mom needs a p&s

Elaine

I haven't researched point and shoots in such a long time, I don't know what the latest and greatest is. My mom needs a good little camera, perferrably under $350. She won't be doing much (if any) post processing, so RAW is not a necessity. I'll be looking to see what Canon is offering and checking out dpreview, but I was wondering if anyone has any pointers or suggestions in this department?

Thanks!

Grainbelt

How much manual control will your mother utilize?

How important is size?

I like the Canons for manual control, and the Panasonics for the 28mm equivalent at the wide end.

$350 is a very nice P&S these days.

ziggy53

I have a Fuji F30 and I bought a refurbished Fuji F40fd for my son (which meant that I "had" to test it.)

I am extremely impressed at what these little cameras can do, especially in low light.

The F40fd is awfully nice in full auto mode and the shadow detail responds well if you "do" want to tweak images in post.

jziegler

Ziggy,

I don't want to hijack the thread too much, but how does the low light high ISO on the F40 compare, in your opinion. It seems that the opinions on this are mixed.

Elaine,

The Canon A series (A5xx, 6xx, and 7xx specifically) and the Fuji F series both should serve you well. The Canons should all be a good bit cheaper than your max, running about $150 - $300. If you want really small, the Canon SD series looks pretty good too.

Thanks,
James

claudermilk

I'm not too familiar with the P&S market either--moves too fast & not my area of interest. I'd say take a good look at DPR reviews and Steve's Digicams reviews.

Believe it or not, Casio's Exilim line is a pretty good one for a simple P&S. My wife's does a reasonable job. It seems they put out a new upgraded model every 4-6 months.

Elaine

Thanks, everyone! After looking through many reviews, I decided to recommend the Canon SD850 IS or the Canon S3IS and let her decide which size (super compact vs. super zoom) and zoom factor (4x vs. 12x) and battery type (battery pack vs. AAs) are most important to her. I don't think she cares much about manual controls, but if she chooses the S3, she may want to learn more and have fun with all the features. I sent her the links to the B&H kits that include a couple memory cards and extra batteries, so she'll be set. Anyway, I'm curious to see what she decides.

ziggy53

jziegler wrote:

Ziggy,

I don't want to hijack the thread too much, but how does the low light high ISO on the F40 compare, in your opinion. It seems that the opinions on this are mixed.

...

I'll do a mini-review in a seperate thread in a couple of days.

jziegler

ziggy53 wrote:

I'll do a mini-review in a seperate thread in a couple of days.

Thanks. I look forward to reading it.

James

two slow

Elaine wrote:

Thanks, everyone! After looking through many reviews, I decided to recommend the Canon SD850 IS or the Canon S3IS and let her decide which size (super compact vs. super zoom) and zoom factor (4x vs. 12x) and battery type (battery pack vs. AAs) are most important to her. I don't think she cares much about manual controls, but if she chooses the S3, she may want to learn more and have fun with all the features. I sent her the links to the B&H kits that include a couple memory cards and extra batteries, so she'll be set. Anyway, I'm curious to see what she decides.

I have a canon SD 700 IS. Its a pretty good P&S. When I got it I had a choice between it and the SD800 IS. I went with it for the zoom range, 35mm-140mm VS 28-105mm.

Elaine

two slow wrote:

I have a canon SD 700 IS. Its a pretty good P&S. When I got it I had a choice between it and the SD800 IS. I went with it for the zoom range, 35mm-140mm VS 28-105mm.

Cool! The SD850 is actually the successor to the SD700, as it has the same zoom range. I go back and forth on which is better on a P&S...wider or longer.

Grainbelt

Elaine wrote:

Cool! The SD850 is actually the successor to the SD700, as it has the same zoom range. I go back and forth on which is better on a P&S...wider or longer.

group shots, indoors? wider

trying to get a shot of the kids at the soccer game? longer

hard to guess which will be used more, I know. But you can always crop tighter later (or use digital zoom) at the megapixels these P&S cameras put out. Difficult to add in that uncle on the right that got cut off in the photo.