want to have issues with theft. you know what i'm saying, better holding a $500 small camera in my pocket than a vulnerable 3 grand hanging by some straps on my back.
so basically that's it. i don't think anyone can convince me to bring it

, but if you happen to, i will also be purchasing a point and shoot and leave the dslr in the house practically all the time. anyway.
i'm in the market for a point and shoot. i only want canon, i refuse to shoot with anything else

and i want 8-12 megapixels depending on what you guys can tell me. I want it to be very reliable, i want to have a decent battery life, i'll buy an extra battery if necessary. my number one choice right now is the canon powershot SD950 IS. and yes this is the very camera i said i would never trade my 20d for :blushing:, which is in fact true, but i feel like i'm running to a point and shoot with open arms, hehe. my mom and sister have canon powershots, and having used them and played with all the settings i love them. PLEASE HELP ME!! i've never bought a point and shoot and i want to be sure i'll be happy, of course if i find out i can go to brazil and i start shopping for everything i'll go and test one out, but that day hasn't come yet and i still don't know if it will. so the internet is my resource!!!
thanks guys :heart:

Rick Waldroup · Mar 1, 2008

How about the G9

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong9/

logan9967 · Mar 1, 2008

Wow thank you for bringing the G9 to my attention. Never even thought about it or considered it! The G9 definitely would feel a lot more at home. There are a couple things between the two that sway me back and forth. The versatility of the 950is are amazing, from macro to infinity and i've even read a little about underwater capabilities, (not sure if both offer it yet though). I've heard however, that the G9 has some beautiful bokeh capabilities along with manaul focusing and better zooming. The G9 i've heard feels like a bulky DSLR, now I love that, but I also don't want that so much for snapping pictures. The only problems i've heard about the 950is is that you cannot upload photos from the camera as a drive without a card reader, i already have one so i don't give a hoot. The G9 i've read has some issues with red-eye, and i have no external flashes so that hot-shoe is useless at the moment for me. Also, i would love to of used RAW with automatic snap shots and i've been hearing some nasty stuff about the G9 in low light, which doesn't make as much sense but couldn't be too bad.

This is gonna be tough, i'm leaning towards the 950is because you know, I have a DSLR already, buying the G9 makes me feel like I could of just spent the money on accesories for my 20D. Then yet again, it's nearly as capable as the 950is in the point and shoot category. Also comes the fact that i'm going to also need to buy more memory for the camera, and with the G9 already being $500 which is my price range, it would hurt me to buy a better than 32mb card. When i have plenty of elbow room with the 950is. Very tough decision hahaha. I got plently of time to think on it though.

Anyone have anything to add? Please anyone have upfront reviews on either of these?

Oh yeah, PS. Can someone talk memory cards with me for this?? I've read it can support some MMCplus and HC MMCplus card or somthing with 32GB!!! Is that for real??? How much does it cost, i can't find any information on them. How long do they last?? Is it worth spending more money for it than a say 4-8gb card, or a few 1-2gb cards?

domromer · Mar 1, 2008

Not quite the megapixels you wanted but this is a fantastic camera. If I had to choose a point and shoot this would be it. I had the older version of this one for 3 years. It's a really good camera.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=144&modelid=15207

logan9967 · Mar 1, 2008

Ahhh yeah, I have no doubt that is an excellent camera, but a lot bigger than I would like. Keeping the camera in my pocket is a big selling point. I should of mentioned I was only looking at Compact and Ultra Compact Point and Shoots.

Hey anyone got any info on that memory??

*foot in mouth* oh i just looked at some pictures of that S5 IS, I guess it is pretty small, I immediately looked at the body style and remembered an old pentax camera i had like it. Yes but still that doesn't have as many megapixels as I would like. I want more megapixels for obvious reasons, but also because the megapixels sort of make up for what i lose with lenses and filters and tripods and everything with a DSLR.

Rick Waldroup · Mar 1, 2008

Logan, I shoot Nikon. I brought up the G9 because a friend of mine was over the other day and he had one. I played around with it for a bit, and I thought it really was a nice, little camera- very well built for a a P&S. And the styling reminds me of rangefinder cameras. I shot some images up to ISO 800 and they looked pretty good. I did not go any higher than that.

shorty6049 · Mar 1, 2008

buy a casio exilim, i had one for a year or two, really nice and small , with good intuitive menus. by the way, you probably wouldnt need to spend 3 grand on a dslr. Sony has one right now for like 800

Mike_E · Mar 1, 2008

Why don't you just spend the $500 on insurance and 16 or 24 gigs worth of memory and take your DSLR?

Unless birding is your bag you shouldn't need a long zoom. So, just a wide angle and a medium zoom for people shots should do.

If something happens then you just get a new body and lenses with the insurance money and the media cards should still be good.

That's how a Nikonion would do it anyway. :lol:

Ockie · Mar 1, 2008

Mike_E said:
Why don't you just spend the $500 on insurance and 16 or 24 gigs worth of memory and take your DSLR?

Unless birding is your bag you shouldn't need a long zoom. So, just a wide angle and a medium zoom for people shots should do.

If something happens then you just get a new body and lenses with the insurance money and the media cards should still be good.

That's how a Nikonion would do it anyway.

Thats why they are Nikonians... they don't care about their cameras, which is normal :blushing: :lol:

:greenpbl::greenpbl::greenpbl:

just kidding

but yeah, insurance and some extra cards should do the trick, unless your stuff gets stolen in the first day(s) of your trip...

Mike_E · Mar 1, 2008

Ockie said:
Thats why they are Nikonians... they don't care about their cameras, which is normal :blushing:
:greenpbl::greenpbl::greenpbl:

Nah, it's just that nothing Else will do.

logan9967 · Mar 1, 2008

haha yeah, i wouldn't like the camera stolen, i don't care if i have insurance lol, and that still doesn't help with taking pictures with friends and having a convient camera in my pocket.
and the camera wasn't 3 grand, it's all the lenses and accessories that own my wallet

oh yeah when i said hanging on my back i meant my case with all my stuff

schumionbike · Mar 3, 2008

I shoot all pictures on a point and shoot, it's a Kodak Z710 with 38-380 zoom with a aperture of 2.8-3.7. You can get better version than the one I have since I bought my a year ago. Should cost about $150-$200, depend on what variation you get. You can see the image quality by the pictures I put up on the forum. Not a good night camera but it's pretty decent for 100 ISO or under. 200 is not bad. 400 ISO is okay only if you have very good exposure, not in the shadow. Anymore than 400 would be a little too much for a point and shoot in my opinion. Good luck.

Iron Flatline · Mar 3, 2008

G9. Get bigger pockets.

Don't fall for the mega-pixel thing, it's marketing BS. The sensor is still the same size it was two or three years ago, engineers have just learned to cram more pixels on to it to satisfy marketing needs. The net result is noisier grainier pics - even the photo press admits to that at this point. Hence the new marketing crazes: higher sensitivity (a bad idea with the new hyper-pixel sensors) and Image Stabilization (not a bad thing!)

passerby · Mar 4, 2008

How about sony T200. It fits in the pocket in low profile and it takes brilliant pictures. But I don't have it though. It use the famous Zeiss lens. You can't go wrong with it.

Unless if you want to go my path by buying Coolpix L10, the cheapest on the market I could find, which is expired now.