erik_h Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 ...and I'm hoping people here might steer me towards some solutions. These aren't the features that most reviews focus on, so I'm asking here. This will be a smallish portable digital for my wife. The goal is to cure her of her "wasting film!" worries. I'll be using it a lot as well. IN ORDER OF PRIORITY, FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: 1) MINIMAL SHUTTER LAG. I've got 3 young kids, and they won't/can't sit till. I've lost more @$%#!ing pictures through shutter delay than I can count. That's why my F3 and scale focus minox get good shots: when I push the shutter, they shoot right away. 2) EXCELLENT "PROGRAM" MODE. My wife will use it a lot. She will not--ever--do anything but turn it on. 3) FAST LENS/SENSOR. I've got cameras with big off-camera flash. But Igenerally hate flash. One of my main complaints with most portable film cameras is that you're stuck either shooting 800 film or using flash. (Remember, my subjects are usually wiggling--1/60 is pretty much a minimum.) I would really, really, like not to have to use flash all the time. Ergo, a fast (fixed?) lens, or a sensor with good lowlight, or...? 4) DECENT VIEWFINDER. Optical is OK, and so is a LCD. So long as it's functional. That's pretty much it. Some things I'm willing to sacrifice to get this are: -complexity. I don't care if the wonderful raw features take 17 menus. I don't care if I can edit or zoom in on pictures on the LCD, or how easily I can do so. Just give me a good program mode for my wife and I'll figure out the rest. -Size. I know many are tiny. I'd be willing to have a slightly larger model (though not an SLR) -Pixels. I cannot imagine these will ever go above an 8x10. That's it. Nothing bigger--ever. Probably 99% of all these pics will be turned into 4x6 prints. -Zoom. Yes, it would be nice, but I can live without it. Any ideas? Price is an issue--probably $400 or so, tops--but that's a huge range of cameras. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harris_goldstein Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 I don't use digital a lot, but when I do I use it for P&S shots - just as you described. I like my 5mp Canon A610 in terms of quality, speed, and ease of use (which, in my case, includes the ability to use AA batteries). The current version is the 7mp A620. Worth looking into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed_Ingold Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 I bought my wife a Fuji F10, which has the attributes you are looking for. It has a negligible shutter lag and excellent performance at ISO 400. It is very compact and easy to carry. You can get several hundred shots from the Li-Ion battery, which is replaceable (fast chargers are available). It has an LCD viewfinder only (no optical), which is no big loss for a casual user. At 6.3MP, it makes an excellent 8x10 inch print. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck_c_charlottenc_ Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 Erik, Canon A620 or Fuji F30 (equivilent to the Fuji F10/F11). You can find the F30 but not the F10 or F11. The Canon A620 is the best price performer, though. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=435969&is=REG&addedTroughType=search I hope this helps. //Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidlong Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 I've got an F10 too and am generally very happy with it, but I'd have to disagree about minimal shutter lag. It's reasonably fast, but any camera where there's an autofocus delay is going to miss some shots. Yes, you can half-press and prefocus, but that's not quite the same. If you really want no shutter lag, you've got to either get a fixed lens camera or one where you can lock the focus and leave it from shot to shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralph_jensen Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 Fuji F30, no question. DPR reviewed it today: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/FujifilmF30/ DPR says "the F30 is far and away the best low light compact camera on the market today, bar none," although it is "merely competent in bright daylight." Both the F10 (which I have) and the F30 have about as little shutter lag as DPReview has found in this class of camera. If you hold the shutter down halfway to prefocus, there is in my experience virtually zero shutter lag. (Same for the A620, which I also have and like -- it's cheaper and not much bigger, but it's nowhere near the Fujis at high ISOs.) Read the thorough reviews of these two cameras at dpreview.com, imaging-resource.com, and dcresource.com.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael j hoffman Posted July 27, 2006 Share Posted July 27, 2006 Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7. Mine makes better 9-by-12 inch images than my Canon EOS 10D DSLR - no joke. Michael J Hoffman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronald_moravec1 Posted July 27, 2006 Share Posted July 27, 2006 Try before you buy. The Canon mentioned above has pretty bad lag, perhaps .5 sec. The lag can be overcome if you hold the shutter button down 1/2 way to allow it set the exposure and focus, then finish the stroke. This is a rather delicate operation unfortunately as the detent is hardly there. The pics are fantastic. That will not be a problem. May I suggest you look for something with a viewfinder. You can`t follow kids with an LCD screen held 18 inches from your face, which was one of the main reasons I bought my Cannon Power Shot 610. Olympus makes a SP350 or 350 something with a viewfinder. The Canon uses AA batteries instead of some custom made thing you can`t buy. You will need a bigger storage card and I recommend rechargable NmH batteries, no Ni Cads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erik_h Posted July 27, 2006 Author Share Posted July 27, 2006 That is very helpful. Let me clarify a bit; I apologize for any misunderstanding: When I refer to shutter lag, I'm including focus time. I don't really have the opportunity to prefocus at the times that lag matters. A few examples of what I mean: My old stylus epic had very minimal shutter lag. Worse than an SLR of course but not really a problem. My old stylus zoom made me want to throw it out the window. My contax g2 is fine (fast AF). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrybc Posted July 27, 2006 Share Posted July 27, 2006 I bought the F10 for our web business, and a Canon A610 for my own personal use. I also have a Nikon D70, a Minolta A1, and a really old Epson 850Z. The AF lag on the F10 and A610 seem very close, and that lag isn't that bad at all. Definitely faster than my A1. The F10 was bought purely because we needed to shoot indoor, non-flash photos with small camera and the operator was not a camera guy. The A610 was bought for street photography and a daily carry camera for myself. As much as I enjoy shooting in low light, the F10 was too limited in features to make its excellent ISO400 performance enough of a draw to win me over. The A610 has far more controllability and versatility. larsbc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erik_h Posted July 27, 2006 Author Share Posted July 27, 2006 thanks, all, for the great info; I appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralph_jensen Posted July 27, 2006 Share Posted July 27, 2006 Erik wrote: "Let me clarify a bit; I apologize for any misunderstanding: When I refer to shutter lag, I'm including focus time. I don't really have the opportunity to prefocus at the times that lag matters." As I noted above, I don't think there are any pocket digicams much faster than the Fuji F-series. DPReview lists the timings for the F30 on this page (you want "full" lag; see explanations at bottom: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/FujifilmF30/page4.asp I will say that when I first picked up a digicam I thought I never could adjust to the prefocus concept, but I did (large d.o.f. of smaller sensor helps) and it works in many more situations than most people think it would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erik_h Posted August 7, 2006 Author Share Posted August 7, 2006 The F30 arrived. And oh my god.... I HATED IT! I aimed the camera at a chain in my dim living room. bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt. A green light came on. ABout 1.5 seconds later, a "beep" was heard. Time to shoot! Horrible focus lag. From .5 to almost 2 seconds, depending on the lighting and subject? As in, my real-world attempts to capture my children on film failed EVERY FREAKIN' TIME. Oh well. Not that I blame anyone here. I just think that perhaps I'm gonna stick with an SLR. I don't get it though. Hell, my Stylus Epic will focus and shoot in 1/4 the time of this brand new ultracopmuterized $320 digicam. What's up with that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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