Need advice for purchasing a new camera

[xSavior]

Hello! I am new to these forums and to the camera world and I was looking for some advice on purchasing a new camera. My current camera is pretty old and probably discontinued by now. (Its a Sony 5.1 MP Cyber-Shot camera, not sure about the model and all that, DSC-W1?).

Budget

I'm only a college student and being that I have no job, I'd be dipping into savings/getting money from parents so I'd like to keep the budget to $300 or less if that's possible. Nothing is set in stone, as I'm still doing research on what would best meet my needs.

Size

Size isn't a big issue, but something that would be able to fit in my pocket would be nice (for concerts and such) or just carrying it around on random outings.

Features

With my ~$300 price range in mind, the amount of MP isn't really something I can choose, but if I'm going to be spending money on a camera, I do want high-quality pictures and good video recording is a nice bonus.

As for optical zoom, having more would be very nice and image quality is pretty much a must for me.

I'm not familiar with using manual exposure modes so it's not a necessity for me.

General Usage

I will generally be using my camera for taking photos on vacation, traveling outings, and the occasional concert. So I technically don't need something too high-quality, as I'm just trying to find a new replacement/upgrade from my 5-6 year old camera. High-quality pictures would be great and good video/audio would be a big plus.

I would generally not be printing out these photos and just keeping them as digital copies on my computer.

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate?
- I don't have any brands in particular that I love/hate, but I seem to hear an endless amount of praise for Nikon/Canon.

Are there particular models you already have in mind?
- I've been looking at the Canon PowerShot ELPH 300 HS and the reviews seem pretty good to me.

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)
-Image stabilization would be very nice, but not an absolute need.
- Battery life is also a big plus

Thank you in advance!

[Doug Pardee]

You're going to have to decide what you want to give up.

• If you want high-quality images, you're going to want a larger sensor, but that means limited zoom, and too big to fit in a pocket.

• If you want something that will fit in your pocket, that means a small sensor with reduced quality images, and limited zoom range.

• If you want something with a lot of zoom range, that means a small sensor with reduced quality images, and too big to fit in your pocket.

• Nothing you can fit in your pocket is going to take great, or even good, pictures in the low light of a concert. It's tough getting good pictures with top-quality DSLR equipment under those conditions.

The major brands for compact cameras these days are Canon and Panasonic. If I were in the market for a compact right now, I'd probably concentrate on those two brands.

[inkista]

One good place to research specific camera models is the dpreview website. They keep specs on nearly every camera that's out there, and they have a side-by-side comparison tool, as well as doing group reviews of certain classes of lower-priced compact cameras. They have tools for feature searches, too.

Camera feature search: Digital Photography Review

might be a good place to start.

[carae]

Hi. Not an expert but have spent the last while researching my own compact camera purchase.

Based on what you say, I would look at something like the canon sx230 HS.
Examples of some pictures taken with the sx210 hs (previous model)
The price for the sx230 does not appear to be much above your $300 but you might have to shop around. Alternatively see if you can't pick up the slight older sx210 hs for $300.

If you willing to pay a little more, there is the canon powershot S95. This camera is simply amazing as far as compact camera go. Look at the examples here.

Way out of budget is the canon G12.
Examples here

I ended up buying a second hand G11 (new g12 was out of my budget too) and I have got to say this is the best compact camera I have ever owned!

The S95 and G12 are similar pieces of technology, except the the s95 is much smaller, has a slightly faster lens, while the g12 is bigger and has a bigger zoom.

Basically you have got to decide what you want from a camera and then based on how much you are prepared to pay, get the best compromise.

Regardless of what you buy, take some time to read the manual, experiment with the different features and apply some basic photo taking rules and you can take great shots, even if you are only using a little compact camera.

Also when buying your camera, remember more mega-pixels does not mean better images, quality images is more about the size of the sensor, which is why camera's like the G series and S series are good, because they have a slightly bigger sensor than the average compact.

As for make, Nikon and Canon are well known but not necessarily better than others. Fujifilm have some awesome compacts, in South Africa though, they are more expensive than the above mentioned brands. Sony also make great cameras, not to mention panasonic (lumix). Because of the massive choice, I narrowed into one brand, in my case canon, then spent hours on flikr reading group discussions from the example photo pools posted above. You can even join and post your own questions in these groups. The great thing is the people actually own the camera and have used them so you can get a pretty realistic evaluation of a camera using this method.

[xSavior]

Originally Posted by Doug Pardee

You're going to have to decide what you want to give up.

• If you want high-quality images, you're going to want a larger sensor, but that means limited zoom, and too big to fit in a pocket.

• If you want something that will fit in your pocket, that means a small sensor with reduced quality images, and limited zoom range.

• If you want something with a lot of zoom range, that means a small sensor with reduced quality images, and too big to fit in your pocket.

• Nothing you can fit in your pocket is going to take great, or even good, pictures in the low light of a concert. It's tough getting good pictures with top-quality DSLR equipment under those conditions.

The major brands for compact cameras these days are Canon and Panasonic. If I were in the market for a compact right now, I'd probably concentrate on those two brands.

I guess out of all of those, I'd only end up focusing on something that is compact with "good" picture quality. I wasn't really expecting to find anything with what professionals would consider "high-quality" in a compact camera. What I'm mainly looking for is something that is compact, average picture quality, and 720-1080p (preferably 1080) video capability. I really want to be able to take good video, but from what I've researched, most camcorders have poor picture taking capabilities, so I'd sacrifice a bit of the video quality for average picture taking. I am by no means a pro at photography; I'm mainly looking for what you might consider the "amateur's budget camera". Through my research, I seem to be leaning towards Canon models and I'm hoping that someone can point me to a specific model

Thank you to all that have given me advice so far!

[inkista]

It's out of your price range, but I'd say a refurbished S95 ($319). A non refurbed one one goes for $399. I'd point you to the refurbished S90 for an even cheaper deal, but it only does VGA video.

[xSavior]

After re-evaluating my needs and budget, I don't think I have $300 to spend. Instead maybe around the $200-$250 area. So I'm now considering the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V and Canon PowerShot ELPH 300 HS. The reason that I don't really want to spend over $300 is that I'm not quite sure I'd need all the features that are available from the higher end cameras such as the S95. I'd need to be persuaded to do so haha. Having a camera that can take decent pictures, have HD video and with a decent amount of zoom is mainly what I think I need, but I can be persuaded to see otherwise. Sorry for being so picky, it's just that I'm hesitant on spending this much money and there just seem to be so many possible options.