Panasonic FZ5 vs Canon S2 IS

[mrwolfmeister]

After obsessing about various big name cameras, I took the plunge (as per "Norm at Fugino's" advice) and decided on the Canon S2 IS. Luckily, I went to Circuit City rather than buy it online and didn't really like the way it felt. It really is a big bulky camera. Right next to it was the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 which felt awesome in my hand plus had image stabilization, 12X zoom lens, and 5 MP all for $200 less than the Canon ($340 to be exact). I also bought the Ultra II superfast card to go with it. I'll take a few thousand photos before deciding about the noise but so far I'm very excited about the results.
Thanks again Norm for the the advice.

[timmciglobal]

Good choice, I really don't find the noise even at ISO 400 objectionable on the FZ-5. It's lumi noise not chroma noise (well not as much chroma noise) and as such has less of a harsh appearence)

I'd suggest locking ISO at 80 though unless you NEED higher iso in a situation.

Tim

[tim11]

WHAT? FZ5 is $200 cheaper than S2 IS? Is this correct?

[mrwolfmeister]

Circuit city had a great deal on the FZ5 as long as you bought it on-line. While I was looking at it in the store, I used one of their computers to go on-line and found you get $140 off the original price. I then put in for "in-store" pickup and picked it up while still in the store. The final price was $340 while the total for the S2IS was $520.