Help with P&S

Angelo

Hey everyone

I need a good, reliable, easy to use P&S for my in-laws.

It should offer ease of use for senior citizens, stills and video.

It's needed for a 50th anniversary European vacation so it should be small and convenient but with a decent size screen for elderly eyes.

Any and all advice appreciated

swintonphoto

I would look at the Olympus FE or Stylus lines. They come in many unique colors, and have great dummy modes.
The FE line is extremely easy to use. We bought one of these for my parents in law - they are easilly intimidated by techno gadgets and they love it.
The Stylus line is a step up in features and quality, but is slightly more difficult to use (only difficulty is more functions that may make it seem more intimidating). My wife has one of these - it takes greate images. Many have in camera IS. Short shutter lag.
Newegg has great prices on these cameras.

I am sure other brands are great as well, but I have limited experience with them.

Tee Why

How about a Canon A 590IS or A 720IS?
Not too small and not too big, pretty good IQ for a digicam, takes AA batteries, so it's easy to replace on a trip and nice simple scene modes.
Comes with a 2.5 inch LCD though.
http://dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_a590-review/index.shtml

Scott_Quier

My personal favorite is the Canon G9 - for all sorts of reasons:

• Very short off --> first shot timing, like a couple of seconds!
• Has everything from full manual mode to Av, Tv, a bunch of "scene" modes, P mode, and a couple that you can customize should you want to.
• Huge 3" (I think) LCD
• Good battery life
• Nice quiet black patina finish
• Nice optical zoom
• Face sensing technology that actually works
• A number of different JPG resolution/file sizes
• Oh, and it captures RAW, should they want that.
• Very good IQ, even at ISO 400. ISO 800 is still usable.
• Oh, and it has Image Stabilization

Is that more camera than is wanted/needed? Only you/they can decide that. But, I'm loving mine!

keepright

Angelo wrote:

It's needed for a 50th anniversary European vacation so it should be small and convenient but with a decent size screen for elderly eyes.

Have a look at the Canon SD870 IS; 3" screen and a 28mm-equivalent wide angle lens for the landscape-and-interiors photographs.

Depending on your in-laws, you might also want to look at the Olympus 1030SW. It also has the wide-angle lens, and in exchange for the image stabilization you get a camera that will withstand a tremendous amount of abuse.

For either camera, look for a second battery as a fully-charged spare is always nice to have while on a vacation.

NikonsandVstroms

If you're looking for something small the Nikon S600 is a great little camera and has a wide angle. 28 mm equivalent lens and optical VR

ziggy53

I have to put in a plug for the FujiFilm "Fxx" series P&S cameras.

I have the F30 and I bought both my lady friend and my son the F40fd for Christmas.

The latest cameras, the F50fd and F100fd are usable at high ISO and both include "true" chip based image stabilization. (The F100fd also includes a longer 28-140mm equivalent zoom.)

The zoom range is appropriate for the normal usage of the camera and responsiveness is very pleasing.

While exposure on the F30 is a little "hot" in default settings (easily corrected) the F40fd is very nice and reviews on the newer versions seem also very good.

No RAW and no external flash capability so it's a genuine P&S capable camera only, but extremely good at what it does.

(I should add that for my own use I have added a digital slave capability and an accessory lens capability for 28-200mm equivalence. This camera goes on every road trip I take. )

Angelo

Thanks guys, these are all great suggestions. Keep 'em coming.

(I'll be traveling the next few days so I may not be able to respond again before Monday)

mike_flood

Scott_Quier wrote:

My personal favorite is the Canon G9 - for all sorts of reasons:

• Very short off --> first shot timing, like a couple of seconds!
• Has everything from full manual mode to Av, Tv, a bunch of "scene" modes, P mode, and a couple that you can customize should you want to.
• Huge 3" (I think) LCD
• Good battery life
• Nice quiet black patina finish
• Nice optical zoom
• Face sensing technology that actually works
• A number of different JPG resolution/file sizes
• Oh, and it captures RAW, should they want that.
• Very good IQ, even at ISO 400. ISO 800 is still usable.
• Oh, and it has Image Stabilization

Is that more camera than is wanted/needed? Only you/they can decide that. But, I'm loving mine!

I agee, my usual camera is a Nikon D2x but for OUR 50th anniversary trip I bouught the Canon G9 as well for all the reasons list. I love it!

Eric&Susan

I bought my wife the canon S5 and she loves it.

It has alot of zoom (12X), has built in IS (great for senior citizens), and the movies rock on this thing. Very clear and sounds pretty good also.

Eric

Cuong

keepright wrote:

Have a look at the Canon SD870 IS; 3" screen and a 28mm-equivalent wide angle lens for the landscape-and-interiors photographs.
...
For either camera, look for a second battery as a fully-charged spare is always nice to have while on a vacation.

I second this suggestion. The Canon PowerShot SDxxx line looks good, is very compact, and has excellent IQ. Regardless which camera you choose, I highly recommend getting one with optical IS.

Cuong

Dogdots

Angelo wrote:

Hey everyone

I need a good, reliable, easy to use P&S for my in-laws.

It should offer ease of use for senior citizens, stills and video.

It's needed for a 50th anniversary European vacation so it should be small and convenient but with a decent size screen for elderly eyes.

Any and all advice appreciated

Well Angelo I can only give you advice from a P&S I had and gave to my son. It was the Canon Powershot. I can't remember the number on it, but I think it was a 560 or something like that. Canon has come out with better ones now. Mine was from 2 yrs ago I really liked it tho. Easy to use. Photos from it was awesome. Sometimes I think even better then my XTI
Wish I had kept it, but am looking myself for another one to replace it. I would advise setting it up for them and then showing them how to use it. Like I said it is easy. The dial on top just lets you turn to shoot or do video.

My friend has had 3 Kodak P&S's. She keeps losing them or her grandkids step on them She loves Kodak and will be replacing her losses with another one.

Good luck in picking one out. I know they will love it.