Sony DSC-S600 vs. Canon A610

[barb1686]

I've been looking at these. Which one would you prefer?

I probably won't ever use manual controls or the movie mode, I want to have the ability to take fast pictures (kids running, blowing out candles, etc.), image stabilization to reduce blurry images (i tend to have shaky hands sometimes), and a decent battery life. Most of my pictures will be indoors, but I also want a great camera for those sunny days outside.

I'm not stuck on these 2 cameras. If you have any other suggestions, please go ahead. I was primarily looking at the Canon A610 for a while there, but someone mentioned the Sony DSC-S600. They mentioned it was a fast camera with great results in low lighting, so I wanted to make sure I was really doing my homework. I also looked at the Nikon Coolpix P2. Saw that it had a burst mode, which I am very interested in, but it is not necessary to have.

I'm trying to stay around $200 (or less), so I know it's hard to find a camera at this price, but that's really all I can afford at the time.

Thanks for your time,

Barb

[barb1686]

Thought I'd add this to help:



Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible.

---Under $200

Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?
---Doesn't really matter.

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you?

---Anything above 4

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify)

---At least standard, but the more the better.

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)

---Well, I wouldn't want low quality...so I guess a 10.

Do you care for manual controls?

---Nope, probably won't ever use them.

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?
---Family shots. Got a lot of little ones in the family, my old camera wasn't fast enough for them. I'd take the picture and they wouldn't even be in the shot.

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
---At most, probably 8x10's.

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
---Yes

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
---Yes

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate?
---Well, I had a Fujifilm. I didn't like it, but if there's a model out there that is great then I'll look into it. Mine was just really slow and half the shots were blurry if you moved your hand even just a tiny bit.

Are there particular models you already have in mind?
---Yes, the Sony DSC-S600 or the Canon A610. There's also the Nikon Coolpix P2.

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)
---Some sort of Image Stabilization, a rotating LCD would be great but definitely not necessary.

[bascom]

I think the cheapest cameras with image stabilization are the Panasoniz LZ3 and LZ5. Neither has a viewfinder. The Pana's and the Sony S600 have higher ISO than the A610 so should do better in low light. Also, there is the Canon A530 which has high ISO. The Canon A610 is the only one with a swivel LCD. I don't know much about Nikons. Here are store prices:

Sony S600 - $200
Canon A530, Pana LZ3 - $230
Canon A610 - $250
Pana LZ5 - $280

The A610 has the biggest sensor so probably the best overall photo quality.

[capedeci]

just a quick note

Sony S600's sensor is much better than Panasonic Sensor. Sony's ISO 1000 is at least usable at smaller printes (postcards, maybe?), while Panasonic's High ISO mode is a joke (at least with the FZ7, and I assume, FZ7 as a higher model cant do well, what can we expect from the budget model?)

[barb1686]

Well, which one do you recommend for faster continuous shooting and shutter speed? As I said, I'll be taking pictures of young children and they can't always sit still, so I want to be able to capture the moment right on the spot. That's my main concern.

Also, I'm unsure what the ISO modes are...I'll be shooting JPEGs and in auto mode.