Compact choice ?
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Craikeybaby
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This has been done to death on here, if you don't want to search most threads seem to conclude S95 
redhed17
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I got the Canon S95 a couple of weeks ago to take on holiday. I had a Fuji F31fd for many years and was extremely happy with it until it got nicked. 
If I could have easily got a replacement I would have, as I mainly use it for snaps rather than 'serious' pics. That was a 5 year old camera though, so no chance of that. I borrowed a friends Fuji F50fd last time I went away but that has a spot or two in the lens which is very unfortunate, but hard to fix.
Another friend said I could borrow her G9, but that is too big.
I wanted something of similar size to the Fuji, to fit in my pocket while walking out about, so getting a Canon G12 was out, even though I think it is the best compact camera out there at the moment. And so was the LX5, which while the body is a little bit bigger than the S95, the lens sticks out from the body quite a bit when closed, and didn't seem 'pocketable'.
I considered the Fuji F500, as it is the successor to the Fuji F31fd, though many generations down the line. I didn't like the way the flash pops up every time you switch the camera on. :bonk: I rarely use flash, and always have it switched off, so to have to push the flash back down every time I switched the camera on would have got old very quickly. The Fuji had the large zoom range, and some clever sensor tech.
But with the flash problem, the tech playing about with image sizes in the different sensor modes, and me not really needing that zoom range I looked towards the S95.
Things I really like about the S95 is firstly, the flash is down by default, and raises out of the body when you choose a flash mode, the size, and the adjuster ring around the lens, which can assigned to different functions. I used the ring mainly for Exposure Compensation, Manual Focus and Aperture. The lens ring is a really good idea and makes changing settings very quick and easy. I like the timer which can be set for a certain number of seconds, and for a certain number of shots. Combine that with bracketing and you can set the camera to take the three bracketed shots with the timer in one go. I found the Miniature Effect Scene Mode fun, as I was able to take pictures from high looking down which made the most of the mode. What I didn't like was that you can't use RAW in any of the Scene Modes. :shake: It is good that it can shoot RAW files though, most compacts can't.
A few other things I didn't like is the relatively low battery power. The Aperture Priority which I use all the time does not work as it should when the light gets low, having a maximum 1 second shutter speed in that mode.
I was taking some pics at night and bracketing and the camera started adjusting the aperture because the shutter speed was longer than a second. I didn't understand what was going on till I looked on the internet. :bang: For every day (daylight) use though Aperture Priority works as it should.
I took over 700 pics in a week so I found it pretty easy and enjoyable to use.
I'm really happy that I chose the right camera. There seemed to be low stocks of it about though, so don't be surprised if there is a replacement close by. That doesn't make this any less of a camera though.
If I could have easily got a replacement I would have, as I mainly use it for snaps rather than 'serious' pics. That was a 5 year old camera though, so no chance of that. I borrowed a friends Fuji F50fd last time I went away but that has a spot or two in the lens which is very unfortunate, but hard to fix.Another friend said I could borrow her G9, but that is too big.
I wanted something of similar size to the Fuji, to fit in my pocket while walking out about, so getting a Canon G12 was out, even though I think it is the best compact camera out there at the moment. And so was the LX5, which while the body is a little bit bigger than the S95, the lens sticks out from the body quite a bit when closed, and didn't seem 'pocketable'.
I considered the Fuji F500, as it is the successor to the Fuji F31fd, though many generations down the line. I didn't like the way the flash pops up every time you switch the camera on. :bonk: I rarely use flash, and always have it switched off, so to have to push the flash back down every time I switched the camera on would have got old very quickly. The Fuji had the large zoom range, and some clever sensor tech.
But with the flash problem, the tech playing about with image sizes in the different sensor modes, and me not really needing that zoom range I looked towards the S95. Things I really like about the S95 is firstly, the flash is down by default,
and raises out of the body when you choose a flash mode, the size, and the adjuster ring around the lens, which can assigned to different functions. I used the ring mainly for Exposure Compensation, Manual Focus and Aperture. The lens ring is a really good idea and makes changing settings very quick and easy. I like the timer which can be set for a certain number of seconds, and for a certain number of shots. Combine that with bracketing and you can set the camera to take the three bracketed shots with the timer in one go. I found the Miniature Effect Scene Mode fun, as I was able to take pictures from high looking down which made the most of the mode. What I didn't like was that you can't use RAW in any of the Scene Modes. :shake: It is good that it can shoot RAW files though, most compacts can't.A few other things I didn't like is the relatively low battery power. The Aperture Priority which I use all the time does not work as it should when the light gets low, having a maximum 1 second shutter speed in that mode.
I was taking some pics at night and bracketing and the camera started adjusting the aperture because the shutter speed was longer than a second. I didn't understand what was going on till I looked on the internet. :bang: For every day (daylight) use though Aperture Priority works as it should.I took over 700 pics in a week so I found it pretty easy and enjoyable to use.
I'm really happy that I chose the right camera. There seemed to be low stocks of it about though, so don't be surprised if there is a replacement close by. That doesn't make this any less of a camera though.