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HI. I've never owned a digital camera and am in the market. The prob,
which one? So many choices, so little time, so much junk, so much overkill.
I'm an experienced amateur, holiday, occasion kind of use. I have both 35mm
and APS cameras. What I'm looking for in a digital needs to be small,
light, compact, preferably metal case, 3x zoom, 5mp +/-, great pics, good
software, not too expensive. My APS is the Canon Elph II and I like it's
size(3.4x2.2x1)/weight(7oz battery incl). Suggestions? Where to look for
info etc...
Any assistance/directions would be greatly appreciated...

Don...

"Don..." wrote:

> HI. I've never owned a digital camera and am in the market. The prob,
> which one? So many choices, so little time, so much junk, so much overkill.
> I'm an experienced amateur, holiday, occasion kind of use. I have both 35mm
> and APS cameras. What I'm looking for in a digital needs to be small,
> light, compact, preferably metal case, 3x zoom, 5mp +/-, great pics, good
> software, not too expensive. My APS is the Canon Elph II and I like it's
> size(3.4x2.2x1)/weight(7oz battery incl). Suggestions? Where to look for
> info etc...
> Any assistance/directions would be greatly appreciated...
>
> Don...

The Good News is that the field is so competitive, there are practically no
lemons out there.
You could probably use a dart board approach and be happy with the choice.
With a few exceptions, most P&S 3 MP cameras produce comparable quality images.
So do 4 MP Cameras, 5 MP too.
The differences are in the features, ergonomics, size, and even physical
appearance. (Nice looking is better than ugly).
The Canon S50 will probably be discontinued soon as it is being discounted
significantly.
It is a honey of a 5 MP camera at a very attractive price (<$400)
It is not as tiny as your Elph but it fits easily in a shirt pocket, which means
you can carry it with you anywhere.
Bob Williams

You already seem to have decided upon your technical requirements ("3x zoom,
5mp +/-" ). I trust these were arrived at scientifically rather than just
because the numbers seem right when you look at various cameras' sales
pitches.

The basic question is what do you want from your camera. I personally have
always felt that megapixels are over hyped at the expense of other features,
but my view may be shaded by the fact that I hardly ever print bigger than
6x4. I therefore chose (a couple of years back now) to go for a big zoom
(10x), so I wouldn't need to do much cropping or enlarging, and not worry
about the megapixels. If your requirements are different then you will make
different choices.

The most useful resource to me, when I was researching what to buy, was the
following web site:

http://www.dpreview.com

Their in-depth reviews of most camera models are extremely useful.

Regards
Keith

Don... wrote:

> HI. I've never owned a digital camera and am in the market. The prob,
> which one? So many choices, so little time, so much junk, so much overkill.
> I'm an experienced amateur, holiday, occasion kind of use. I have both 35mm
> and APS cameras. What I'm looking for in a digital needs to be small,
> light, compact, preferably metal case, 3x zoom, 5mp +/-, great pics, good
> software, not too expensive. My APS is the Canon Elph II and I like it's
> size(3.4x2.2x1)/weight(7oz battery incl). Suggestions? Where to look for
> info etc...
> Any assistance/directions would be greatly appreciated...
>
> Don...
>
>
>
The digital Elph would be a good place to start looking, given you like
the film version.

Keith Sheppard wrote:

> You already seem to have decided upon your technical requirements ("3x zoom,
> 5mp +/-" ). I trust these were arrived at scientifically rather than just
> because the numbers seem right when you look at various cameras' sales
> pitches.
>
> The basic question is what do you want from your camera. I personally have
> always felt that megapixels are over hyped at the expense of other features,
> but my view may be shaded by the fact that I hardly ever print bigger than
> 6x4. I therefore chose (a couple of years back now) to go for a big zoom
> (10x), so I wouldn't need to do much cropping or enlarging, and not worry
> about the megapixels. If your requirements are different then you will make
> different choices.
>
> The most useful resource to me, when I was researching what to buy, was the
> following web site:
>
> http://www.dpreview.com
>
> Their in-depth reviews of most camera models are extremely useful.
>
> Regards
> Keith
>
>
Give a choice between a 3 mp camera with a good optical zoom (6X or
over), and a 5 mp camera with a 3x zoom, I would go with the better
optics and 3 mp sensor.

Hi,

Heard good things about the Canon S400 from people that have digital cameras
with more pixels.
Rosita