# Camera Shopping, Please Help! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 2, 2010, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camera-shopping-please-help/559176 "2010-11-02T04:22:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camera-shopping-please-help/559176/21 "2010-11-03T13:38:52Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > That’s why anytime someone asks me for a camera recommendation I always send them to Steves-Digicams and tell them to check the time between pictures. I’ll bookmark that for future reference. _Usually_ when I get ready to buy a camera (the Canon P&S is my fifth) I spend enough hours researching that if I were paid for the hours, the time would be worth more than the camera (there are a _lot_ of camera out there!). Unfortunately the Canon P&S was kind of a last minute, gotta-get-it-now type of purchase, and I regret having gotten it. > [@](#): > > Most people in the market for a P&S will happily have not-as-good pictures as long as they don’t have to wait more then a few seconds and the controls are easy to deal with. And, frankly, that’s understandable. You friend’s are all out at the bar, everyone is laughing, you pull out your camera, snap a picture, but you want to get a second one for some reason…by the time 5-10 seconds have passed, the moment is over. You’re right. I had _no idea_ how much noise the Lumix had until I started comparing it with my Canon DSLR, particularly in low light. On the other hand, I use the P&S for “snapshots” and the DSLR for “photographs,” if you know what I mean. Well, you do; you described it accurately in the paragraph I quoted! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camera-shopping-please-help/559176/22 "2010-11-03T13:45:45Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > You’re right. I had _no idea_ how much noise the Lumix had until I started comparing it with my Canon DSLR, particularly in low light. On the other hand, I use the P&S for “snapshots” and the DSLR for “photographs,” if you know what I mean. Well, you do; you described it accurately in the paragraph I quoted! 😉 That means that in low light it was bumping up the ISO, it does that because it knows it’s flash won’t be powerful enough, it can’t open the aperture enough and keeping the shutter open longer will result in a blurry picture. Either that or it does some funky post processing that screws with the picture. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camera-shopping-please-help/559176.md?page=1)