Point and Click camera suggestions for my wife please!

[Zanth]

Mother's day is around the corner and I would like to get my wife a new point and click camera. We currently have a Canon Powershot A100 which takes lovely pics but has perhaps the worst battery life of any electronic device I've ever used, period! With brand new high quality batteries I get about 15 shots with flash. With fully charged rechargeables, I get about 10 or so. It is silly.

We own a nice DSLR so the purpose here is something my wife can use day to day to take pics of the kids when she is out and about. She 1) doesn't like using the DSLR 2) can't quite get the hang of it 3) finds it cumbersome.

So the priorities are:

1) quality of pic
2) battery life
3) ease of use
4) form factor


It doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg. I would like something with optical zoom, but for the most part, all subjects will be within 10 ft of the cam so I don't need ridiculous zoom.

 

[3x331m]

Canon SD600.

 

[GlendaleViper]

If speed isn't a major issue, you really can't go wrong with Canon's A series cameras. Easy on the wallet and fantastic results.

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...0071891&catid=

 

[CMasten]

I find these to among the slickest, and easiest to use digital cameras around.

I own several. http://www.kenrockwell.com/casio/exs600.htm

They can be found for under 199.00 US all over. They take good quality video in addition to stills.

 

[jjcha]

Given it's for your wife, I would go with a Casio Exilim EX-S770. Don't underestimate how important form factor is.

I'd get it in red.

Best,

-Jason

PS:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanth /img/forum/go_quote.gif She 1) doesn't like using the DSLR 2) can't quite get the hang of it 3) finds it cumbersome. So the priorities are: 1) quality of pic 2) battery life 3) ease of use 4) form factor

Hmmmmm, I'd say you have the priorities listed backwards.

 

[Dimitris]

I would suggest a Canon Ixus. You cant go wrong with the cute small package.

 

[antiant]

Canon SD800 IS or those Casio's are great as well

 

[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjcha /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hmmmmm, I'd say you have the priorities listed backwards.

Heh, you may be very right

However, she carries around a massive diaper bag everywhere, so it doesn't need to be teeny tiny, but for instance a Kodak Z series with the big lens wouldn't be that great for her

 

[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlendaleViper /img/forum/go_quote.gif If speed isn't a major issue, you really can't go wrong with Canon's A series cameras. Easy on the wallet and fantastic results. http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...0071891&catid=

The price is right! But what about the battery life? Our A100 is abysmal.

 

[Zanth]

Looking at the Casios, they do look incredible and I like the metal bodies a lot. A bit of durability for my butter-fingered wife. So the how is the battery life on these? It uses NP-20 Lithium-Ion pack so this is great. What should I expect in terms of the number of pics with flash?

 

[GlendaleViper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanth /img/forum/go_quote.gif The price is right! But what about the battery life? Our A100 is abysmal.

My girlfriend (and a few other friends) have the 4MP version of this camera. I can tell you the DiGIC II processor has made a massive difference to speed and battery life. Two AA batteries should get you well over 100 full-resolution shots with flash in use, likely closer to 200. Factor in that most chargers come with 4AA batteries, and you can expect to double that number.

Image quality is excellent for a P&S at this price.

 

[Roam]

I'd say either the Canon SD700IS or the SD800IS, depending on whether you need the wide-angle capabilities of the latter. Image stabilization to me is a must have, especially with point & shoot cameras which have slower lenses. Both come with a lithium ion battery pack and I can usually shoot at least 150 full quality shots with extensive use of the LCD screen before the battery runs down.

What I like most about the SD800 (which I own) is the large and highly accurate LCD display, which is useable even in bright sunlight. The colours are perfect, if it looks good on the LCD it'll be great when I finally print it out, I don't have to worry about compensating for exposures and colour balance.

For me it does everything a compact point & shoot camera should do. I can set it in automatic mode and it'll take good pictures right out of the box, no fiddling required. Of course being the fussy person I am, I tweaked a few setting in manual mode (which should be called "advanced mode", for it's not really manual) so it has more of the super-saturated look of Fuji Velvia film.

 

[dj_mocok]

From choices of Nikon P5000, Canon S900Ti, Canon TX1, Nikon S500, I just recommended my sister to buy Nikon S500. This is based from that she told me she wants something small, good image quality, and have a pretty good movie mode. (the TX eats too much battery)

I hope I made a good suggestion because I'm not all that familiar with small P&S cameras. they both look alike to me.

 

[Absorbine_Sr]

I just bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC FX07 at Costco for $249. 7 megapixel, optics by Leica, image stabilization, wide angle, 3x optical zoom. As for battery life, I've taken about 75-100 initial shots, almost all using flash and so far the battery meter hasn't budged from full charge. And that is also taking into account that there is no optical viewfinder, just the LCD for composition. I'm very happy with the camera so far. I'm a not-so-good photographer, but some examples can be seen here:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showpo...&postcount=288

About my only complaint is that it came with only a 256 MB SD card, but 2GB cards can be found on sale between $20-30. And a 2 GB card, according to the camera, will hold approximately 500 7MP photos.

A_Sr.

 

[kin0kin]

fuji f31fd