got a new P&S camera for my folks...
04-27-2006, 10:38 AM
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got a new P&S camera for my folks...
as you can guess... mother's day is approaching.. and my folks are going out of country for a vacation.. so i thought getting them a digital camera would be an awesome gift.
since they are not so keen on technology (i.e. don't know how to work a cell phone except taking and ending calls), i would have to test a bunch of cameras not only for picture quality, but also ease of use.... and also.. form factor is another concern (since mostly it will be in a lady's purse)
I narrowed all these down with form factor being the first priority... if it's too big and heavy, they won't take it... so all else would mean nothing...
with that.. i narrowed it down to a few:
Canon SD600
Nikon S6
Casio EX-z750
Fuji Finepix Z2
Panasonic FX-9
Sony T9
Sony and Fuji is scratched based on their proprietory storage media (memory stick and xD card) simply because I want to be able to reuse these storage media on other cameras I have.
So i went to the store and compare the other four...
seems like every manufacturer has their own little trick to make their product stands out..
The Canon has the most punchy colour in terms of quality
The Panasonic has an anti-shake feature that could eliminate blurred shots
The Casio seems average, however it has a feature on uploading pictures via a software that will generate HTML pages (as per the sales guy)
The Nikon has wifi which can transmit your pictures to your computer or printer via wireless network if available
At the end, I picked the Nikon not because of the wifi, but the layout is the simpliest... it has a rotating wheel that eliminates alot of buttons on the camera itself, the interface is nicely laid out and very simple with text and icons
a few things to note...
- if you are thinking of buying a P&S i would suggest you hold off a bit... the new trend this year appears to be adding anti-shake feature to higher end cameras, as well as aluminum casing
- most cameras now have a docking station, that charges your camera and connects it to the computer... it seems like a neat idea, but for traveling folks, you might have a problem... get a media card reader instead... (what i do in the past is just a usb cable for my phone, camera, portable HD... now seems like the camera is out of the game)
- there are facial recognition function added to most cameras now... as i have not tried it yet (it's on the nikon S6) not sure how good it is, but what it suppose to do is it will look for human face and focus the camera automatically
since they are not so keen on technology (i.e. don't know how to work a cell phone except taking and ending calls), i would have to test a bunch of cameras not only for picture quality, but also ease of use.... and also.. form factor is another concern (since mostly it will be in a lady's purse)
I narrowed all these down with form factor being the first priority... if it's too big and heavy, they won't take it... so all else would mean nothing...
with that.. i narrowed it down to a few:
Canon SD600
Nikon S6
Casio EX-z750
Fuji Finepix Z2
Panasonic FX-9
Sony T9
Sony and Fuji is scratched based on their proprietory storage media (memory stick and xD card) simply because I want to be able to reuse these storage media on other cameras I have.
So i went to the store and compare the other four...
seems like every manufacturer has their own little trick to make their product stands out..
The Canon has the most punchy colour in terms of quality
The Panasonic has an anti-shake feature that could eliminate blurred shots
The Casio seems average, however it has a feature on uploading pictures via a software that will generate HTML pages (as per the sales guy)
The Nikon has wifi which can transmit your pictures to your computer or printer via wireless network if available
At the end, I picked the Nikon not because of the wifi, but the layout is the simpliest... it has a rotating wheel that eliminates alot of buttons on the camera itself, the interface is nicely laid out and very simple with text and icons
a few things to note...
- if you are thinking of buying a P&S i would suggest you hold off a bit... the new trend this year appears to be adding anti-shake feature to higher end cameras, as well as aluminum casing
- most cameras now have a docking station, that charges your camera and connects it to the computer... it seems like a neat idea, but for traveling folks, you might have a problem... get a media card reader instead... (what i do in the past is just a usb cable for my phone, camera, portable HD... now seems like the camera is out of the game)
- there are facial recognition function added to most cameras now... as i have not tried it yet (it's on the nikon S6) not sure how good it is, but what it suppose to do is it will look for human face and focus the camera automatically
04-27-2006, 11:30 AM
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Originally Posted by Mannn,Apr 27 2006, 01:51 PM
Doug.. your camera is obsolete....
New V610.. put yours to the trash now and ask them to give you the newer one instead!!
New V610.. put yours to the trash now and ask them to give you the newer one instead!!
The V610 is nice don't get me wromg, I have used it a lot but I really prefer the V570.
The V570 is a decent amount smaller than the V610 and that's good. The V610 although out of this world for optical quality and power and the space it has been crammed into, for me it has a problem. The camera does not have a viewfinder, so when you take a pic you are holding the camera out and not pushing it tight against your head. As a pro you know you get a lot of stability out of that "tension" between your head and the camera back. At full 10X optical zoom I found it very difficult to get a really sharp shot because it is nearly impossible to hold the camera still enough at 380mm. I find for me the 24mm wide angle lens in the V570 gets more use in a point-n-shoot than the big 10X does.
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04-27-2006, 10:39 PM
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The face priority AF feature in the little Nikons is pretty cool. Works really well in figuring out where the face is and comes up with very good parameters to flatter the face as much as possible. We just got a new Nikon Coolpix as a beater camera and I'm really impressed with the auto mode. The Nikon firmware is pretty smart these days.
04-29-2006, 05:51 AM
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Mmmm... Nikon S6. 3 inch LCD display 
. If they keep making these LCDs bigger, the cameras are going to have to get bigger too. I'm old school and do like the presence of an optical viewfinder though....just in case.
. If they keep making these LCDs bigger, the cameras are going to have to get bigger too. I'm old school and do like the presence of an optical viewfinder though....just in case.
04-29-2006, 06:18 AM
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Originally Posted by Special_K_828,Apr 29 2006, 08:51 AM
Mmmm... Nikon S6. 3 inch LCD display . If they keep making these LCDs bigger, the cameras are going to have to get bigger too. I'm old school and do like the presence of an optical viewfinder though....just in case.
. If they keep making these LCDs bigger, the cameras are going to have to get bigger too. I'm old school and do like the presence of an optical viewfinder though....just in case.