which canon camera? A540 or A610 or SD series?

[vinboy]

i'm looking at A540, A610 (or A620), A700. also the slim SD series, and any good camera. any recommendation?

the A610 and A620 is abit old. but why does it has higher model number than A540?
the A540 is very very close to A700, is it worth the extra money? I don't need the extra Optical Zoom.

are those SD series any good? they look slim, should be easier to fit in pocket. But according to reviews, these cams has short battery life.

please recommend me a good camera. i need to buy one soon.
I prefer Canon because they have very very good battery life, and support AA batteries :D
in my country, the A540 is the cheapest among them.

by the way, does the A540 have image stabilisation?

[flippedgazelle]

None of the A series have IS. All the cameras you have listed are good ones. Have you read any of the reviews? Have you checked out the "Which Camera Should I Buy?" portion of the forum?

[vinboy]

None of the A series have IS. All the cameras you have listed are good ones. Have you read any of the reviews? Have you checked out the "Which Camera Should I Buy?" portion of the forum?
yup I read all reviews. well I don't think A700 is worth the extra money?? only more optical zoom and minor things.

hm... well I wanted IS. sad they don't have it. I think the PowerShot SD700 IS, but too costly.

[truflip]

why dont u fill this out:
http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5111

and post it back here so we can help you out better. if ur looking at just canon brands and u want IS.. ur gonna have to get the SD700 or the S2/S3

the A620 is a great camera. it doesnt need IS hence its only 4x zoom? not sure but the point is IS is greatly needed at higher focal points.. at lower zooms it doesnt really make much diff.. :cool:

[vinboy]

I think i'll get A540.

I just visited your Flickr. very very nice photos you got there. :)
are you a professional photographer?

why did u say IS is not useful?? :confused:

[ben7337]

no one said IS is not useful. the thing is that IS really helps pictures where you zoom in a lot but it if you are not zoomed in at all having it on or off will not make a big difference.

[sHanzek]

I feel that IS is helpful in low light situations, even when you are zoomed out to a wide angle view. You'll find you can hand hold that 1/8th of a second shot better than without it.
Steve
S2IS and A620

[BowerR64]

I have an A540 if you want me to do some tests or somthing. Its ok but when you get use to the zoom of the S2 you miss it.

Also the IS is useful, it seems every shot i take with the 540 i get the shake hand icon on the screen. The images still come out ok but its telling me i need a tripod.

[vinboy]

Thanks for the opinions.
After looking at IS on and off images, maybe I'll get Panasonic FX8. it DOES make a difference :)

However, FX8 has very serious flaw in the LCD, many many ppl reports broken LCD without any drop or anything.

[truflip]

I think i'll get A540.

I just visited your Flickr. very very nice photos you got there. :)
are you a professional photographer?

why did u say IS is not useful?? :confused:
my flickr? cool thanks! :o but noo.. im not a pro-tographer.. i just take thousands of shots and those there happen to be the better of the bunch :o

and I didnt say IS is not useful, i meant to say its better at the long end of the zoom.. at zero zoom i find it not very useful.. esp at low light settings. its just hard.. I have the S3 IS and i still get the flashing red 'shake' icon at wide angle at night. i just tested a video.. S3 IS no zoom and shook it up a bit.. its a shake but its nothing sharp, doesnt bother me much.. Fuji F30 video (this camera does not have IS) and a bit of a sharp shake, nothing that would bother me.. but at 3 times zoom its somethin that might bother me..

so yes IS helps at the zoom for sure. .so its not useless.. =) its just not worth it if ur paying $50+ more for it compared to a none IS camera. does this make sense?

btw, I suggest u think twice about the FX8 unless all ur shots are gonna be dayshots or shots where sufficient lighting is available. because it just stinks at night.. it looks so sleek tho lol

[vinboy]

my flickr? cool thanks! :o but noo.. im not a pro-tographer.. i just take thousands of shots and those there happen to be the better of the bunch :o

and I didnt say IS is not useful, i meant to say its better at the long end of the zoom.. at zero zoom i find it not very useful.. esp at low light settings. its just hard.. I have the S3 IS and i still get the flashing red 'shake' icon at wide angle at night. i just tested a video.. S3 IS no zoom and shook it up a bit.. its a shake but its nothing sharp, doesnt bother me much.. Fuji F30 video (this camera does not have IS) and a bit of a sharp shake, nothing that would bother me.. but at 3 times zoom its somethin that might bother me..

so yes IS helps at the zoom for sure. .so its not useless.. =) its just not worth it if ur paying $50+ more for it compared to a none IS camera. does this make sense?

btw, I suggest u think twice about the FX8 unless all ur shots are gonna be dayshots or shots where sufficient lighting is available. because it just stinks at night.. it looks so sleek tho lol

I just ordered the FX8 :o because I DO take some nighttime shooting.
i hope it work better at night since it has IS, and night shoot normally require slower shutter, which reduce shaking with IS.

lets see what happen :D

[Andrizzle]

I just ordered the FX8 :o because I DO take some nighttime shooting.
i hope it work better at night since it has IS, and night shoot normally require slower shutter, which reduce shaking with IS.

lets see what happen :D

Uh oh... He said that the only reason you should order the FX8 is if you take all of your shots during the day. He said "it just stinks at night" time shots... Which it appears you want to take... :(

[truflip]

yea.. i saw some sample shots of the FX8 at ISO 400 and 1/60 shutter speed.. its resized to 600x400 and it looks quite noisy and dark and unsharp.. so.. i dono u can give it a try.. hopefully u'll be happy with it =) enjoy!

remember with night time shots. u can have IS and use lower shutter speeds but u will also need a camera with a good sensor. i.e. Fuji F10 or F11 and F30

[JTL]

I just ordered the FX8 :o because I DO take some nighttime shooting.
i hope it work better at night since it has IS, and night shoot normally require slower shutter, which reduce shaking with IS.

lets see what happen :DIf night shooting is your thing, you would have been MUCH better off getting the Fuji F30. While it doesn't have IS, it takes the best low-light shots of any P&S camera available...

[vinboy]

well I do take both actually. I have 14 days to try out the FX8 :)
thanks for all the comments.

by the way, what is the A540 good at?
it seems like a very good camera, I suppose it has something special.

is the Fuji cameras still recommended if I only take dayshot?

[BowerR64]

well I do take both actually. I have 14 days to try out the FX8 :)
thanks for all the comments.

by the way, what is the A540 good at?
it seems like a very good camera, I suppose it has something special.

is the Fuji cameras still recommended if I only take dayshot?


Its good at showing people, all they do is say WOW thats a big LCD screen. Thats about all its good for. Has ISO 800 but i think its pretty much worthless. :confused:

[vinboy]

Its good at showing people, all they do is say WOW thats a big LCD screen. Thats about all its good for. Has ISO 800 but i think its pretty much worthless. :confused:

which camera are you referring to?

[vinboy]

for your information, the FX8 is same price as A540. (NZ$400)
Fuji F10 and F30 is NZ$100 more than FX8.

[truflip]

Its good at showing people, all they do is say WOW thats a big LCD screen. Thats about all its good for. Has ISO 800 but i think its pretty much worthless. :confused:

ISO 400 is worthless.. its worse than the S3's ISO 400 =O at least the S3 is still sharp. the FX line just drops in detail at ISO 200 + because the incamera noise removal is extremely high. so it comes out as blurry/fuzzy pictures

[Andrizzle]

Its good at showing people, all they do is say WOW thats a big LCD screen. Thats about all its good for. Has ISO 800 but i think its pretty much worthless. :confused:

Well, there's at least one person who disagrees...


the A540 gets an easy recommendation from me. (http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_a540-review/)

[BowerR64]

It uses the same lens mecanism as the A520 so there isnt much change there. I didnt know the flash adjusted with the zoom wich is kinda cool but i havnt tried it very much.

I looked for the my colors and color swap like the S3 but i didnt know they were hidden in the scene modes. That was one thing i liked on the S3, no remote shooting was one thing i should of looked into because i wanted to run a long USB cable outside and try and snap some wildlife with it. I like the feature with color swap of "keep original" in the menue so you have one that is processed and one that isnt. If bracketing would do that that wold be nice.

The screen is big but its not a good resolution so it just feels like your looking at a magnafied smaller screen.

Its ok i guess but when you are use to an S2 or S3 using the A series again just feels like its lacking. I need to just use it for what it is.