Need Help on a Digital Camera Choice

[shadow]

I am in need of a new digital camera. Here are my requirements.

quick shutter speed....hate the long delays between pressing the button and it actually taking a picture.

Flexability of batterys or ability to last a while on a single set of batteries with the lcd screen on durring picture taking.


ability to take pictures at night upto about 20 ft

light wieght and durable

ability to update the camera software should a "patch" need to be applied

ability to see the lcd screen in the daytime as well as night


So far I have come up with the Nikon CoolPix 4500 or the 4300.

I am not limited to Nikon but that is as far as I could get. Whats your thoughts?

 

[shadow]

After lots of reading and studying on the web from various opinion sites and mfg sites I decided to go to BestBuy and try a couple out, Nikon 4500, Cannon S40 and G2. Sony was out due to propritary memory sticks and a couple of other things I didn't like. I tried out the Nikon 4500, poor battery life and slow shutter speed. I tried the Cannon powershot s40 a bit faster shutter speed but still kinda slow.

I then tried the Cannon PowerShot G2 and fell in love. 1/1000 shutter speed even when in "Auto" mode, Nikon 4500 was 1/2300. I also stood there and filled up a 128 mb and a 32 mb card on a single battery charge, granted it was an energizer aftermarket battery but very impressed none the less. The LCD screen is fully adjustable yet not as bulky as the Nikon 4500. Flash is rated at 13' but more like 11' but has the ability to have an external flash attached to the camera itself without buying an adapter to mount on the camera, unlike the Nikon 4500. Not to heavy 14 oz. Also will record AVI's, not even an option with the Nikon.

Needless to say I purchased the G2.

Hope this helps someone else.

 

[spectr17]

Hello Shadow,

glad to see you found a camera you like.

I haven't used a camcorder or camera yet that had a decent LCD screen that worked in bright sunlight. Whoever figures that out will be a gazillionaire.

Digitals jsut plain suck batteries. It's not really the cameras fault. battery technology just hasn't developed as quickly as the cameras.

Digital shutter lag is one thing that takes some getting used to. Some of the digitals I've tried were so slow on the shutter I found them impossible to get used to.

Let us know how your low light filming works out. I'm curious how the G2 does in that type of setting.

Now let' see some pics

 

[shadow]

Well now playing with it a bit tonight I am very impressed with the battery consumption!!!

I fully charged the factory battery, which only took about 1 1/2 hours. I then proceeded to take pictures high light, low light, videos etc... The book states that the factory battery will last with the lcd monitor on approx 400 images, w/o the lcd monitor on 1000 images and replay time for video is about 300 minutes. Thier tests were done in 73 degree temps, alternating max wide angle and max telephoto shots at 20 second intervals with flash fired once every four shots and camera power turned off and on every eighth shot. I took the second highest quality photo resolution the camera has and fit 2 30 second videos with voice and 154 pictures and still had about 26 mb left on a 128 mb CF card. Every picture turned out great so far. I attempted the continueous shot and took 8 pictures one after another and they all turned out great! I am very satisified with the camera and I will post some of the pictures later. I plan on taking this camera on our trip to Disney next week so I will post some of those as well when we get back. BTW the flash is about 12' reliably and the battery indicator still says the battery is still good!!! DID I SAY I WAS IMPRESSED with the power consumption oh yea the shutter spead is great to!!!

One more thing this camera is replacing a 2 1/2 year old HP C500 2.1 mp camera that "bit the dust" this past weekend while I was deer hunting....rain does not do a digital camera much good, needless to say I didn't get a picture of my 10 pointer before I dropped it off at the procesors... nuff said....wife not happy....lots of makeup time coming.... but worked out for the best.