Should I wait to buy a Digital Camera

[trevoristight]

After weeks of research I'm leaning towards buying the Fuji Finepix F30.

But then there's a part of me that says to just wait until camera makers make a camera with better higer ISO performace(F30) and optical image stabilization(SD 700 IS) combined instead of choosing one or the other.

What does anybody think?
How long do you think it will take camera makers to combine optical image stabilization and higher ISO performance?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[David Metsky]

All cameras will be behind the curve in 6 months. Buy one now, use it, take lots of photos now. If you take this approach you will always find something missing in the current crop of cameras. Buy one now, and start taking pictures.

-dave-

[TenD]

If you keep waiting for the next thing to come out you'll never get a camera. Each one has it's compromises, each one deals with certain things in different ways. A new something will always be on the horizon, but you could be taking pictures now.

[trevoristight]

I have the Nikon Coolpix 4300 and I can take pictures, and I wanted to know if its time to trade up?

Or should I wait until they get a lot better?

[David Metsky]

IOr should I wait until they get a lot better?
For the foreseeable future, digital cameras will continually be getting a lot better. If you are willing to wait 3-5 years for the digital camera market to possibly plateau then perhaps it makes sense, but you might be waiting a long time to get a new camera.

However, if there is something that you would like to do right now that you can't do with your current camera then it makes sense to upgrade. There will always be something new and better coming along. What are you trying to improve on your current camera?

-dave-

[trevoristight]

I want a more compact camera with a much bigger screen, and I'm trying to eliminate blurry pictures.

Other than that the Nikon 4300 does a great job.

[truflip]

buy one now. if you wait to see whats in store 6 months from now, you will be hearing of new cameras with this and that feature that ur gonna want, then u wait 6 months for it to come out and then hear about this new fancy one thats coming out in a few months, then u wait.. n yea.. so on so forth

[David Metsky]

I want a more compact camera with a much bigger screen, and I'm trying to eliminate blurry pictures.

Other than that the Nikon 4300 does a great job.
How much bigger screen? Cameras now have 2.5" and 3" screens. How compact do you want? Many small cameras are basically the size of the LCDs. There are many ultra-compacts on the market today that seem to meet all of your needs.

What is causing your blurry images? Is the camera forced to slow down the shutter speed because it can't get enough light? New ISO levels allow you to take clear shots in much lower light, and some have IS even on the smaller cameras.

I'm sure things will get better over time, but they're pretty good right now.

-dave-

[trevoristight]

I don't know much about the manual mode and mostly use the auto mode. I'm fine with 2.5 or 3" screen and the sizes are fine. But will cameras combine the higher sensitivity ISOs with image stabilization?

[TenD]

If you aren't happy with your current rig then it may be time to move up, or across. My crystal ball is a little hazy, I can't really predict what's on the horizon. But I can say things are pretty good right now, with little in the way of huge breakthroughs in the latest cameras. The trend I have seen in digital in the last year is kind of a stagnation with the newest cameras having only slight improvements over the previous model. The noise you see on the compact camera is a function of the size of sensor. If you cram more pixels on a sensor of a given size the result is higher noise. To get the tiny body size and fantastic zoom ranges these compacts have now you need a small sensor. Most people equate more MP with being better, so the small sensor is then crammed full of pixels and the result is noise that is pretty much unacceptable over ISO 200. Some manufacturers use massive amounts of noise reduction(panasonic), some don't use very much (canon, sony, nikon), fuji is pretty impressive with it's F30 with the super CCD HR.