Advice on budget camera

bwana said:
I'd spend more time cleaning my sensor than I would shooting. I've got the 50mm primes and that's it - everything else is about filling the frame. 24-70, 70-200 and up. I'd like there to be an overlap at 70mm but I cant have it all I suppose.
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My sensor is dirty as hell but I can't be bothered too much. Only shows up when I'm stopped down past f/8.

Just shoot wide open all the time! :twisted:
 
dbnnet said:
You can always also check to see which company owns their own fabrication
technology (sensor).
There are supposed to be only 4 sensor manufacturing companies - Panasonic, Canon,
Fuji and Sony. So in theory these are the guys who own the REAL technology.
Even Nikon uses sensors from Sony in their SDLR cameras too, with the exception
of the D1 & D2H.
Sony manufactures for others too including Nikon, Pentax and Samsung.
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Pentax is using sensors designed by themselves along with Samsung these days. And they're good.

Who makes the sensor isn't of much importance anyway. Take Sony and Nikon. The Sony A900 and D3X uses the same sensor, made by Sony. Yet, in their detailed review, dpreview.com concludes:

  • Relatively high levels of noise at anything over ISO 400 (ISO 6400 is of very, very limited use)
  • JPEGs a little soft by default (some loss of detail due to NR visible even at ISO 200)

Check the D3X review - scroll down to the "Raw noise compared" section and look at the differences between the two cameras.

I'm not saying the Sony is a bad camera at all. I love my CyberShot and still use it despite owning a (vastly superior in every way) Canon G9. I'm just saying, just having the same sensor doesn't mean squat.
 
bwana said:
There's a setting for full auto - it's like having a point and shoot but with real glass and a great sensor behind it. ;)
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Does it fit in your purse?

I'm all for dSLR but it's not everybodies cup of tea.
 
ponder said:
Does it fit in your purse?

I'm all for dSLR but it's not everybodies cup of tea.
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My DSLR will fit into my last girlfriend's purse with room to spare for at least one extra lens and a flash. But that's besides the point. We are talking about taking pictures of the uber-cute toddler. You know, they're only young once!
 
ponder said:
Does it fit in your purse?
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I dont know - how big is your purse?
ponder said:
I'm all for dSLR but it's not everybodies cup of tea.
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I dont drink tea but if I look at the photos I took of my first kid when I didnt have a decent camera and the ones I took of my second kid when I did have one the differences are staggering. My missus regularly grabs one of my cameras if she's doing something special with the kids and nine times out of 10 its a dslr.
 
Thanks!

Thank you all for the info! Seems the Cybershot is a good option.
 
OT -

Didn't think that starting a new thread for this was worth it, but I just found my old Kodak Easyshare CX7300 p&s (production date somewhere in 2004, I think)

Recharged the batteries, put in a memory card (had to fish for a 2gb, doesn't read anything bigger than that), and took a pic.

Just for fun I also took a pic with the Nikon S220 (Production date mid 2009) of the same area (garden), and was very surprised to see that the image quality of the Kodak pic appears sharper, more faithful and also more evenly lit.

This was with both cameras on full auto. The Nikon is going for about R1500 & the Kodak went for about R1200 in its prime.

I wonder how Nikon (or any company for that matter) can push products into the market that produce images of far lower quality than units 5 years earlier (and by a company that seems to have lost all sense of direction, nogal)

Obviously the pixel count is very different 10mpx vs 3.2mpx, but that's not really relevant.
 
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Cube said:
Obviously the pixel count is very different 10mpx vs 3.2mpx, but that's not really relevant.
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On the contrary I think it's very relevant. They've been feeding it to the public that pixel count is paramount. More densely packed sensors means more noise and generally poorer image quality. My Nikon P6000 has 14mp :eek: my dslr has a more reasonable 10mp.
 
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bwana said:
On the contrary I think it's very relevant. They've been feeding it to the public that pixel count is paramount. More densely packed sensors means more noise and generally poorer image quality. My Nikon P6000 has 14mp :eek: my dslr has a more reasonable 10mp.
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I agree. But, after having another look at the images, I noticed that the noise is slightly higher on the Kodak. However, the compression is definitely more aggressive with the Nikon, which I think is masking some of the noise.

I suppose at the end of the day, it comes down to the complete package; sensor, lens & processing algorithms.

Still, we should be moving forward.
 
The SONY DSC-S920 is a good deal, I got one for +-R1000 with a 4mb card, great little camera for snap and store photo's.
 
Cube said:
I wonder how Nikon (or any company for that matter) can push products into the market that produce images of far lower quality than units 5 years earlier (and by a company that seems to have lost all sense of direction, nogal)
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Now you know why Nikon is not exactly popular for the point&shoot cameras.
 
koffiejunkie said:
Now you know why Nikon is not exactly popular for the point&shoot cameras.
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If I didnt have a P&S I'd be more than happy - unfortunately I do so its easy to see the faults that are inherent to all point and shoots. I'd put mine up against any other P&S in terms of performance and image quality.
 
I wasn't being serious. But you've got to admit, Nikon's P&S market share is pretty tiny compared to its DSLR market share.
 
It's simple ... you only have to look at Nikon's market share.... it's plunged on both P&S as well as DSLR according to the latest stats out of Japan. Canon (in SDLR) and Panasonic (in Micro 4/3) were clearly cleaning up in 2009.
 
In fact this is very interesting: From the imaging-resource.com web site.
Top Selling Digital Cameras:
1. Canon EOS 500D Rebel T1i
2. Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3
3. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35
4. Canon EOS 450D Rebel XSi
5. Canon EOS 7D
 
Surprised to see the 7D there. Is it really THAT popular?
 
In your price range I would look at the Canon Powershot A480. It's a nice little camera and you can often find it in kits which include a card and a bag for quite a nice price.
 
My advice is to stay away from 2nd hand SLRs - they are cheaper than new and good P&S cameras for a reason.

Secondly stay away from Sony/Fuji/Olympus or anything else that does not use standard memory formats (Secure Digital/Compact Flash) or anything that does not run on AA batteries.

I have used Canon and Kodak in the past and considering your price range I would recommend a Kodak. They run on SD memory and most (except the super compacts) run on AA batteries. They can take a lot of abuse for a camera that feels plastic and cheap and even their heavier ultra zoom camera will float when you drop them in a river.

To get an idea of what quality pictures you can expect from cheapish Kodaks and Canons have a look at my flickr page : http://www.flickr.com/photos/rouxenator
 
Pooky said:
In your price range I would look at the Canon Powershot A480. It's a nice little camera and you can often find it in kits which include a card and a bag for quite a nice price.
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Yeah - That is a good call come to think of it :-)
 
Rouxenator said:
Yeah - That is a good call come to think of it :-)
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We used to buy the A470 & A480 for the geologists at work. Eventually moved to a weather resistant model (within the Canon range) only because of the amount of dust that got quickly into the optical zoom.

But otherwise they were happy with the units' performance.
 
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