New Camera...

Andrew.C

I'm looking into buying a new camera.

Nothin' too flashy, just something better than my decidedly crappy Canon PowerShot A520. I've had it for too long, and it's simply not getting the job done anymore.

I was thinking about getting the Kodak EasyShare P712. It's about the price range I'm looking at, and the reviews were pretty high.

Any feedback?

Terrence

Tell us more about what you want to capture. That, more than anything, determines the type of camera needed. From there, we start talking models, price, features and tradeoffs.

You also need to set an absolute maximum for your budget. Cameras aren't cheap. Great cameras are quite expensive. Knowing what you can spend will help people keep the conversation focused in that area.

ian408

Have a look at the Lumix cameras as well. Panasonic are getting some good
reviews for these babies.

sirsloop

my pocket rocket is a Lumix dmc-tz3... panasonic does have the P&S down pat.

claudermilk

Like Terrence said, give us more details of what you wnat to do with the camera. Then we can start giving some useful recommendations.

Grainbelt

That Kodak is a 'superzoom' point and shoot. Lots of those available, from Panasonic, Canon, Olympus, etc.

I suggest that you visit dpreview.com

Perhaps bounce some ideas off this group as to what your intentions are first.

Andrew.C

Ha, completely slipped my mind.

I don't take any pictures for magazines or anything, I do photography just for fun, and as a hobby. If I ever really need my camera for anything, it's mainly for taking pictures of family and friends. Occasionally I'll go out and take really artsy photos. I've particularly noticed that the Canon takes very poor night photographs, and night photos are something I've always been into.

In keeping with that, a new camera would have to be portable. The PowerShot had that.

I like the Kodak's "superzoom" functionality. I've been on a few vacations and was extremely hindered by the Canon's 4x zoom.

claudermilk

For nearly everything you mention, just about any P&S should be fine, that Kodak included.

The night shooting, however is a different story. That kind of challenging task is what drives many of us to the expensive world of DSLRs. I'm not terribly familiar with the latest crop of P&S, but would be mildy surprised to find one that does a really good job at this task. From my experience, all P&S do a rotten job at low-light/night photography, it's just oustide their performance envelope. They have the same number of pixels as most DSLRs, but on a chip several times smaller, with a tiny little compromised lens in front of it, and run the sensor constantly to feed the LCD in lieu of a proper optical viewfinder. All those factors make for poor low light performance.

Grainbelt

claudermilk wrote:

The night shooting, however is a different story. That kind of challenging task is what drives many of us to the expensive world of DSLRs. I'm not terribly familiar with the latest crop of P&S, but would be mildy surprised to find one that does a really good job at this task.

+1 I love my S5 IS, but I bought it with the understanding that shooting at anything over ISO 400 would be nearly useless, so low-light shots require long exposures. This is not always ideal, depending on the shot you are composing. That said, a camera with a hotshoe and manual flash control (like that Kodak, my Canon, etc.) allow you to add light to the shot -- with decent precision -- for those times you need a shorter exposure.

End of the day, my sub-$500 setup takes great pics for 95% of what I shoot. That other 5% means a dSLR. I haven't decided if I'm serious enough to pursue that yet.

Terrence

I picked up a Fujifilm F30 specifically for the low-light performance. ISO 1600 is pretty darn good. ISO 3200 is grainy but it's almost a film look and not displeasing to the eye at all.

I don't know anything about the market between compact P&S and DSLR, so I'm not much use for advice in that space. I have heard the Canon G7 and G9, while very nice cameras, have poor low light performance.

jziegler

Andrew.C wrote:

Ha, completely slipped my mind.

I don't take any pictures for magazines or anything, I do photography just for fun, and as a hobby. If I ever really need my camera for anything, it's mainly for taking pictures of family and friends. Occasionally I'll go out and take really artsy photos. I've particularly noticed that the Canon takes very poor night photographs, and night photos are something I've always been into.

In keeping with that, a new camera would have to be portable. The PowerShot had that.

I like the Kodak's "superzoom" functionality. I've been on a few vacations and was extremely hindered by the Canon's 4x zoom.

I have a Canon A540, an updated (higher resolution version, I beleive) of the one you have. Overall, not a bad compact camera. When you get something new, keep the Canon.

As for night shots, the 6MP Fuji camera using their SuperCCD sensor are considered the best of the compacts for low-light shots. Unfortunately, they have been mostly replaced with higher MP cameras. The F30 (and the similar F31fd) mentioned by Terrence gets great reviews. I have the S6000fd, which uses the same sensor in an ultrazoom body (one of the most SLR like ultrazooms). I've had it since May or Junt, have taken over 1000 shots and have been pretty happy with it. Low light is much better than the Canon, although still not as good as I would really like. But I can use it. I took a few night shots with it in Shanghai in July, I'll have to dig those out and take a look and post the best ones for you to look at.

Jim

ziggy53

Terrence wrote:

I picked up a Fujifilm F30 specifically for the low-light performance. ISO 1600 is pretty darn good. ISO 3200 is grainy but it's almost a film look and not displeasing to the eye at all.

I don't know anything about the market between compact P&S and DSLR, so I'm not much use for advice in that space. I have heard the Canon G7 and G9, while very nice cameras, have poor low light performance.

I also have a FinePix F30 and I am blown away by the ISO 1600. By far the best in class. I bought an F40fd for my son and it's not too bad at ISO 1600, but not as good as the F30. The F40fd does have better daylight performance however, and makes a pretty well rounded P&S.

Inukshuk

Here are a few options to look at. Also you want as strong an optical zoom as possible.

SAMSUNG PRO 815 8MP 15X W/A 3.5i
PANASONIC DMC-FZ50K BLK 10MP 12X 2i OIS
SONY DSC-H9B BLK 8.1MP 15X 3.0i BIONZ
CANON POWERSHOT S5 IS 8MP 12X 2.5i SWIVL
PANASONIC DMC-FZ18K 8.1MP 18X 2.5i

From 12x-18x