Railfan Technology > Point-and-Shoot recommendation

I've got a DSLR but sometimes that's more camera than I need. Can anyone give me a recommendation for a point and shoot camera?

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

I highly recommend the Canon S95. This camera is with me always. It's a pocket sized camera with a great sensor, a super fast F/2 lens, full manual controls as well as aperture priority and shutter priority modes, plus HD video in stereo. It also records in RAW if that's your preference. The only down side is that it is a bit pricey at $379 from Adorama.

Get something with a viewfinder. Backlit display screens are terrible in bright sun.

Ray

Ray_Murphy Wrote:
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> Get something with a viewfinder. Backlit display
> screens are terrible in bright sun.
>
> Ray

I agree, but try to find one except with a very limited zoom or a high price tag. Let me know of one, I'd be interested.

Bob

The Canon A-series cameras still have an optical viewfinder. Not as smart and compact as the S series, but more than adequate. The drawback of all of them is a much slower frame rate than you're accustomed to with an SLR.

Take a look at www.dpreview.org

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Powershot-A1200-Digital-Silver/dp/B004HW73SO/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

I went with a $200 Costco P&S of your favorite brand name, Nikon in my case. I would suggest stay away from a 'digital zoom' and prefer a good 'optical zoom' or just plain good optics. One of the guys at work found a P&S with a Leica lens, seems to have worked out well for him.

Mine has simple alkaline batteries, works well on trips if you have a supply of alkaline batteries with you. Others prefer rechargeable batteries but they seem to have shorter working life and needs recharging hardware. I have read that a P&S with a 'movie camera' mode doesn't do very well, I'd suggest the money be put into a P&S that just takes still photos. The model numbers seem to change every few months.

have a pentax wg1 for my kayaking and hunting adventures. waterproof ,dustproof, blah blah but it takes some pretty good pics.......

I got a Canon SX230HS a few weeks ago. Except for the lack of an optical viewfinder, the lack of which is a pain in bright sunlight, it is a great point and shoot camera. At 12 megapixels, with a 14X optical zoom and image stabilization, it is a very versatile camera and takes very sharp images. I don't consider it a substitute for a DSLR (I have a Canon 20D and 7D for that), but for those times when a DSLR is too big to carry, or for those times one needs to grab a quick photo (which I did just today when I spotted a MOW crew working in an unexpected place), the 230 is a handy little camera that will fit in one's pocket.

I have been happy with my recently purchased Nikon CoolPix S4100.
This very compact camera has 14 megapixels, 5x zoom, flash, scene
modes, and more for under $150.

peddler

canon g series. current one (g12) does hd video and stereo audio. also has lots of controls in easy reach. ive been quite happy with mine. minor quibble: not a superzoom.

I just got back from an 11-week trip to Europe, and I had my Canon S95 with me virtually the entire time. Its compact size and great picture quality make it a good camera for travel. I also had my Canon G9 with me, but I only carried it when I wanted its longer zoom lens (35-210 mm equivalent, versus 28-105 for the S95). I used to consider the G9 my go-to camera for travel but it now seems rather bulky compared with the S95.

The only drawback to the S95 is its shutter lag, particularly when shooting RAW. It can be a serious drawback when you're on a train, shooting out the window, and instead of the nice scene you envisioned, your photo ends up being a close-up of a tree or catenary support. The G9 has no lag time when shooting RAW.

Tom Murray
tmrail.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/11 10:36 by tmrail.