Camera Help Please

[meghanxx4]

I need some help from you camera experts.

I'm in the market to buy a new camera. I probably wont be buying it until mid summer, or after summer. My camera right now is getting pretty old. It's a Nikon Coolpix L2. At the moment its lost.... lol its somwhere in my house.... hopefully. Anyway though, a few main problems i had with it was,

Shutter Speed, By the time i pressed the button, and then by the time the flash went off and took the picture the bird or whatever i wanted to take pic of had usually moved.

Flash, unless the setting was on 'auto', and the setting was bright enough for it to automatically not use a flash, it wouldnt take good pics if i put it on forced off flash. They came out blurry, even if i set it on auto timer and put it on a table or on the floor they still came out blurry.

With a flash, overrall it took pretty good photos. It's just i'd prefered not to use a flash in many photos. I prefer natural lighting, but that obviously wasnt an option with this camera.

Anyway i'm aiming for a minimum of 10MP, for my new camera, and prefer Nikon or Canon. Preferably Nikon, as im more fo a Nikon kind of person, but Canon is also good.

At first i wanted a SLR camera, but thinking about it, and looking into it i think i'm going to stick with a coolpix, or powershot camera. I'm planning a trip to Hawaii in december, and would like to take the camera with me and i think the larger camera would be too big, and also as much as i would love one, i think i can see my self using a smaller camera more something i can stick in my pocket, or my purse - that was one thing i liked about my current camera, it's small in size.

I had sort of wanted a waterproof or underwater camera, but looking at some reviews and research on them, i heard they leak so i think i'll still with a regular.

My price range is probably my max to be around $300 or so. Just because technology improves so fast and i'll probably be replacing it every few years. My current camera is only like 3 or 4 years old.

Anyway these the cameras i'm thinking about.

Canon PowerShot SD780 IS Review

Nikon Coolpix S230 Review

Canon PowerShot SD960 IS Review

After just looking breifly... it seems the canons seem to be appealing to me more now..... just because they seem to be slightly better. i dont know. CAMERA EXPERTS HELP!b lol

I really like the first camera, but i dont know.

 

[TexDot33]

There is an photography trade show in late February or Early March called PMA. At the trade show manufacturers "show their cards" so to speak with all of their product that is going to be released during the year ...

Seeing how PMA just happened about a month or so ago I would expect a flood of new cameras to be hitting the markets here soon. In this situation I would say hold off on research until it gets closer to the time that you are going to be purchasing your camera due to the fact that there will probably be a complete line revamping from the likes of: Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, Pentax, Kodak and all of the other names in the industry.

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Shutter Speed, By the time i pressed the button, and then by the time the flash went off and took the picture the bird or whatever i wanted to take pic of had usually moved.

I think Tex is THE camera expert around here, but a note on terminology to be careful of. Shutter speed usually refers to the time that the shutter is open not the time it takes to open (correct me if I'm wrong.)

The only reason I mention that is if you go to a store and you ask about shutter speeds the camera that has the 'fastest' may still have that odd delay problem - which I have seen in many common digital cameras.

I think that delay is focusing, and likely there are cameras that use other means of focusing - I imagine their are some that continually adjust focus while they are on, then when you click they can take the picture right away. Though I really know nothing about cameras it seems to me that such a feature would be important for getting pictures of anything where timing was important.

 

[TexDot33]

Shutter Speed, By the time i pressed the button, and then by the time the flash went off and took the picture the bird or whatever i wanted to take pic of had usually moved.

I think Tex is THE camera expert around here, but a note on terminology to be careful of. Shutter speed usually refers to the time that the shutter is open not the time it takes to open (correct me if I'm wrong.)

The only reason I mention that is if you go to a store and you ask about shutter speeds the camera that has the 'fastest' may still have that odd delay problem - which I have seen in many common digital cameras.

I think that delay is focusing, and likely there are cameras that use other means of focusing - I imagine their are some that continually adjust focus while they are on, then when you click they can take the picture right away. Though I really know nothing about cameras it seems to me that such a feature would be important for getting pictures of anything where timing was important.

+1 to AD for his post ... completely correct!

The proper term for your issue here Meghan is "shutter LAG" the amount of time it take the shutter to fire from the time that the shutter release is depressed.

 

[meghanxx4]

Does anyone have any experience with those touch screen ones. I think the last camera on my list had touch screen. Any problems with it? Or should stick with the regular control stuff. I really want an underwater camera, but they like leak apparently so ya, i'll probably just get one of those under water disposable cameras when i go to Hawaii, because last time i went i so regretted not getting any pictures of the cool fish and stuff, specially at Hanauma Bay

But ya lately i've been using my mom's panasonic lumix camera, and at first i thought it was crap, but actually its not so bad if you have it on the right settings. Still though, i think Canon or Nikon are more dependable. Like with cars, Mazda, or Fords, can be ok, but Toyota or Honda's are more dependable. Well actually Ford are pretty ugly but whatever thats not the point you get what i mean.

I'll post some pictures with my mom's camera in a bit.