brantshali

The S200 and 230 are roughly the size of a pack of cigarettes. Not SUPER small, but small enough to carry in the pocket of Dockers or in a jacket pocket comfortably.

I believe jedwards is the John in question...

wicky

thanks brant......


I just read a bunch of this stuff, and the ones that are looking good to me are the canon s230, the sony dsc-p72, and the fuji a303, although the fuji may drop out as it has the least features. The sony has the most, but is much larger and much heavy. The canon has a proprietary battery, and I gotta say when I used my father-in-law's sony it was nice that the rechargeables are AA sized, because (like mike said) we had to pick up a pack of battery once the rechargeables had cheesed out (lisa didn't bring the recharger )

I'm on the right track I think

brantshali

That would be one of my bigger gripes...the proprietary battery. On the plus side, they last quite a while and recharge quickly...though recharge speed doesn't do you any good if you're not near a plug...

tokyo_james

I have a Konica and that has a proprietry rechargable battery and yes ... it is a PITA when the battery runs out while you are on a trip or something

What I do like about it though is that it uses the Memory Stick and I have a memory stick slot on my Sony laptop .... which makes down loading the photos so easy

mikes2k

You can get a car charger for most batteries

http://www.mraccessory.com/newacdclitio1.html

Relson

i just bought a Canon S400, and am VERY satisfied. If you want an excellent source of info for digital cameras, check out Steve's Digicams.

WestSideBilly

Wicky, I sent this to a friend in a similar situation a few weeks ago:

Camera Recommendations (under $400)
I'm going to be a slacker, sorta. My recommendations are either the Canon A70 or the Canon S230 ELPH. They are both similar to my camera, the S30, all three are 3.2 megapixel, the S30 and A70 has a 3x zoom while the S230 has a 2x zoom. Also, the S230 is considerably smaller than either of the other ones.

S30 - 4.4 x 2.3 x 1.7 inches, 11.5 ounces "wet", 1.8" LCD
A70 - 4.0 x 2.5 x 1.2 inches, 11.6 ounces "wet", 1.5" LCD
230 - 3.4 x 2.2 x 1.1 inches, 6.4 ounces "dry", 1.5" LCD

Wet = with battery and media, dry = no battery or media. I think the 230 will end up weighing about 10 ounces. The A70 uses 4 x AA batteries, the S230 uses a battery pack (better but more expensive to replace after a few hundred charges). Operation will be similar to my camera, if you remember how it works. Canon's Auto mode is very good and yields quality pictures about 75% of the time (vs 25-50% with typical AF cameras).

The A70 and S230 will both be about $350 w/ 16 mb card and base batteries. You'll want a bigger memory card (64 meg, minimum, at about $35, or 128 meg for about $55) and a set of rechargables for the A70 ($20). You'll need a USB connection on your computer - if you don't have one, one can be added for about $15.

Note that I am not recommending my camera - it is "obsolete" and has been discontinued, and its replacement is over $400.

Between the two, I think the real decider is compact size vs more zoom

As a sidenote, I've taken to basically recommending only cameras that use compact flash or smartmedia, the only two "open" memory standards. I refuse to recommend something that uses a proprietary memory tech, such as Sony (memory stick) and Fuji (xD picture card). Proprietary = more expensive, less support. So my recommendations are biased by that...

In case you didn't catch it, I have an S30 - VERY pleased. I'm a crappy photographer though, and despite that most of my point and shoot attempts have turned out well.

wicky

thanks everybody, damn, I'm gonna be so satisfied.

Relson, thanks for the link, I'm checking it out

BillyBoy, I was wondering about the memory actually, and I've already noticed it's been difficult finding xD cards, esp. at the size I want (256 MB).

decisions, decisions...

mikes2k

One other digicam shopping tip: dont even look at the digital zoom numbers. Digital zoom are pretty much worthless. Only compare the optical zoom number.

I shut mine off most of the time ,that way it doesn't go into digital zoom by accident. I never use it...well I did use it to get the butt shots at the Sixers game for the 'S

wicky

thanks mike, I know about digital zoom The sony I used has a meter on the LCD and is marked where the digital zoom starts so I could leave it on in case I ever needed it (for butts and titties), but could also see where I was so I could stay away... I'm about to do some more shopping.... I'll let you guys know what I decide and why........

thanks everybody this has been a great wealth of info