Your thoughts

[Piker]

Hey all,

I need a little direction if you will.

I've been all over the digital camera spectrum reading this, testing that, yadda yadda and I've narrowed my choices down to the following cams and was wondering what ye'll thought? At this juncture, I'm not committed even remotely, but these are the results yielded from my little research project.

For under $400 I wanted to get a camera that offered at least 5.1 Megapixels, the ability to use a teleconverter and wide-angle conversion lens, as well as various filters.

I was very impressed with the PowerShot S60, but the more I researched, the more I realized that it was not presently the best bang for the buck and it does have an issue with the front lens cover, so I'm wondering what you guys think about the following cameras.... I appreciate your feedback.

So far, my favorite is the Fuji FinePix E550, what a cool little camera.
I also like the Canon PowerShot A95 and the Sony Cyber-sht DSC-W1.

Although I have used this tool: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sidebyside.asp ;
I still don't have enough experience with these products to know how the quality is going to be. I like the way the Fui feels though and it's pretty intuitive.


Does anyone here own any of these cams, and if so, what do you have to say about them, good or bad.

 

[Piker]

Well…….I did it.

I ordered the Sony DSC-W1 .........

Instead of asking for gifts this year, I asked for cold-hard cash and got it so this is what I bought. $269 including shipping got me the following:

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/sony/dsc...iew/index.shtml

Today while I was in the camera store I played around with the Canon A95 and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W1. This purchase is going to be my everything camera, so I went with the DSC-W1 over the A95 for the following reasons:

The sales people at Ritz Camera had hard copy pictures handy taken with both cameras and the quality of the DSC-W1 was better, although the A95 was also good quality.

The price was the same, give or take a few dollars.


The DSC-W1 takes up to 340 pictures using two 2100 MAh rechargeable NiMH AA batteries whereas, the A95 uses four AA’s and can take 400 pictures before the batteries are completely spent. The DSC-W1 is 4.4 oz lighter. I personally preferred the feel of the DSC-W1 over the A95. AA batteries and battery chargers aren’t very costly, but you get rechargeable batteries and a charger with Sony whereas you only get alkaline batteries with the A95. I like cameras that use the AA batteries as opposed to the proprietary batteries. In addition to being a lot cheaper, if you should need batteries in a snap, you can get AA’s anywhere.

The Sony uses a Memory Stick as opposed to Compact Flash memory in the Canon and is a little more expensive, but price difference is made up with the battery charger and batteries you get with the Sony when purchasing brand new.

I also like the design of the Sony, it’s very Elph-like.

Both cameras allow you to use lens converters so that you can slap on a wide-angle or a telephoto lens, and the accessories are, believe it or not, reasonably priced. The Sony makes a telephoto lens for the DSC-W1 that brings the tele end up to 296.4mm, which is pretty insane for a small camera like this. The Sony uses a Zeiss zoom lens. Here’ what the telephoto lens looks like………

The Sony also allows for an external flash that you can attach to a tripod on the bottom. That’s not an option on the A95.

I don’t do too much underwater photography so, the Canon underwater case wasn't a show stopper.

The Canon offers a swivel LCD display, but I didn’t like that as it's just one more thing that I could potentially break. The Sony has a larger LCD display, 2.5” compared to the A95’s 1.8” flip out and twist.

The Sony offers USB2 over the A95’s USB 1.1 which is a big deal for me.

With these two models, there’s really nothing that the Canon A95 offers that the Sony DSC-W1 doesn’t. The video feature on the Sony blows the Canon away.

I’m not a Sony or a Canon person; I’m a neutral consumer looking to find the best piece of equipment for the job at the best price.

Here’s a side by side for anyone that is looking at these two cameras:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_po..._dscw1&show=all

Supposedly Sony’s camera software isn’t the best photoapplication, but I use Photoshop, so it wasn’t an issue. The camera should be here by next week.

Happy Shooting !

 

[Piker]

This is a pretty cool tool to help people compare the difference between two different types of cameras. Just thought I'd pass it along:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/IMCOMP/COMPS01.HTM