What type of camera do you use?

[Grimm]

I`m thinking about upgrading from our 5 year old P&S type camera. It really is lacking when taking pictures that aren`t in optimal light, sunny day pictures often look washed out, etc. I see a lot of you guys that post in the Click and Brag that get really good close up shots of the paint when comparing before and after shots of swirls. I had a very tough time getting that kind of shot to work out on mine. Do you guys use the professional SLR type cameras, or do the less "professional" cameras produce good results these days? I`m looking at getting a Canon since I`ve been very happy with the one I have. The A630, A710, and S3 IS are the ones that are at the top of my list right now (looking to stay under $400). They all seem to be semi professional in that they have a lot of the manual features of the expensive cameras, and hopefully will produce the results I want. From the reviews these look to be good cameras, but I don`t want to shell out $300 on a camera that I won`t be totally happy with. I`m not looking for professional pictures, just better quality when it comes to low light/bright light shots of the family and such, more zoom capability as well as the ability to take clear up close shots such as the above mentioned swirl shots.

[Joshua312]

I would go with the S3IS...Have read nothing but good reviews...



I currently have the A620 and did have the S2IS. You will not be disappointed!

[TigerMike]

I have an older Canon A95 that I really really like, but it`s only 5MP. The new A640 is 10MP and only $319 at Dell! (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0725562) After comparing the picture quality of the A640 to the new XTi, honestly I think I like the 640 better, believe it or not. At a tad over $300, I really want to upgrade to the 640, but am also looking at and waiting for reviews on the new G7. I had my heart set on going with a DSLR (likely the XTi), but I`m now rethinking my decision and also considering if I`d actually spend for a bunch of lenses and other stuff for the SLR.



Go to www.dcresource.com and look at the reviews and picture galleries for the 640 and XTi. Compare the exact same images (looking at fine details, colors, etc) from both cameras, and I bet you`d think the 640 is every bit as good as the XTi. I`ve spent many hours actually combing through pictures on that site comparing picture quality and details, and I`ll say the A series cameras are top notch! Probably also why I love my A95, just wish it had more pixels now. ;)



Regards,



Mike

[Grimm]

I really like the price of the 630, but I`m really leaning toward the 710 or S3 because of the higher zoom capability. My current camera is the A20. Really it`s been a good camera. It prints decent 8x10`s even. I`m just picky and never have been totally happy with the quality, especially close ups and bright sunny shots. But I think the ever changing technologies just raise the bar and make us wanting more...

[Joshua312]

...because of the higher zoom capability...



Starting with the S2IS and going to the A620, the big disappointment was the drop in zoom like you are talking about. The S2/S3 has an unbelievable zoom feature!!

[Grimm]

I was just looking at Butterfly and see they still sell the S2 IS. I think I`ll have to see how much the S3 is better since the S2 is only $274.

[imported_GregCavi]

I have a canon A610, that i bought from butterflyphoto for under 200 bucks. Its a great camera for the price and works great for what I do (take pics of details).



Greg

[imported_CBX Carl]

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/PanasonicFZ20/images/fz20-3q-001.jpg



Picture quality has improved when I received this last year. I leave the Canon P&S at home now. The ability to frame a nice shot with the Zoom lens is just great.

[imported_paradigm]

i`ve had a canon S2 IS for about a year...been very happy w/ it. the 12x zoom is great...and movie mode is excellent. the S3 sounds like a great choice to me.

[paul79uf]

I`ve got an old Canon SD110 3.2MP, a new Canon SD700 6MP 4x Opt. Zoom compact, and also just got a Canon S3 IS ultra zoom with 12x Opt, stereo sound, etc.

[Scottwax]

I have a Nikon N60 35mm camera. Takes mostly great pictures but black cars in the full sun fool the light meter because even with matrix metering, when the car fills 80% of the frame, the background is overexposed. Digital seems to handle those situations better but digital pics still look a bit flat to me compared to print film.

[xinkid]

I think the lower end cameras are getting much better with picture quality now days. I did look at the Canon A5xx and A6xx cameras very closely when I was looking for a P&S. Based on all the reviews I`ve read, I think the A6xx (A620, A630, A640) produce very high quality pictures. However, I was deterred by the numerous reports on "lens error" and "memory card error". Just look at the user reviews on amazon and sort them by lowest rating first. (that`s what I always do with every camera I look at)



I ended up going with a Fujifilm Finepix Z2. I read numerous reviews (for the Z1) complaining about picture quality but very few incidents of the camera dying. I bought it from my friend and had a chance to test it out beforehand. To me, the pictures were pretty good, both indoors and outdoors. Here`s some that I took recently for reference.

http://www.carpron.com/multisite/v/Upload/album98/winnie+the+two+detail+2006/?g2_navId=xa6c2f1d0

[CleanGSR]

I bought a Canon A620 a few months ago. The quality of the pictures from this camera is downright amazing. Not only that, I`m very impressed with the options like manually changing shutter speed, aperature, etc.... It also takes incredible night time pictures. Yeah, the zoom sucks, but I`m getting the adapter with a telephoto lens for the times I need higher zoom (visits to the zoo, etc.)

[ashsarna]

I bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5K black color at the begining of the year. This is a pro-sumer camera that is small in size but capable like the professional cameras. Its a 5 megapixel and 12X zoom that actually works. This was the camera of the year in europe and after searching I got it. Very happy that the next camera will be a Pana too.

[ZeusCGP]

For quick stuff, I love my Canon SD550. Love my friends SD600 even more (smaller). 630 is nice but I`d imagine I`d break the extra large screen easier.

When I know I want to shoot something, Ill break out the Canon 1D Mk II.