[marusin]

I'm heading out of town on a trip this Friday and really need to get a new digital camera.

I've narrowed down my selection to the following cameras (all 3MP and quite small).

The cameras I'm looking at are the:
- Canon S230
- Sony DSCP72
- Nikon Coolpix 3100
- Pentax Optio S

I just can't decide because they all seem to have trade-offs... The Canon supposedly has the best photo quality and I love the size but it only has a 2x Optical Zoom... The Pentax is really small but supposedly gets some bluriness sometimes...

I can go on and on and was just wondering if anyone had any real world experience with any of these cameras...

Thanks!

[stickmedia]

I have the Canon G3 and the image quality is remarkable.

[jonasmac]

I just purchased a Canon Powershot A70 (3.2 MP). It has been the most fun I've had since I got my mac. Image quality is great. Lots of features, easy to use.

However, 5 days into it, the lens barrel locked up and I got an e18 error. This is bad. Canon apparently does not cover this in warranty. I did further research online and found that MANY others have had this problem with Canon Digital Cameras. The S-series has been documented to be notorious for this as well.

I fixed it by forceably pushing the barrel back down so it would close. I'm not comfortable with it, but I'll keep on doing it until it breaks, because I LOVE this camera.

My two cents,

Jonas

[Gee4orce]

I have a Canon Digital Ixus v3 (I think that's the same as a S230). It is superb. Such a tiny little camera that I don't mind carrying it wherever I go, and the picture quality is as good as 'point and shoot' gets.

Some examples:
http://homepage.mac.com/rennard/PhotoAlbum5.html

I love the photo stitch software that comes with it too...

[Jens Peter]

I just got the new Canon Ixus 400. It's a great camera, same formfactor as the V3 (S230), but with 4.0 MPixels and 3x optical zoom.

Haven't played around with the software from Canon yet, but only used iPhoto...

Have a nice trip!

Jens Peter

[Zim]

I had the S100 and now the S230.. great camera. Not for most ppl, but the underwater case is incredibly good engineering too.

You may want to consider the S400. It has 3x optical zoom. Only downside I see is it not taking 640x480 movies, the S230 does.

Check dealnews.com for pricing. Some of those Dell.com coupons are pretty tempting.

Cheers,
Mike

[mbperk]

I had a Canon s230...great camera except for the zoom/red eye. I just got the s400 Canon (4MP Much better zoom, less red eye). If you can spring for it, I would suggest the s400.

[xtal]

Although a bit bigger, I've heard that the Canon S45 is a stellar camera. It has the functionality of the G3, but at a lower price point (the lens isn't as good as the G3's etc.). This is a camera that is head and shoulders above the 'point and shoot' category though.

[wallinbl]

The S230 is fantastic. I love it. Great pictures. Sturdy as hell - it's metal, not plastic. Fits in your pocket - size of a deck of cards (little thicker).

[itai195]

I love Nikon's cameras, but nobody really touches Canon's elph line when it comes to high quality, ultra compact cameras. The S45 and S50 are also great cameras.

[dettociao]

Casio Z3. No doubt.

www.casio.com

[marusin]

Well I was leaning towards the Canon S230 and went ahead and picked it up last night. Haven't played with it too much but what I see I like so far.

I'll report back after my trip with my take on it. Thanks for all your help/suggestions.

[wallinbl]

Originally posted by marusin:
Well I was leaning towards the Canon S230 and went ahead and picked it up last night. Haven't played with it too much but what I see I like so far.

I'll report back after my trip with my take on it. Thanks for all your help/suggestions.

You're going to love it.

Here's a tip - it ships by default at a lower resolution. If you want to take the full res pictures (2048x1536), you have to change the settings. Get a big CF card - the full res pictures are 1-1.5MB each!

[vasu]

Originally posted by itai195:
I love Nikon's cameras, but nobody really touches Canon's elph line when it comes to high quality, ultra compact cameras. The S45 and S50 are also great cameras.

I agree, I love Nikon's cameras, but their products below the Coolpix 4000 series aren't great.

-vasu

[vdrummer]

You may well be right about the Nikons below the 4000 series, but I love the 4500. I'm a serious amateur photographer, experienced with SLRs shooting pro slide film and digital - I've shot over 15,000 images with a Nikon 995 and a Nikon 4500 in the past two years. Exceptional qualities I've noticed with the 995 and 4500 are the sharpness of the images, metering capabilities, and fill flash balance. The swivel feature of the lens is extremely useful. I think a lot of these features carry through to the lower-end cameras.

check out http://steves-digicams.com
for thorough reviews of digital cams.

note that the Nikon 4500 now sells with a $200 mail-in rebate; pricegrabber.com finds a low price of $550, so it's $350 with the rebate - a great bargain for 4Mpixel and 4x optical zoom. I think Nikon might be updating their line soon.

The 4500 might be more than you need, and I've never shot with any of the four you mentioned - go with what feels right and has controls that feel intuitive.

[vasu]

the 4500 is great, I'm probably getting the 4300 model this summer (basically the 4500 in a compact case).

Nikon did just update their line with the 2100, 3100 and SQ models (the SQ is tiny!). But the reviews of the 2100 and 3100 haven't been great.

Just because some of their lower end models have a swivel lense like the 4500, doesn't mean that it takes pictures like it!

-vasu

[itai195]

The 4500 is a nice camera. I have a 4300 and have been pretty pleased with it. It's my first non-Canon digital camera, so it took a bit of getting used to because its capabilities are a little different. Overall, it mangles less shots than my old S30 did, but the S30 was also an excellent camera. It does annoy me that the noise reduction on the 4300 doesn't seem to be on for most of the scene modes though, which renders that feature useless. I wouldn't mind snapping up one of those 4MP elphs or the new elph that uses SD cards, just because I love the size of those cameras.

[tikki]

I love my Canon s200, but the red eye blows on it. That's my only complaint on an otherwise perfect camera for me.

[molala]

i had the s110 and now the s330 and have taken many many great photos with both. the s110 died with the e18 error after 1.5 years. i would suggest getting a case for your elph to make sure dust or other particles like sand don't get into the lens barrel (the most common cause of the e18 error from what i've read online). otherwise, it's very sturdy. have fun!

[Producer]

just got the canon s400 yesterday so I will report on it soon... i return an olympus stylus 300 because I didn't care for the quality of the pics... it was 3 megapixils verses the canon's 4 so far the pics look nicer on the canon but I have only taken a couple... I also have a Sony DSC-V1 on order through dell... hopefully I will get that in the next couple of weeks... that one seems like the one to get if you can afford it and deal with the slightly larger size...(I haven't seen it in person yet so I am not sure of the exact size) but it has some expandable lenses, night shot, 15 fps movie mode, 5 megapixels, 4x zoom... should be nice Oh nice thing about the canon is the cheap memory...the sony uses memory stick pro... while the olympus used xd which is also expensive compared to the canon...

[b00tang]

I absolutely love my s230 and have never once had second thoughts about it