shaky hands needs new digicam

[dana.pdx23]

Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible.

no more than 300 dollars. I'd prefer to spend closer to 250-280 range, but 300 is my absolute max at this point.

Size

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

doesn't really matter - i know i can't afford the big guys, or the really really small guys, and i'm not picky about what's in between


Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you? at least 3-4 MP, but i'd love to have as many as i can afford

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify)

standard is perfect

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

if 10 is a lot, then somewhere between 5-7. while most of my picture taking is just casual, i do enjoy taking better pictures. i want to be able to print at a max of 8x10 and still feel like i have something worth buying a frame for - little to no blur, crisp image, etc.

Do you care for manual controls?

if they were there i'd love the opportunity to learn to use them, but i won't miss them if they're not there.

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?

mostly casual shots, but i'd say somewhere between novice to medium user.

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?

8x10 is the largest i have any desire to print at this point

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

yes - this is my primary problem with my current camera (all my pictures are blurry because i take lots of indoor pics with medium light and i refuse to use flash. i hate flash, really.)

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos? no

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate? right now i have a HP Photosmart M305 which, while it is great for outdoors stuff, sucks for taking pictures indoors. I say this because my patience with HP has run thin after two HP cameras. this one was better than the first, but not enough.

Are there particular models you already have in mind?
i'm really interested in the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX9K. i'm wondering if the image stabilization might help my blurry pictures. After dozens of events where my pictures were completely useless, i need a solution to the blurry pic effect.

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD) i don't *need* them, but as i said, i'm really intrigued by the image stabilization. i haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but i think it might be helpful.

[AaronB]

I just bought a Panasonic FZ4 (12x zoom, 4MP) open box for $170 and am very pleased with the optical stabilization system. I've been testing out the camera over the past few days and have been impressed that I can capture someone crisply and clearly from two long city blocks away. I joked to my parents that if I ever became a paparazzi, this would definitely be a useful camera.

While the system is not a miracle worker, if you're working in adequate light, it's impressive and works great.

[coldrain]

If you take photos of people, the FX9 with its image stabilization will not help. The long shutter speeds will give you motion blur of the moving subjects.
The Fuji F10/F11 will allow higher ISO use with a lot less noise, so these will do better in low light (because they allow the use of shorter shutter speeds, thus minimizing camera shake blur that way).

If you do not photograph moving subjects, the FX8 may be a better choice than the FX 9. The 6mp FX9 is a lot more noisy than the 5mp FX8. The FX8 is for the rest the same camera.

[capedeci]

FZ4 at 170 is unbeatable by any other option, i won;t think twice if I haven;t got FZ5 long ago!

[bascom]

I doubt Dana wants an open box item and if she buys from a store, FZ4 will be hard to find and FZ5 will be more than $300. Instead of these zoom cameras, how about a nice point and shoot like the Canon A610 ($250) or Pana LZ3/LZ5 ($230-$270). The LZ3/LZ5 has 6x zoom with an image stabilizer, but no viewfinder. Like coldrain said, an IS will not help with blurry images of moving people, it only helps with shaky hands. But she did say she has shaky hands.

[dana.pdx23]

If you take photos of people, the FX9 with its image stabilization will not help. The long shutter speeds will give you motion blur of the moving subjects.
The Fuji F10/F11 will allow higher ISO use with a lot less noise, so these will do better in low light (because they allow the use of shorter shutter speeds, thus minimizing camera shake blur that way).

If you do not photograph moving subjects, the FX8 may be a better choice than the FX 9. The 6mp FX9 is a lot more noisy than the 5mp FX8. The FX8 is for the rest the same camera.

by moving subjects, what do you mean exactly? when i take photos of people, they aren't necessarily posed, so i guess they'd be moving in some respect; but at the same time, i don't take action shots either.

but from what i'd read about image stabilization on another thread, i do think you're right about it not helping.

my main problem is that i take low light photos, and i think flash photos look atrocious. maybe the flash on my HP cameras is just garbage, i dunno. my pictures are sharp when i use the flash, and when i'm outdoors, but i want to be able to take pictures at parties or whatever and not have to delete them all. it's gotten to the point that i use burst mode for all pictures so i can keep the least shaky one, and even that's not helping. it's very depressing, really.

[capedeci]

1/10s will freeze a posed person, 1/30s will typically freeze people's head, not hands on parties.

You can get the Fuji and shot a lot at ISO1600, it will help you freeze people, at the same time freezing your hand as well.

IS is more suited to night landscape/city photograpy, museum photos, interior photographs. Or nicely posed people shots.

[dana.pdx23]

ok - so image stabilization is out. my question updated:

what camera for that price range would give me the features i want and be good for low light shots without flash?

when i went shopping the other day, i looked at circuit city, compusa, and somewhere else. i liked these ones:

vivitar vivicam 6300 (which i can't even find on the vivitar website, weird)
nikon coolpix p2
nikon coolpix L1

i tried out the fuji, but it felt really awkward in my hands, and i wasn't impressed with the in-store shots i took. and i wanted to try out the panasonic lumix, however at all stores i went to the in-store model didn't work. (lame on the store's part.)

so anyways - any thoughts on the three i looked at in store? any cameras out there that are so spectacular for low-light that i must give them a shot? i think the shaky hands thing is more of a low-light problem - majority of my outdoors shots turn out perfect, but anything indoors is crap because my hands aren't made of stone.

thanks in advance!

[timmciglobal]

The fuji only one with good high ISO performance.

Need high ISO for indoor shots. Even then a flash is really ideal.

:/

If you had more money to spend I'd say look at a dSLR you could get much better results but that'll run you about 500$ at the least.

Tim

[ktixx]

Take a look at the Fuji S5200 $289.95 at B&H Photovideo
Ken