which camera ?

[jayaprakashr]

Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible. - $ 600/700 AUD

Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you? - Slim Camera

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you? Minimum 5 MP

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x) Standard ...Not sure !!

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

Do you care for manual controls? - Not sure abt this.

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for? - Indoor (family Photos) and Vacations

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not? - Not very big . Post card size

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos? - Yes

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos? - Sometimes

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate? Likes - cannon SD 400/500, Nikon - coolpix 7600/7900

Are there particular models you already have in mind?cannon SD400

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD) - would be good to have these..though not a nessecity

[JTL]

The right comparison is between the Canon SD400 and the Nikon 5600/5900 or the Canon SD500 and the Nikon 7600/7900. It makes hard to help when you mix apples and oranges...

Since you already stated that you're leaning toward the Canon SD400, lets's eliminate the 7MP camras for now.

Comparing the Canon SD400 to the Nikon 5900 is easy. The Canon produces noticibly sharper images then the Nikon, the Canon is noticibly faster then the Nikon and the Canon is slimmer then the Nikon. But, you have to live with your choice, so if you can, try both out in a store first.

Comparing the Nikon SD400 to the Nikon 5600 is more difficult because it's just been released and there are not a lot of good comparisons out there, although early posters around the net have not been kind to the 5600. If you don't plan to wait for professional reviews of it , my advice is clear your mind and eliminate it as a chioce.