Is there such a thing as a good P&S compact camera?

Really?

I have the 82IS (Might be a Jessops only special in a very nice blue) and I think it's deffo a pocket snapshot camera and nothing more. The picture quality can't hold up to my LX2 let alone GF1. Plus there's no RAW and precious little control.
 
I have a Canon IXUS 990 IS, 12.1 megapixel, 5 x optical zoom, digic 4 processor. Great images out of camera, macro, small and fits nicely in the pocket or wifes handbag.. Take it when going away on holiday, saves lugging camera gear around and certainly less obvious. Was recommended to me and I have not been disapointed.
 
Got quite a few to think about now :thumbs:

Think I will tale my SD card out with me to some local camera shops and take some pics and see what's what.

Certainly fancying the S90 at the moment.

Never purchased a camera from eBay before, but this guy seems okay and selling some expensive kit.

He has the S90 for £278 delivered.

eBay - Canon Powershot S90 Digital Camera
 
Gazza_UK said:
Got quite a few to think about now :thumbs:

Think I will tale my SD card out with me to some local camera shops and take some pics and see what's what.

Certainly fancying the S90 at the moment.

Never purchased a camera from eBay before, but this guy seems okay and selling some expensive kit.

He has the S90 for £278 delivered.

eBay - Canon Powershot S90 Digital Camera
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Be aware that the warranty on that item is supplied by the seller (photodirect), not by Canon, "All of our products come with a minimum 12 months seller repair warranty covering parts and labour. ". In other words it is a grey import with a 3rd part warranty.

PM Kerso for a price, also imports (US) but you get a UK invoice which Canon will honour for a proper UK warranty. (I got mine from him). Possibly a few quid more but for peace of mind worth every penny. You'll find his reputation as a seller on this forum beyond reproach.
 
ChrisJ_"All of our products come with a minimum 12 months seller repair warranty covering parts and labour. "[/I said:
. In other words it is a grey import with a 3rd part warranty..
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ALL warranty are with the seller as that is who you buy it from so your contract is ONLY with the seller and no one else....
 
Could I ask a big favour please from the Canon S90 owners. The weather is supposed to be very good over the next few days. Would it be possible to post me some out of camera jpegs in auto please?

Also a few indoor shots if possible.

This would be really helpful.

Thanks,

Gary.
 
I've held off buying the S90 as I think its more for those who like to adjust settings, whereas I'm defo a point and shoot full auto type of guy :D

Since posting I have been reading many expert and user reviews on various cameras and boy is it causing some headaches. To such an extent I'm regretting ever selling my TZ7 :cuckoo:

The Canon Ixus range seem to fair very well in most reviews. The 95/105/120/210 IS all get glowing reports from most people.

The Fuji F70EXR gets some cracking reviews. But the main concern I have is many say you need to manual adjust some settings to get the best, as auto tends too set to high ISO. Also its purple fringing is very bad.... so both of those issues put me off it.

I have had many Panasonic cameras and to be fair they have mostly been very good. The TZ7/FX60/ZX3 are more than favourible... despite me saying the TZ7 was chunky :lol:

Finally one that just keeps coming back is the Ricoh CX3 which gets very good reviews and has outstanding macro capabilities. But you are talking neck end of £300 for this camera.

Currently without a camera and some cracking weather coming up at the weekend. What a nightmare :shake:
 
What about the sony HX5V, minimum focal distance 5cm, 25-250mm zoom, has some manual capability, full HD video and what I really like is the panoramic facility, although roughly same size as the Fuji or Panasonic which you said was chunky hmmm ...... The fuji F80 EXR is probably very impressive, especially in low light situations, was very impressed with F70 version, but decided on the sony and reasonable pleased with it, test will be 2 weeks in the lake district up against an SLR
 
Gazza_UK said:
I've held off buying the S90 as I think its more for those who like to adjust settings, whereas I'm defo a point and shoot full auto type of guy :D

Since posting I have been reading many expert and user reviews on various cameras and boy is it causing some headaches. To such an extent I'm regretting ever selling my TZ7 :cuckoo:

The Canon Ixus range seem to fair very well in most reviews. The 95/105/120/210 IS all get glowing reports from most people.

The Fuji F70EXR gets some cracking reviews. But the main concern I have is many say you need to manual adjust some settings to get the best, as auto tends too set to high ISO. Also its purple fringing is very bad.... so both of those issues put me off it.

I have had many Panasonic cameras and to be fair they have mostly been very good. The TZ7/FX60/ZX3 are more than favourible... despite me saying the TZ7 was chunky :lol:

Finally one that just keeps coming back is the Ricoh CX3 which gets very good reviews and has outstanding macro capabilities. But you are talking neck end of £300 for this camera.

Currently without a camera and some cracking weather coming up at the weekend. What a nightmare :shake:
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You might think I am a **** for saying this, but I might as well anyway. You seem to know a fair bit about the basics of cameras and how they work etc (judging by your use of the word ISO, for starters), so why are you so dead set on getting something that will do all the work for you? Are you too afraid to experiment or what? You're clearly into getting a decent photograph to some degree, so why not go a bit further and actually get a compact that can have some degree of manual control. You will feel satisfied when you get a good shot and it wasn't entirely the camera's work. It would be a shame to see potential (which you clearly have) go to waste by never straying away from your comfort zone of fully automatic cameras.
 
trencheel303 said:
You might think I am a **** for saying this, but I might as well anyway. You seem to know a fair bit about the basics of cameras and how they work etc (judging by your use of the word ISO, for starters), so why are you so dead set on getting something that will do all the work for you? Are you too afraid to experiment or what? You're clearly into getting a decent photograph to some degree, so why not go a bit further and actually get a compact that can have some degree of manual control. You will feel satisfied when you get a good shot and it wasn't entirely the camera's work. It would be a shame to see potential (which you clearly have) go to waste by never straying away from your comfort zone of fully automatic cameras.
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I really want to take decent pictures where possible, but I'm not into it to such a degree where I'm wishing to learn all the manual settings. So it really is full auto for me I'm afraid.

I appreciate where you are coming from but its just not an area I see myself getting into. I will spend hours fine tuning my home cinema, but with cameras its a decent picture with auto everything really.

Hopefully I will settle for something soon.
 
Have you looked at the Panasonic TZ8 and TZ10?

Here's another from my WONDERFUL s90, check out the great detail....

 
Very nice picture indeed :thumbs:

I'm not really needing the fancy GPS stuff that the TZ10 brings and it seems to get less favourable reviews than the TZ7.

For the difference in quality (if any) then at under £200 the TZ7 is quite an attractive proposition.

I've been ill since Sunday so not had chance to go to the local camera shops. But hopefully, I might get a a chance on Saturday afternoon.

The more I think about it, I think at least 5x zoom is minimum requirement for me here.

These were out of camera on iA with the TZ7 at Chester Zoo last August. Many of the pictures I took that day would not have been possible without the zoom I had at hand.

3792509865_4f23ebf510.jpg


3792468427_7593a656d0.jpg
 
I had untill very recently a TZ6. I bought it rather than the TZ7 as the only difference was that the TZ7 has HD video (something i don't care much about) and face recognition or something similar. The differences were very little so i saved a few quid and went for the TZ6 and it was a great camera and exceptional in good light. Still not as good as the s90 though.
 
AndyWest said:
I had untill very recently a TZ6. I bought it rather than the TZ7 as the only difference was that the TZ7 has HD video (something i don't care much about) and face recognition or something similar. The differences were very little so i saved a few quid and went for the TZ6 and it was a great camera and exceptional in good light. Still not as good as the s90 though.
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Do you not miss the extra zoom though? I still think the S90 is more suited for someone with photo skills who like manual settings rather than in auto all the time.
 
Do you not miss the extra zoom though?
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Erm, no. I just accept what i have and use my legs as necessary. I need the excercise!!!! :D
 
So what are you waiting for? :D :D :D

Seriously if you really want the zoom then get a different camera. I don't know what the zoom is like on the Lumix LX3?
 
LX3 has poor zoom and not for me. ZX3 is nice and small with 8X zoom.

Ahhh so many cameras and so much choice :D
 
My compact of choice is the Sigma DP1... It's slow, only a fixed 28mm f4 lens but it has a great big sensor :-)

I think nikon are due to release a G11 style camera soon?
 
pete.rush said:
What about the sony HX5V, minimum focal distance 5cm, 25-250mm zoom, has some manual capability, full HD video and what I really like is the panoramic facility, although roughly same size as the Fuji or Panasonic which you said was chunky hmmm ...... The fuji F80 EXR is probably very impressive, especially in low light situations, was very impressed with F70 version, but decided on the sony and reasonable pleased with it, test will be 2 weeks in the lake district up against an SLR
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Just been reading a couple of expert reviews on this and many user reviews on amazon.com and its defo on the short list now.

At the moment after lots of reading today I'm down to 2 cameras.

Ricoh CX3 and Sony HX5
 
I went to have a look at an S90 in Currys yesterday. Have to say that it really is lovely and small to hold. The menus seemed fairly sensible, and the control ring around the lens is very intuitive.
Whilst there, I'd taken along an SD card to to shoot a few example shots and look at them at home. Can't say I was impressed, though I did wonder if I'd been selecting the right modes for the shots. I think I'll go back for another play this weekend.
I see that the sample shots on the DP review are also a bit mixed. Some look pretty good (e.g. the nature shot on the tree by the wooden building), whilst the shots of the chef and the bike look pretty naff to me.
 
After spending many more hours looking at expert and user reviews along with many photos, I have gone and re-purchased a Panasonic TZ7 :lol: £209 delivered from Amazon tomorrow :)

Why I got rid of this camera in the first place is a mystery I will never resolve :cuckoo:

The Sony HX5 was looking a good bet but sold out in many places and a good £300 price tag.

The Ricoh CX3 I really liked but again a £300 price tag and hardly any places sell it.

So it was a no brainer.... excellent pictures, with long zoom and nearly £100 cheaper than the other 2.

Thanks to all the input in this thread. I have learnt myself a valid lesson here...which is stop swapping stuff about and make do with what I've got (I might have bit more money if I do) :D
 
Sorry to dig in here... I've got a Panasonic DMC-FX100 P&S brought for £200 odd pounds through work. I use it for construction site visits mainly but the photographs are excellent, it's small and fits comfortably in your trouser pocket and feels really solid. Now for the techy bit... better still here's a review. I took a shot of a cheetah at the WHF site in Kent from about 30' away. Full zoom right in on it's head and hand-held, you can see every hair on it's head. If I ever work out how to insert a picture in here I'll hapily post it up.

http://www.cameras.co.uk/reviews/panasonic-dmc-fx100.cfm

Hahh! learnet how to do it now... here's that picture. There was no PP at all it's just how it came out of the camera.

 
You can't go wrong with the panasonic TZ7, a great P&S camera...

For some reason panasonic has lost the mojo with the TZ10, image quality is hit and miss unless you do alot of adjustment...

A friends just bought the sony, but it doesn't seem there's not alot of stock in the country for the black version, so he pluck for the silver one....
 
Well good for you. TZ7 is a really good camera and the good thing is you know how to get round the menu system quickly and easily. It will be like catching up with an old friend.

Have fun and post some pics!
 
Quick update from my 2nd play with a Canon S90.
Again, I'll say that I'm very impressed with the functionality, though I did get the impression that it wouldn't be easy to use an external flash (unlike the G11), that seemed a little limiting.

My key interest was just how the image quality would compare to a decent DSLR. Don't get me wrong, I know that there is a massive price difference, but there's been so many positive things said about some of the better compacts, that I did wonder whether something like an S90 shooting in RAW and at low ISOs might get close.
Easy answer, not really. Even if you exclude the not too clever metering, the level of detail was simply not in the same league.

So, this generation of compacts is not going to woo me into downgrading.
 
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