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General discussion

Help: compact camera comparison

by dsh0 Dec 18, 2009 2:51AM PST

I would like to get the BEST out there for a compact (I don't care what it is bundled with or the flash media). I don't have the money for a fancy dSLR nor do I want to carry one around nor do I have the skill right now to operate one, but otherwise I want the best quality available. I did a bunch of research and I narrowed it down to three cameras. By all means if you think of a better alternative then please suggest one. Having built many computers I understand what it means to wait a year if it means getting a breakthrough in technology. However, I am not well versed in camera technology. First let me tell you my needs:

-Excellent photo quality (crisp, clear) for travel and scenery. I'm active, and I do a lot of hiking. Also, it has to be decent for the occasional indoor shots with medium lighting.
-Good optical zoom (digital zoom is worthless to me). Although I was reading that too much optical zoom on a compact can distort things. Should I be worried about this?
-HD quality video with optical zoom. HDMI capabilities are a plus, but not required.
-Different scenes like snow, landscape, water, indoor, etc. is nice (if it works).
-The back lcd has to be visible in sunlight.
-Cannot be flimsy. I know I have to still take really good care of it, but some durability helps.
-Other things like battery life, file formats, and other really useful features (not gimmicks).

Problem #1: I used a friend's (brand new from last year) Sony Cybershot for a while, and I was greatly disappointed. Nothing is worse than taking a scenic photo, and then when you get back home you find out that the picture came out blurry. I guess this is where a good image stabilizer comes in handy? You'd think I was violently shaking the thing.

Problem #2: The sun. When you go hiking it is hard to control both the face in front of you AND the mountain the background to show up. Usually one of them shows up dark. So I have to aim the camera somewhere in the sky to get a happy medium. I'd like to never have a problem with this again.

Here are my choices so far:

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3. (The upgraded model over the ZS1.) So far this is my first choice. Having 12X optical zoom sounds like a really good idea for scenery. Is also having a wide lens good? AVCHD file format for video is fine because it probably is the future for the next 5-10+ years.

Samsung DualView TL225. This is the coolest camera I found. The front lcd is a great idea for picky family members and for self-photos. The touch screen doesn't bother me. One downside though is that I hear the battery doesn't last so long meaning a whole day of hiking would take several batteries.

Canon PowerShot S90. The only reason I'm considering this one because it has the most manual controls. The only manual controls I normally use is zoom (if that is one). I don't see a use for messing with ISO settings (on a compact) if it will just add more noise anyways. If someone can tell me why an amateur (or wannabe advanced amateur) would want control over things like aperture, shutter speed, focus, white balance, exposure compensation, or ISO then I'm game.

Remember, I'm just trying to take the BEST picture available given the parameters.

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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Additional info
by dsh0 Dec 18, 2009 3:05AM PST

Forgot to emphasize is that the other main use besides hiking would be traveling. I'd like to take a huge amount of pictures documenting what I see or places I go to overseas. Some examples are pictures of outdoor landmarks, sculptures, and buildings, or inside of museums, people, etc.

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Wow you were very specific
by kalel33-20416052469708587370302374692233 Dec 18, 2009 7:47AM PST

The Samsung is a gimmicky camera and not that great of a photography camera. On the other hand, the S90 is probably the best compact camera for image quality and low light. If you needed more zoom then take a look at the Canon G11. It's the same as the S90 but a little bit bigger, more zoom, LCD rotates(which takes care of your problem of seeing an LCD in the sun), and has a few more features that you might not use.

The reason why you want to use ISO is that every time you double the ISO you cut the shutter speed in half. So if you shoot at ISO 200 and the shutter speed is too slow at 1/30th second then you can bump the ISO to 400 and then shutter speed is 1/60th sec. The S90 and G11 do very well up to ISO 800 and the ISO 1600 can make great 5x7 prints without the noise you'd get from other cameras.

If you want a superzoom camera then look at the Panasonic cameras. They won't be as good in low light, but their image quality is exceptional for a superzoom camera.

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Good compact camera
by hjfok Dec 18, 2009 9:41AM PST

Agree that Canon S90 or G11 will be among the best. The Panasonic LX3 is also very good but lack zoom.

The reason to use higher ISO is to minimize subject motion blur. Blurring can be due to your hand's natural shakiness or from the moving subject. At higher ISO, one is able to use faster shutter speed which helps to minimize blurring.

You will have more noise at higher ISO. But you can easily improve noise with softwares like Noise Ninja etc. But there is nothing you can do to improve a blurry photo (other than making it into an abstract art).

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