Point & Click, Small but good

[solmanic]

OK, there are no shortage of threads about "what new camera" to buy... but mostly people here are focussed (har har) on DSLRs.

But all I need is a tiny, tiny, point & click camera that I can use for low-res site photos, but will give me decent quality holiday snaps without too much thought. I have always liked the Canon Ixus models - tried two different ones and they have both given outstanding quality shots - so I will take a lot of pursuasion to consider anything else. The brief is this:

- Small
- Simple
- SD card
- Good quality shots in auto mode
- MUST be able to force flash on or off
- Would like wider than 35mm if possible for inside room shots
- Small

Let the games begin...

[dullbird]

Go the canon

Love from Nikon x

[Xtreme]

OK, there are no shortage of threads about "what new camera" to buy... but mostly people here are focussed (har har) on DSLRs.

But all I need is a tiny, tiny, point & click camera that I can use for low-res site photos, but will give me decent quality holiday snaps without too much thought. I have always liked the Canon Ixus models - tried two different ones and they have both given outstanding quality shots - so I will take a lot of pursuasion to consider anything else. The brief is this:

- Small
- Simple
- SD card
- Good quality shots in auto mode
- MUST be able to force flash on or off
- Would like wider than 35mm if possible for inside room shots
- Small

Let the games begin...

I like the small point & click cameras also.
Small enough to carry in your pocket so that you always have it when that opportunity pops up.
Re the wider angle lens, I just take a few shots and then 'stitch' them.

Roger

[dmdigital]

Everything's a compromise with P&S. Nikon (though I love there DSLR's) are way behind Canon in this market. If you don't mind it being a little chunky then go for the Canon G10.

For robustness the Olympus all weather range are excellent, though they do suffer from slow shutter response (lag).

I'd look at Canon or Panasonic.

[abaddonxi]

I've got an Ixus 850i or something close to that. Does all the point and shoot stuff, three or so clicks to on/off flash - irritating that it defaults to flash on.

Not too bad for a snappy, starts up fast, battery lasts a long time, waiting for flash to recharge is a pain, but I've had worse. So all the limitations of P&S, too, but that goes with the territory.

Simon

[werdan]

I have a canon ixus 850i also. I originally bought it for the missus but when I found it went to 28mm (equiv) I ended up 'borrowing' it back. It lives in my work bag. Great battery life - I bought a second battery but have never had to use it. It has optical image sabilisation, the colours are great and the macro feature is fantastic. I think it's superseded now by the 950i but I could be wrong.

Having said that, if I had to buy one at present, the Panasonic Lumix LX3 looks awesome! It only goes up to 60mm on the telephoto side but the wide angle is 24mm! Leica are even rebadging it as a D-Lux 4 and selling it as one of their own (for twice the price).

[Chucaro]

I am a Nikon man but for a P&S the G10 is the best out there

[solmanic]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I guess I was just throwing this out there to see if anyone had a particular model/brand that I would be an idiot to ignore... but it still looks like Canon is the goods.

Now I just have to decide where in the price point I want to buy.

Ixus 80IS - under $400 (about $370) - 8MP and pretty good all round.

Ixus 95IS - basically the same as the 80IS but with 10MP and some colour options. $440 or thereabouts.

Ixus 100IS - 12.1MP and a bit smaller - feels good to hold but same lens as the 80 & 90. $470 ish.

Ixus 110IS - 12.1MP but with a "wide" agle lens - 28mm equivalent. Does 16:9 aspect ration shots, but when I tested this in the store, all it's doing is blowing up the 4:3 image and cutting off the top & bottom. I don't want to pay extra for that, but 28mm is tempting. Around $500+

Ixus 980 & 990 IS - I don't know anything about these two, but they are supposedly better than the others, and more expensive. Damn marketing people confusing poor dumb consumers like me with six similar cameras, at six different, increasing pricetags

[abaddonxi]

The posts made me remember, always looking for a wider wide on the P&S's that I've owned. Anything that claims to be truly wide angle must be a good thing.

staticICE :: ixus 110is : Australia's comprehensive computer hardware and gadget price comparison search engine

Simon

[Captain_Rightfoot]

I just bought a panasonic lx3. It may be too high quality for what you are after.

However I think the thing that may benefit you is that it has a really fast image stabilisation Leica lense that allows it to take **really** amazing hand held photos in low light.

It also has the ability to have screw on wide angle lenses (see rubbish sample).

It has an excellent auto and predefined scene modes, but if you know what you are doing it has excellent manual controls. It is the same camera as the Leica D-Lux 4 which is also built by Panasonic.

Only a couple of years ago now I bought an ixus60 for my wife. The lense had a issue, but even after that was fixed it still produced very poor results. That pushed us to buying the panasonic. If you don't have too much in the way of expectations then you won't be let down by an Ixus.


There are a few samples from the Panasonic here and below.