Best 'bang for your buck' point and shoot?

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blizeH

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Nick
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Hi guys,

Despite being tempted to wait out for the iPhone 5, I've decided that no matter how good the camera is, it won't compare to a decent dedicated camera. I've been looking through some different options and have narrowed it down to four cameras...

Sony RX100 - the pick of the bunch by far, but almost 2 or even 3 times as expensive as others I've looked at, and only has 3.6x zoom

Canon Powershot S100 - looks to be a fantastic camera, but again on the pricey side...

Sony WX150 - great camera at a great price, only downer is 'limited physical controls' but that's not necessarily a bad thing for me, has 10x optical zoom.

Canon IXUS 2200 -fantastic price for a good camera with 5x optical zoom

Would really appreciate any advice on which to go for - I really want something that's just a point and shoot, I love the idea of taking great photos but I want to spend more time enjoying the moment, the area I'm in, and picking a good shot rather than changing settings on my camera. The WX150 is tempting just because it seems to offer great performance at a great price.

Thanks :)
 
The canon s95 is currently £199 on Amazon... I'm biased as I just bought one but IMO I don't think you can touch it for bang for buck!

Have a hunt about here for canon s95 - it was the mass heaping of praise here for it that convinced me to buy it, cheers folks :)
 
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is Fuji x10 classified as point and shoot? I have one of them and i can surely use it like a point and shoot and also give you option to not point and shoot lol.
 
Yup, S95! Awesome camera, wish I'd bought one instead of my Nikon P3000.

Edit: The Fuji X10 is also excellent, and can be picked up quite reasonably from the Fuji refurbished shop using a discount code. ;-)
 
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Thank you so much for the replies guys, looking at a comparison between the S95 and the S100 and the 100 is a clear winner, but I'm guessing not for twice the price! S95 could be the one for me then, thank you :)

The Fuji X10 looks to be a fantastic camera, but it's very heavy/bulky and priced more in line with the S100 it seems...
 
Bear in mind that ProCameraShop are cheap because their products are grey imports. I don't know what Canon are like for warranties on grey stuff, so do your research.
 
Thanks Llama, I've found a seller on Ebay (Photo Direct) that's a similar price and they've assured me they have full seller warranty which is assuring :)

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/panasonic-lx5-vs-canon-s95-vs-nikon-p300-15928

The Panasonic LX5 looks great to me too though, if not a little heavy/bulky - argh! So many choices...

The Sony Nex looks good too thanks, but if I'm honest I don't want to get into swapping lenses etc and it's already quite expensive - would prefer to go for the RX100 in that case :)
 
I've never used a Canon IXUS 220, but I do own an IXUS 210. It was a good enough pocketable point and shoot at first, and I liked the touch screen interface (not sure if the 220 has that). However after a while I realised that there was truly awful colour aberration, and in addition I wanted more control (there is almost none). So much to my wife's horror I bought a Fujifilm X10 and have never looked back!

I have a friend with a S100 and he gets great images from it.
 
Many thanks Chris, the IXUS is a fantastic price but obviously it's priced like that for a reason! The Fuji X10 looks like a fantastic camera too, but for the smaller form factor and GPS I'd probably go for the S100.

Interestingly, the S100 trounces my current camera (that I never really use due to taking an iPhone around with me at all times) but the sensor size isn't much different?

http://snapsort.com/compare/Canon-S100-vs-Casio_Exilim_EX-Z1050
 
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I've got an Canon S100 and one thing I know is the built-in flash works much better than the one on my 450d DSLR (The 450d quite often blows out highlights in faces).

The S100 eats batteries especially if you record video. My old Fujifilm F30 was much, much better in this regard. I always take two batteries with me on a day out.

The S100 is a touch slow to AF in bad light and I think my old F30 was also better in this regard.

But picture quality is better than my old F30 and i'd say my 'hit rate' is higher with the S100 (less blurry or under/over exposed shots). Colours look better to me too.
 
Skip all of the above and get a Panasoinic LX3 beast of a compact camera and cheap as chips as they don't make them any more.
 
I'm bias, just swapped my Panasonic tz30 for a canon s100 and I feel much happier. A lot of other brands do many things reasonably well but the canon focuses on just taking good pictures.
I particularly like the front ring that allows you to programme to either focus manually, shutter speed, aperture controll etc.
It feels more proffesional to use than its counterparts in my opinion.
I also hear the S95 was much the same.

Carl
 
Thanks again guys, still looking at this... so tempting to go with the S100 but the LX5 (also based on what Soda said) seems like a great option too for not a lot more!

Looking through my iPhone 4 snaps and I am happy with them, and know the iPhone 5 will be even better again... but without decent performance at low light, and in particular without a zoom, it's probably not going to cut it.
 
Would you guys go S95 for £200, LX5 for £240, or S100 for £270? Narrowed it down to those at least...
 
blizeH said:
Would you guys go S95 for £200, LX5 for £240, or S100 for £270? Narrowed it down to those at least...
Click to expand...

If you can't justify something like the RX100, I'd probably lean towards 'saving the money' and going for a s/h LX3 that was suggested above. It will cost you much less and be just as good.

Having said that are you sure you won't be better off with a diminutive EPM-1 +14-42 lens? It can be had for less than 300£
 
Thank you, I'm tempted to go to a camera shop and try to see the difference between the LX3 and the S95/S100 - mostly for the size difference to see how portable the LX3/LX5 are, many people say they won't fit in your average sized pocket?

The EPM-1 looks amazing though, and one of the first results on a Google image search for it reveals this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/muzzlehatch/6295725052/sizes/l/in/photostream/ - what an amazing photo! Want.
 
blizeH said:
Thank you, I'm tempted to go to a camera shop and try to see the difference between the LX3 and the S95/S100 - mostly for the size difference to see how portable the LX3/LX5 are, many people say they won't fit in your average sized pocket?

The EPM-1 looks amazing though, and one of the first results on a Google image search for it reveals this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/muzzlehatch/6295725052/sizes/l/in/photostream/ - what an amazing photo! Want.
Click to expand...

Olympus are well known for their nice out of camera images so for something portable and high quality I wouldn't discount it. You do have to deal though with the fact that with a normal zoom lens it will not fit in your pocket, doubt it will fit even with a pancake but it is still very very portable.

In regards to pocket fitting, they will both fit in a jacket pocket but not very comfortably in a jeans pocket.
 
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Yeah good points, thank you - I'll speak with my girlfriend about it, sure she wouldn't mind carrying it about in her bag everywhere :D Looks like a really great camera though
 
Just for info, i bought an e-pm1 in Jan this year, had a chance to upgrade to an e-pl3 without losing money and leapt at it, absolutely love the feel of the tiny Pens.

But they're *not* pocket sized. We just bought the s95 to also have a proper pocket sized camera that my wife's happy carrying about.

I don't mind carrying the Pen and a couple of lenses - compared to an SLR it's tiny! But we still needed a tiny cam and the canons fit that bill - the Panny LX/ Oly XZ cameras have bigger lenses that _just_ take them into territory that's too big for us. If I was going to carry a Panny LX/ Oly XZ sized cam, I'd just take the Pen.
 
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I'm in the process of choosing a compact too, Can I give you my fav 3 compacts i don't know if this helps. In order of favour and price as it happens.

sony rx100
fuji x10
olympus xz-1
 
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How does the screen on the powershot s100 perform in bright sunshine can you see what your taking a picture of clearly?
Which would be a good alternative that has a view finder?
 
mjb123 said:
How does the screen on the powershot s100 perform in bright sunshine can you see what your taking a picture of clearly?
Which would be a good alternative that has a view finder?
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This is always going to be a problem the best i've seen is on the new sonys whitemagic screens they add white pixels to the rgb i'm not sure is Canon do something similler
 
mjb123 said:
Which would be a good alternative that has a view finder?
Click to expand...

As soon as a viewfinder is added it increased the size of the camera. It also increases the price (quite dramatically if it is of EVF type).

There are some alternatives at this price point that have an optical viewfinder but they are small and don't hold any info in them.
- X10
- G12
- P7100
They are all quite a bit bigger than a S100 though if that matters?
 
Thanks, size isn't a huge issue I'll be buying it for the wiflet! For her birthday and would imagine I may use it from time to time! I haven't bought a point and shoot for many years and the market is saturated with them! I struggled to decide when I upgraded my 450d this is going to be Dom mission!
 
I've not seen the vf on the p7100 but the one on the g12 is a waste of time. The x10 vf is better all though the lens is visible through the vf you also have the advantage of a larger sensor.
 
Been in jessops today and they recommended a powershot sx 240 hs!! Any views on this camera?
Remember it's for my wife!
 
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