I want High Zoom and Fits in my pocket! Which camera should I get?

[joshh347]

Right now I have a Canon A510 with 4x zoom and 3.2 megapixels. It's decent... it does the job, but I want to upgrade!

I'm looking for a camera with more zoom but still fits in a pocket (and preferably smaller than my A510). It also needs to take pics quickly ... no lag!! I can't stand that! My A510 LAGSSSSSS between pics.

Any suggestions for a compact (fits in jeans pocket) high zoom, high quality camera? ... on a budget of course!

Thanks! :)



Which camera should I buy?
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Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible. No more than $300

Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you? Must fit in jeans pocket

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you? 6+ megapixels

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify) I really want 10x+ but I know thats hard with a pocket friendly camera -- so at least 6x is what I'm looking for then.

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10) 8

Do you care for manual controls? It's nice to have some, but it's not a deal breaker.

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for? For fun. Taking pics of traveling (scenery, landscape, etc.), pics of nights out on the town (camera must take good at night pics), pics of my dog (camera must be quick and take good action shots)

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not? Probably not... but possibly if they turn out really nice.

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos? Yes... it needs to be good at low light and at night.

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos? I have a wild and crazy little dog that I love to take pictures of, so the camera needs to be good with action shots!

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate? I like Canon's cuz they have great picture quality. But I'm open to other brands... Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, Olympus.. anything really.

Are there particular models you already have in mind? I like the zoom and quickness of the Panasonic DMC-TZ1 and TZ3. I also really like the quality and quickness of the Canon SD750 (but its only 3x zoom)

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD) Wide angle would be nice, because I'm getting my real estate license soon and taking interior pics with a wide angle would be nice!

[Mike S.]

One thing you might consider is that a higher mega pixel camera can give you added zoom beyond the optical zoom without loss of quality.

For instance if you normally make 6"x4" prints (3:2) or 6"x4.5" prints (4:3), then printing at 250 dpi, a 7 mp camera can give 2.1x additional zoom by cropping in post. A 10 mp camera can give 2.4x additional zoom by cropping in post.

So since the Canon SD750 you mentioned is a 7.1 mp camera with a 3x optical zoom, then with proper cropping for 6"x4" prints at 250dpi, it is actually equivalent to a 5x optical zoom.

Mike S.

[David Metsky]

The Panasonic TZ3, it's the smallest ultra zoom out there. Nothing else is going approach that. For ultracompacts there are a few 5x out there, but none of these cameras are going to be good in low light. The bigger the zoom lens in a small package the more light it's going to steal.

And all P&S cameras are going to have shutter lag. The best you can do is to pre-focus the camera on your subject by pushing the shutter button halfway and once you have focus locked complete the photo. There's very little shutter lag once you have focus.

Ultracompacts with big zooms that work well in low light don't exist yet. You'll have to decide what you want to trade off.

[David Metsky]

Oh, and getting a 10MP camera and cropping later will give you some additional zoom, but not as much as you need. It will also result in noisy pictures, especially in low light situations.

[sjseto]

You might want to take a look at the Ricoh Capilo R5, which is a slightly older model but is still available from Adorama (http://www.adorama.com/IRCR5B.html). It has a 28-200mm lens and 7 MP. A review of the camera is here (http://www.trustedreviews.com/digital-cameras/review/2006/12/01/Ricoh-Caplio-R5/p1). If you can stretch your budget a bit further you can go for the updated version, the R6 (a review is here (http://www.trustedreviews.com/digital-cameras/review/2007/04/09/Ricoh-Caplio-R6-Review/p1)), which has 10 MP, a better layout of controls, and improved low light focusing because of the added focus assist lamp. It is also available from Adorama (http://www.adorama.com/IRCR6B.html).

Stephanie

[Tim018]

that would be your best bet as others said. also, on the topic of shutter lag- i tried out the Canon SD1000 yesterday at a local wallmart- that thing was fast! i pushed down the shutter button halfway and i almost didnt have to wait- and it was even faster taking the pic than focusing. it definately was either very close or the same shutter lag as my nikon d50 w/ an 18-70m(my 18-70 takes like a quarter sec to focus)