Lately I’ve been searching for a non-Digital SLR full body camera.
Something like the Cybershot, Powershots, and such. I’ve yet to come across a camera with a mega zoom (12-18x), high megapixel (8 or more), decent ISO settings , good color reproduction and a speedy startup and response time. Seems that all the cameras with more sensitive ISO settings will have tons of noise in the final product. I’d like to be able to take photos indoors, in less-than-ideal light conditions and also use the zoom feature without sacrificing quality.
Obviously I don’t want to pay $600 for a camera because I’d be in the range of the dSLR’s at that point. I’d like to find an all around decent full bodied camera with a wicked zoom and really good image reproduction. If it’s out there.
So, I’d like to hear people’s opinions who own these types of cameras and the pros and cons associated.
And if you know of a camera that does everything pretty good with excellent image reproduction I’d like to hear about it. After all, if the camera is blazing fast or has a 18X zoom it won’t do a bit of good if the photos are crappy.
$500 or less seems to be my cut-off point.
I’ve got a Fuji S8000 and it’s got an 18x nice zoom, 8. Megapixel and fires up right quick. I take it for hiking and nature photography mostly, and with it I blow up images and set them about my house. I’ve got some great shots. I’ve not had a problem with it at all.
Here’s another great cite with a great peer review.
12-18x zoom? I’ll probably be corrected shortly, but 6 or 7 seems to be near the top of the zoom range, with the vast majority falling in the 3x category. I thought I was going good to find a Panasonic with 7x optical zoom.
After looking, I see a Panasonic available with 10x optical zoom.
Everything is a compromise. You’re asking for pretty much the whole enchilada, and you want it cheap. That’s not going to happen.
12x or greater zoom is getting up there. As a general rule, the longer the lens, the less light you’re going to get unless you increase the diameter as well ($$).
For the class of camera you’re looking at, 8 megapixels on a chip almost always means sacrificing picture quality and low light performance. This is due mostly to the size of the chip and the density of the sensors. The only solution (barring advances in technology) is to increase the size of the sensor. But this increases the size of everything else, including the lens ($$$).
To sum up, “long lens”, “good low light performance” and “cheap” are mutually incompatible options. You can probably pick any two.
I haven’t read the recent reviews, but the Sony H series and the Olympus UZ series are probably your best bets. But don’t expect miracles.
BTW, megapixels are widely thought to be overrated. Eight is probably overkill.
Thanks, Cnet.com claims …“Fuji’s S8000fd 18x megazoom has a nice body design and offers a commendable level of control, but its mediocre image quality and sluggish performance blights what could otherwise be an excellent camera.”
WRT your camera. This isn’t taking anything away from your unit because this type of review is typical of all the cameras I’ve been looking at so far. I need them to rant and rave about image quality above all else. Can’t find one.
Up till recently, I was using the Olympus C5500 Sport. The camera is about 2 yrs old and cost ~$550 at the time, so you can probably find it closer to your expected price range.
Pros
Great optical zoom (5x)
Beautiful depth of field on macro shots
Ability to manually set aperture and shutter speed
Feels good in my hand (personal preference… bitty P&S cameras feel like toys to me)
Cons
Slow to focus in lower light conditions
Maximum ISO of 400
Tripod needed for any night photography due to above two issues
Eats through batteries like they’re tic tacs (and that’s with NiMH rechargeables, I might add)
Also, unless you’re planning to crop down to small selections or blow up to massive proportions, something between 5.0 and 6.0 MP is usually more than enough firepower. There are several cameras within this range that have a 10x+ zoom, if that’s what you’re in the market for (a great list here… and some damn good reviews, too)
But since this is IMHO, I still feel the need to point out that you’ll get better response time and better photo quality and better performance at low light with a proper dSLR. If you insist on P&S, be prepared to take your expectations down a notch or two - I can probably shoot 5 pictures with my Rebel XTi in the time it takes for my Olympus to warm up and take a single shot.
Yes, in fact I might get a hand-me-down from my old man next fall. The concern I have for getting a use camera is a dirty cmos. The other problem is the competition for these used cameras is pretty thick and finding a good deal on a quality used item is very difficult, especially on Ebay where there seems to be a bidding frenzy on most cameras like this. It’s almost the same as trying to find a good deal on a high end laptop. Everyone knows what they’re worth and the bidding wars begin.
If you’re going for a non-DSLR camera I’d look at Fuji, they have been known for providing good low light images.
If you decide to look for a used DSLR, I’d look at the 6Mpix generation, the higher the Mpixel count, the more noise you will get. This is true for both DSLR and compacts, but in compacts it’s even more evident because of the smaller sensor size.
One option for a DSLR would be the Pentax K100D or K100D Super, they are pretty cheap to begin with and Pentax is about to announce new models which should only help lower the price. Both models have inhouse shake reduction which will help with longer exposures and offer up to ISO 3200, with reasonable noise levels up to ISO 1600 if exposure is correct, underexposure is really bad for noise.
Another option would be to look into bridge cameras that have a hot shoe, so you can use an external flash. This will allow you to shoot in just about any light and you can bounce the flash off walls and ceilings to avoid the typical flat and unflattering flash look.
Short answer is no, for the main reason that the CCDs on all ultrazoom cameras are tiny compared to a dSLR. There’s just no way with current technology that you can get low noise at high ISO in that sensor size.
The Fuji cameras with the SuperCCD (the S6000 and S9000) are the best at low light high ISO, nothing else comes close. The S8000 doesn’t have that type of sensor, it’s similar at low light to other cameras. In bright light most cameras will do well and take excellent quality images. Drop below ISO 400 and most cameras will start getting quite noisily even if they go up to 3200.
I agree that megapixels are overrated. Once you get past 8 MP most people don’t really need the larger image size. If you aren’t printing 20"x30" images, that many pixels don’t help much. And cramming that many pixels on a small sensor is what adds to noise in the final image.
Of the ultrazooms, if you really want high ISO non-flash image quality then you want the Fuji S6000 or S9000. They’re older models but still the best. Otherwise the Olympus SP-560 and Canon S5 would be the two I’d look at.
Does anyone have any input on the linked camera in Post #6? The Konica Minolta Z6?
It’s already 3 model years old, but the one at the Walmart is NIB. Think $160 is a decent price to take a gamble in this? I’m hoping it’ll tide me over till I get a dSLR.
BTW, they’re going for more than that used on ebay.
The Z6 is a pretty old camera, the shutter lag, high ISO, slow lens, and lack of AF-lamp mean that this is only going to be acceptable in good lighting situations. It won’t tide you over, it will frustrate and annoy you. There are much better new cameras on the market for just a bit more money that will be a much better learning tool.
The Panasonics are notably bad at high ISO in low light. If you are looking for low noise, these are not the cameras for you. Their IS is good, but not better then Canon, Olympus or Fuji.
The only camera in this range that is going to take high quality images in low light is the Fuji F6000. If you want to shoot in low light, indoors, at zoom, and with no flash then there really aren’t many options.
Thanks, you’ve talked me off the ledge. I’ll start investigating the Fuji’s. Trouble is they don’t seem to sell them at Best Buy, Circuit City and the other common electronic stores around here. I’ll keep looking.
I think they’ve stopped making it. I got mine in Australia. Amazon.uk is advertising a few, and they’re quite cheap even taking the exchange rate into account:
The zoom is nice. Manual, so it saves the battery and you can zoom in and out while taking movies, which hardly any other camera does. And you can zoom close as well as far - wide angle is equivalent to a 28mm lens. There is no image stabilisation - it uses its low-noise sensor to bump up the ISO and lower the exposure time instead. It isn’t particularly wieldy though - doesn’t exactly slip into a pocket!
Check out the Kodak Easyshare line; they have a few 12x cameras that I had no complaints about. I really want this one, but I went through about five cameras from that line, and liked all but one (and that was the first one, years ago).
My current Canon Powershot S3, on the other hand… Fuckin’ ISO noise at 100 at a daytime baseball game (slight exaggeration) and just kinda crappy all over. It’s made me stop taking pictures because it’s so frustrating.
