mountainpete
Spamicus Eliminatus
Hi all,
Some people are great photographers and some people just aren't. While I like to think that I am somewhere around average, I've finally come to the conclusion of what works best for me.
Over the past 10 years I have went a few directions. I have a beautiful SLR that takes great pictures. I also have, what was at the time, a top-of-line S series Canon digital that has just as many manual options as an SLR. Along with a few other point and shoots.
It took me a while, but I have finally realized a simple fact: The smaller the camera, the more and, surprizingly, the better pictures I take. So, in December I went shopping again.
I bought this:
Pentax Optio S7
This camera really appealed to me because of the small size. It's so small, that it fits inside an Altoids box. That means I can carry it with me where ever I go. But there was one big problem - I hated the picture quality. There was so much background noise on the pictures that I couldn't stand it. For example, I would take a picture of the house across the road and anything outside of the main focus area was full of dots and lacked even major details. I accepted some image quality issues in relation to the size of the camera, but this was terrible. I actually returned it and got a second one thinking that I must have been that unit - it was the exact same thing. It also was so slow in starting up, focusing and capturing pictures. In the end, I returned it.
And I bought this:
Canon SD 800 IS
This camera, while only slightly bigger, it is also hundreds of dollars more. And boy was it ever worth it. What a nice camera. The image quality is excellent, controls are easy to use and the autofocus is exceptionally quick. From startup to first picture is less than 2 seconds. You have probably all heard the commercials of Canon's digic II processor, which it has. I truely does find and track peoples faces and focuses very clearly on them. It also does an amazing job of taking low-light pics without a flash tanks to very high ISO abilities.
The camera also has Canon's Image Stablization technology which is great when taking pictures at high zoom or of moving targets. Not just hype, this one actually works. There is also a number of shooting modes and lots of manual functions/overrides as well. Overall, I highly recommend this camera.
On my recent trip to Mexico, it was clear to me that the smaller the camera, the more pics I took. I took over 300 pics in 7 days - a huge amount since the vast majority of the time I was sitting on the beach or snorkeling!
Now that the mega-pixel war is essentially over, the quality of cameras are getting better and better. For me, that means making use of smaller cameras and taking more pictures!
Hope my experience helps people making their camera choices. :26_7_2:
Pete
Some people are great photographers and some people just aren't. While I like to think that I am somewhere around average, I've finally come to the conclusion of what works best for me.
Over the past 10 years I have went a few directions. I have a beautiful SLR that takes great pictures. I also have, what was at the time, a top-of-line S series Canon digital that has just as many manual options as an SLR. Along with a few other point and shoots.
It took me a while, but I have finally realized a simple fact: The smaller the camera, the more and, surprizingly, the better pictures I take. So, in December I went shopping again.
I bought this:
Pentax Optio S7
This camera really appealed to me because of the small size. It's so small, that it fits inside an Altoids box. That means I can carry it with me where ever I go. But there was one big problem - I hated the picture quality. There was so much background noise on the pictures that I couldn't stand it. For example, I would take a picture of the house across the road and anything outside of the main focus area was full of dots and lacked even major details. I accepted some image quality issues in relation to the size of the camera, but this was terrible. I actually returned it and got a second one thinking that I must have been that unit - it was the exact same thing. It also was so slow in starting up, focusing and capturing pictures. In the end, I returned it.
And I bought this:
Canon SD 800 IS
This camera, while only slightly bigger, it is also hundreds of dollars more. And boy was it ever worth it. What a nice camera. The image quality is excellent, controls are easy to use and the autofocus is exceptionally quick. From startup to first picture is less than 2 seconds. You have probably all heard the commercials of Canon's digic II processor, which it has. I truely does find and track peoples faces and focuses very clearly on them. It also does an amazing job of taking low-light pics without a flash tanks to very high ISO abilities.
The camera also has Canon's Image Stablization technology which is great when taking pictures at high zoom or of moving targets. Not just hype, this one actually works. There is also a number of shooting modes and lots of manual functions/overrides as well. Overall, I highly recommend this camera.
On my recent trip to Mexico, it was clear to me that the smaller the camera, the more pics I took. I took over 300 pics in 7 days - a huge amount since the vast majority of the time I was sitting on the beach or snorkeling!
Now that the mega-pixel war is essentially over, the quality of cameras are getting better and better. For me, that means making use of smaller cameras and taking more pictures!
Hope my experience helps people making their camera choices. :26_7_2:
Pete
