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View Full Version : SD700IS vs DMC FX50 vs A710 IS vs SD630

andres_x
02-04-2007, 08:36 PM
Went to Circuit City to play with digicams - narrowed selection to:

SD700IS - second choice. on the expensive side, but good size and image quality (my opinion). average battery life. if it was cheaper it would be my frist choice - though it doesn't have a lot of manual menus.

DMC FX50 - best built quality (my opinion) of all, I'm am considering this one after seeing John Reed's gallery, though I could not find a review for it. Not sure how user friendly it might be. It seems John is a pretty good photographer that makes any camera awesome. fourth choice.

A710 IS - first choice so far, main issues - kinda big, and poor battery life. IS is a plus but not essential for me. Also flash recharge cycle seems to be a complain for some reviewers. I like all the options, pic quality seems good in all conditions.

SD630 - wife liked it. Though controls are kinda small and easy to push by mistake. good price :). no IS. small, maybe a little to small. Decent image quality from the reviews. battery life seems low. third choice.

Price, size, and build quality of all seem ok. I am basically looking for a good compact camera with excellent auto (scenes, portrait, etc .. ) performance and some manual options. Also things to consider:

- User friendly interface (great point-n-shoot performance)
- "Excellent" picture quality in auto mode ( the best possible )
- Good battery life
- Most of pics will be baby pics, family reunions, vacations. (avoid redeye)
- Fast camera. Low shot-to-shot delay.
- Good videos

So what do you guys think? Thx
reppans
02-04-2007, 09:20 PM
Well I can only comment on the 710...

- Yes, long flash recycle times.
- But battery life is great with NiMhs. I got 3.5 hours, or 15 gigs, of video recording from 2 AAs (2700 Sanyos). That should be about 500+ shots.
mattdm
02-05-2007, 07:58 AM
- User friendly interface (great point-n-shoot performance)
- "Excellent" picture quality in auto mode ( the best possible )
- Good battery life
- Most of pics will be baby pics, family reunions, vacations. (avoid redeye)
- Fast camera. Low shot-to-shot delay.
- Good videos


Noticed a conspicuous lack of Fuji F series on your list. The Fuji F20 will cover the above list very well (maybe not the most stellar video). I bring it up because of the "most of pics" line. Unless these things are happening outdoors all the time, you're going to be doing a lot of low-light shooting.
andres_x
02-05-2007, 11:08 AM
Noticed a conspicuous lack of Fuji F series on your list. The Fuji F20 will cover the above list very well (maybe not the most stellar video). I bring it up because of the "most of pics" line. Unless these things are happening outdoors all the time, you're going to be doing a lot of low-light shooting.

I considered the F30, but it seems that the auto shooting modes were not good (high noise). So I figured both F20/F30 wouldn't make it for the:

- User friendly interface (great point-n-shoot performance)
- "Excellent" picture quality in auto mode ( the best possible )
mattdm
02-05-2007, 11:18 AM
The F30/F20 have less noise than most cameras for what they can do even in auto mode. In most situations, any P&S camera with less noise will be blurry or dark instead.

It's true that you'll get better results even in auto mode by taking some time to understand what they camera needs, but you're not going to get "excellent" picture quality from any camera by magic -- that *really* comes down to the photographer. Even if it's as simple as knowing when to use what scene modes.

You didn't fill out the form, so there's some missing information. At what size do you intend to view the final images? Printed 4x6, or something else?
andres_x
02-05-2007, 01:46 PM
I filled out the form before and based on it, and my experience at CC I settled on those models. As far as prints 4x6 will be 90% and some 5x7 once in a while. And yes, most of the family,baby pics will be taken indoors but still need a good outdoors performer. Thx!
mattdm
02-05-2007, 01:51 PM
In that case (4x6 or 5x7), I wouldn't worry about noise or purple fringing. It won't show up.
MatthewCollin
02-06-2007, 08:41 AM
Well I can only comment on the 710...

- Yes, long flash recycle times.
- But battery life is great with NiMhs. I got 3.5 hours, or 15 gigs, of video recording from 2 AAs (2700 Sanyos). That should be about 500+ shots.

Yep.

Battery life with a good set of NiMH (I have 2700's too) is incredibly better compared to alkalines. Plus, if they ever do die on me, I always have some regular AA's in my coat to swap in.

Of course, it's not the smallest camera out there, but you do get a 6x zoom, and a host of manual controls if you ever feel like experimenting with shutter/aperature.

Only thing i don't like about my 710 is Canon's movie mode. Max 1GB file size, which comes up fast. A short vid can easily be 150-200MB before you know it at VGA resolutions (30fps).
andres_x
02-07-2007, 07:12 AM
Went for SD700 IS - Thx!
amw777
02-07-2007, 08:29 PM
andres,

just curious - are you having any trouble with video noise? I have tried two of the SD700 IS and had to return them both due to low volume and a steady, overriding hissing noise with the video mode. No setting changes made a difference for me. I have head this from a few other people too and want to know how common it is.

Thanks!