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[DisneyDreaming]

Hi All,
Well I went camera shopping again.
I am considering either a Canon Powershot S21S which is a 5mp with a 12X zoom

Or a Sony Cyber shot DSC-H11 which is a 5.1MP and 12xzoom

THese are mainly point and shoots, I am giving up the manual options for the longer zoom I think.

Questions: Does any one have either of these cameras or know anything about them?

Do you like them or which would you choose?

Does it make a difference from the compact cards for canon or the memory sticks for sony?

Thanks all.

WilCad said I need to go digital

Marylee

[Laughaholic]

I have a Nikon Coopix I got for about $180, $200 with tax, and it is an AWESOME camera! I have great pictures now, I am really excited to use it in WDW this time.

I'm sorry I do not know anything about the models you are looking at. Let me make one suggestion though, stay away from the HP Photosmart 435. I have had nothing but problems with it, and I got this Nikon about 4 months after purchasing the HP one, and they will not give me a refund. Also, I have had a Vivitar, relatively inexpensive, (somewhere around $100). It took great shots, but for some reason after a year of usage it doesn't hold any batteries charge. HTH!

[TravelingTots]

I can't offer any options about the particular cameras, but both are good brands. I have a Fuji Finepix, which I absolutely adore! It makes great pix, and I love having the option to edit them prior to printing. Since I went digital a couple of years ago, I can't imagine ever going back to film!

Good luck finding what you're looking for!!!

[bradk]

i don't care much for sony as they tend to be proprietary (the memory sticks are a small example). if you're sony across the board, i guess it helps. compact flash is much more widely accepted and used. also, check to see the battery types. sony again is usually propietary batteries which can run you $50+ each (you should always have a backup battery). try to find a camera that lets you use AA batteries. i've found my fuji s7000 (which is soon to be replaced i hope) which uses 4 AA batteries can last about 3-4 hours on one set, so I make sure I always have enough sets of batteries to last an entire day when I'm out. or if I can't do that, at least I can buy alkalines somewhere for it.

by the way, did you mean Canon Powershot S2 IS? (there is no s21s ?) the IS means image stablization which is actually a pretty nice feature which means your camera won't suffer from nearly as much shake when taking photos without the flash, which is inevitable since the flash hurts the image a lot of times. also, while it takes AA batteries, it stores images on secure digital (SD) not compact flash, which isn't widely as accepted, but still probably better than memory stick.

they're also both 12x optical. the canon has +4x digital and the sony has +2x digital. the sony also reportedly operates on AAs as well. i also like the idea that the sony can do a pretty decent burst mode (didn't see the specs on the canon) and the sony has a 5 point AF (also didn't see for the canon). the sony also has its own image stablization feature.

on the surface, it might seem like the sony might be the more versatile of the two.

[LizardCop]

I am not familiar with those specific models.

If they are point-and-shoots, I'm wondering if the 12X is optical zoom or a combination of 3X optical and 4X digital. If that's the case, you're using a 3X zoom. The digital zoom is not that great, even in the newer cameras, and you can actually do better using a good photo program to oversize the picture.

As for needing a 5MP camera, will you really be shooting at the 5MP picture size, or will you (as many of us do) be shooting at HQ or SHQ (which is "normally" about 2MP or less).

Compact flash or SD/MMC are pretty much standard cards now-a-days and can be bought relatively inexpensively. Make sure the camera can use AA batteries, then get a couple of sets of good NIMH rechargeables and a good recharger. For the average person, a couple of sets of batteries will last all day.

If you are truly looking for a high zoom camera, a point and shoot is not what you want. Check out the Optical zoom for the camera and use that to decide what to get. I, personally, prefer the Olympus C-7xx series of cameras, most have 10X optical zoom. However, there are a few other camera manufactorers that make high optical zoom cameras that are very good.

Don't be in a rush, check out the various brands on the internet, and look at some of the pictures others are posting in their trip reports and signatures. Ask them what type of camera they are using and how they like it.

For the average picture taker, a good quality 3X optical 3MP camera will do just fine.

Just my $.02

[iamgrumpy]

Just wanted to say Good Luck Choosing!

Amy

[Big Baloo]

Even tho I didn't request it, thanks for all the good info. DH and I will be digicam shopping once he gets back from his latest deployment! Can't wait!

[sleepyndoc]

I would guess that the Canon S2 IS is 12x OPTICAL zoom, since I have the S1 IS and it's 10x optical zoom (can't tell you how much digital zoom, since I never use it). When I bought a camera last year optical zoom was the main requirement (well, that and being a simple point and shoot - a $1000 SLR camera would be wasted on me. I don't want to have to work too hard to take my pictures - I just want to be able to zoom in like I used to with my 35mm point and shoot).

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Canon. I LOVE mine! Don't know if it's still true, at the time I bought mine Canon was the only one with image stabilization. It helps a lot when you don't have the ability to set up a tripod. High-zoom pictures are a lot less blurry.

My model is only 3mp, but I don't tend to blow my pictures up past 5x7, so I've never missed having more mp available. I do like the viewfinder that flips out and can move, like you find on camcorders.

I've found the Canon easy to operate. I also like the photo editing software it came with. I've received tons of compliments on the pictures I took at Disney, especially as far as color (my picture with the 7 dwarves really shows color depth).

I went to Best Buy to look at the cameras, and to hold each and make sure I was comfortable with them. I then bought on-line, since it was about $80 cheaper at the time.

The camera takes AA batteries, so I use rechargeables. And the price of the compact flash memory is very reasonable.

Good luck!

[WillCAD]

A bit of caution on those cameras with huge 10x and 12x optical zooms:

Cameras that go from wide angle to a high zoom factor often suffer from barrel distortion in the wide angle. Barrel distortion is a type of distortion that makes the picture look a little like a fish-eye; straight lines at the endges of the image (like buildings or lamp posts) tend to curve. This page gives a better description and a picture to illustrate.

My Fuji Finepix S602 goes from wide-angle to 6x optical zoom. Barrel distortion is barely noticable in pics of people or nature shots with no straight lines, but it shows up pretty badly in pics of buildings and in indoor pics with walls and furniture. And the distortion gets worse in lenses that have a wider range between their widest angle and their longest zoom, so lenses that go from wide to 10x or 12x zoom usually have even worse barrel distortion than my 6x zoom.

o look at some example pics from any camera you are thinking about buying, and consider whether the barrel distortion will be an issue for you.

[D1sneyDad]

I just purhcased the Canon Powershot S2 IS and am currently waiting for it to arrive . I did MUCH investigation on which camera to go with. If you are trying to decide between the Canon and the Sony let me throw these out to you. The Canon uses a more widely used storage device, SD (Secure Digital) memory card, which is not proprietary. The canon also lets you use standard AA batteries that you can get anywhere, not sure what sony uses. The Canon has image stabilization which will allow you to take zoomed in pictures without the need for a tri-pod. I read that the canon can take upto 550 pictures with 2300mAh NiMH batteries while the sony only gets about 290 with 2100mAh NuMH. I have held the sony in the store and I did not find it comfortable as I had no place to put my left hand on the camera without grasping the lense and blocking the autofocus window.

This is all the factors that I took into account, plus the fact that it does have some manual focus ability so I can take great fireworks pictures and other night time pictures that are outside the flash range like of the castle and such.

Good luck with your decision.

[goingoofy]

I have the Canon and LOVE LOVELOVE IT! (did i mention i LOVE IT?) It takes great quality pictures from a distance and motion pictures. I have been practicing for the disney trip by taking pictures of everthing and the baseball pictures show clear anc concise movement and you can even see the dirt flying off the bat! We went to a boardwalk thing near Houston and got great action shots of rides and reaction shots of faces on those rides. I tend to leave the mode in P as that lets me use the "burst" mode (several shots rapidly) or not and seems to focus best for me. I talked to a canon rep for about 90 min before making the purchase and told him exactly what I would be using it for and what I would do with it and he worked with me to show me how to use the camera as well.
The other great thing is the memory and battery power used are not proprietery and can be picked up at any drug store basically! so yippee!
good luck and good shopping!

[WEDway Guy]

If your interested in some comparison photos as well as full reviews of the Canon and Sony, check out these links. Comparison photos - DRCP site
Canon review Sony review

At the end of each review, the author list cameras to shop against these two cameras. If you're still open to choices, it might not hurt to look.

My best advice, no matter which camera you chose, practice, practice, practice. There is no better way to take good pictures than to learn how to use what you have. When that perfect spur of the moment photo op comes your way, you won't be fumbling around trying to figure out which settings produce the best pictures. Best of luck with your decision and let us know how it all turned out.

[DisneyFanAnn]

We SOOOO need a new digital camera too so thanks for all the responses you all gave....it'll help me out too!!!

Good luck with your decision too!

[Hanners]

Hi there,
I'm deciding between the Canon Powershot SD500 and the Fuji Finepix Z1. Be sure to check out www.pcmag.com for helpful reviews. I'm not sure about the Sony Memory Stick, but the salesperson at Best Buy told me that the Xd media that the Fuji camera takes is more advanced than the Sd Canon Powersho takes. It is quicker in saving your pictures - and allowing you to take the next picture more quickly. So, that would probably be the only difference to check out between the Sd card for the Canon and memory stick for the Sony. Good luck with your decision!

[bradk]

xd which is used by olympus and fuji is great, but it's not as widely accepted. the capacities have also been somewhat limited (not sure what they're up to now). my s7000 takes xd and cf2 and while i have a few xd cards (my largest is 256M i think), i reserve them as backup since it's just easier to deal with 2GB CF2 cards when I can take 1300 shots on one card at 6MP