P&S Camera Advice (was: reaching patrick norton)

[turd-ferguson]

is there any way to get a hold of him through e-mail
i need to ask a question about digital cameras

-turd

[tehboris]

Ask the question here

[tokenuser]

patrick@revision3.com?

But to be honest, just by asking the question in the forums you will get a lot of great answers as well - possibly from people with direct experience of the device you are looking for.

[turd-ferguson]

fair enough he just seemed to have an opinion that i remember thinking at the time
i need to remember this
anywho a little background
i am new here
i listen to a ton of tech pod cast twit, buzz out loud, tekzilla, diggnation etc.
that being said i am pretty tech retarded and i listen because it is really interesting
yet i don't have said time to dig into it a hobby
on to the question

i am in need of a digital camera
we have a 16 month old son
and the old sony we have just is leaving too many blurry pictures
we also like to use out camera to record short video clips etc.
we use flickr to share with the family www.flickr.com/vegasclark
and we like to dock or at least connect to our tv to view taken photos
we currently have a dock
in conclusion we need a camera that has great quality
easy to use we are not ones for manual configurations
and that takes great quality photos
price isn't too important


thanks in advance

[masherscf]

What do you mean "blurry?

Blur can be caused by different things. I can tell you right now that most sub-$200 point-and-shoot are completely inadequate for taking pictures of infants a toddlers because of shutter lag. However, most of these same point and shoots make awesome videos for posting to the web.

I had a Canon A590 IS point and shoot that I used for video that I liked batter than my DV-camera. Too bad I lost it on the train. Here is a sample after the Google Video compression. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7491644665854998767&hl=en

If you want really spectacular toddler pictures you probably going to have to spend some money on a DSLR. And, that camera won't do video at all.

[turd-ferguson]

blurry like i need some sort of image stabilization
i want to stay with point and shoot for size
canon sd 870 was one i heard was good

[tw33k2514]

If price really is no object, then id suggest the Canon G9. it is about as good as it gets as far as P&S cameras http://tinyurl.com/CanonG9

[masherscf]

blurry like i need some sort of image stabilization
i want to stay with point and shoot for size
canon sd 870 was one i heard was good

Image stabilization is only going to solve camera shake. That's only one kind of blur. As I said, most point and shoots, including the canon SD 870 will be completely inappropriate for photographing toddlers because of shutter lag.

[fishtoprecords]

completely inappropriate for photographing toddlers because of shutter lag.

Yes, I hate shutter lag. A toddler will have the perfect smile for just a fraction of a second; You watch and press the button when its there, and you want the picture to be taken *right then*. not 200 millisecond later.

I've got a Canon Poiwershot SD1100 that I like a lot, and its lag is not too bad. But I've not seen a digital point and shoot that could take the picture that I see in the viewfinder the way my old Nikon F did. That heavy old beast of an SLR probably took a while to swing the mirror up, etc. but it sure worked. I had a Nikon Coolpic that was unusable without a tripod. It felt like it lagged for several seconds.

[tw33k2514]

Here is a very in depth review of the Canon G9

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong9/

[tokenuser]

I had a Canon Powershot S510 that was brilliant - but unfortunately got stolen along with a lot of other gear.

We replaced it with a Sony T100 (because my wife wanted the P&S camera with the largest optical zoom in a compact form factor). Its lag is terrible. Especially indoors.

We got a new puppy, and they are even more impossible to get to sit still than a baby. We have many many photos of where the pup was ... but isn't when the photo gets taken.

Seriously thinking of ditching the T100 for another Canon.

[zorgul]

I have a G9 and it is really great. No problem taking pictures of my nephew (1 year).