ten_square_rose
08-11-2006, 02:16 PM
Hello, I'm looking for advice on a possible camera upgrade.
I got my first digital camera about a year and a half ago, the Canon A520. I really like it, but I've been thinking about whether it might be time to look at an upgrade.
Here's a summary of what I'm looking for.
Stuff I like about the A520 and would want on any upgraded camera:
Image quality - love it. It's excellent. Anything I'd buy would have to produce shots that look every bit as good.
Manual controls - I use the shutter speed, aperture and white balance settings an awful lot. I love the number of controls on this camera and would want a new camera that offered at least as many.
Compact size - would go smaller, but wouldn't go bigger. It's gotta fit in the purse. I also like how solid the camera feels, and how it survived travel around the world without even getting scratched up.
AA batteries - not a must, but certainly useful especially for travelling.
Viewfinder - I usually turn the LCD off to preserve the battery and shoot by looking through the optical viewfinder. I noticed a lot of new cameras don't have viewfinders but whatever I get needs to have one.
Of course, since I own some of the extras - SD memory cards, rechargeable AA-sized batteries, etc. - it would be nice if my new camera could use the same stuff.
Stuff I would hope to upgrade:
Camera speed - I find the A520 frustratingly slow at times, especially in starting up, shutter lag and especially recycle time on flash photos.
Megapixels - I like to make large prints and crop, and 4 megapixels is usually adequate but at times is a stretch. I'd like a camera with more pixels.
LCD size - doesn't have to be the biggest but a bit bigger would be nice.
Noise at high ISOs - I'm not ready to upgrade to dSLR or anything, but I've read there are some excellent P&S cameras out there that have higher ISO shooting speeds with lower noise. This would be useful in low-light situations, since the A520 goes up to ISO400 but most shots at that speed are so noisy as to be unusable.
Video mode - would like the ability to shoot clips longer than 30 seconds.
Zoom - 4x is pretty good compared to a lot of what's out there, but if I have the opportunity to go longer and/or wider, that would be great too.
I looked at the Canon A530/A540 upgrades, but I'm not sure there's enough difference between them to justify spending on a new camera. I was also looking at some of the new Sonys and Fujis. But I'm not too sure what else to look at.
Do you think it would be better to wait? Will there be something coming out shortly that's worth waiting a few months for? I'm not in a real hurry or anything, it's just something I've been thinking about.
Any advice? Thanks!
I got my first digital camera about a year and a half ago, the Canon A520. I really like it, but I've been thinking about whether it might be time to look at an upgrade.
Here's a summary of what I'm looking for.
Stuff I like about the A520 and would want on any upgraded camera:
Image quality - love it. It's excellent. Anything I'd buy would have to produce shots that look every bit as good.
Manual controls - I use the shutter speed, aperture and white balance settings an awful lot. I love the number of controls on this camera and would want a new camera that offered at least as many.
Compact size - would go smaller, but wouldn't go bigger. It's gotta fit in the purse. I also like how solid the camera feels, and how it survived travel around the world without even getting scratched up.
AA batteries - not a must, but certainly useful especially for travelling.
Viewfinder - I usually turn the LCD off to preserve the battery and shoot by looking through the optical viewfinder. I noticed a lot of new cameras don't have viewfinders but whatever I get needs to have one.
Of course, since I own some of the extras - SD memory cards, rechargeable AA-sized batteries, etc. - it would be nice if my new camera could use the same stuff.
Stuff I would hope to upgrade:
Camera speed - I find the A520 frustratingly slow at times, especially in starting up, shutter lag and especially recycle time on flash photos.
Megapixels - I like to make large prints and crop, and 4 megapixels is usually adequate but at times is a stretch. I'd like a camera with more pixels.
LCD size - doesn't have to be the biggest but a bit bigger would be nice.
Noise at high ISOs - I'm not ready to upgrade to dSLR or anything, but I've read there are some excellent P&S cameras out there that have higher ISO shooting speeds with lower noise. This would be useful in low-light situations, since the A520 goes up to ISO400 but most shots at that speed are so noisy as to be unusable.
Video mode - would like the ability to shoot clips longer than 30 seconds.
Zoom - 4x is pretty good compared to a lot of what's out there, but if I have the opportunity to go longer and/or wider, that would be great too.
I looked at the Canon A530/A540 upgrades, but I'm not sure there's enough difference between them to justify spending on a new camera. I was also looking at some of the new Sonys and Fujis. But I'm not too sure what else to look at.
Do you think it would be better to wait? Will there be something coming out shortly that's worth waiting a few months for? I'm not in a real hurry or anything, it's just something I've been thinking about.
Any advice? Thanks!