For some time, I've been trying to narrow down my options for a small digital camera. I'm somewhat of a beginner to novice, in the sense that I knew about the digital parts of digital cameras, but nothing about the photography (ie 'white balance', 'f/numbers', etc) end of it. So go easy on me. I want to get some input from others on this decision. I mainly want to get a camera for a few things:
regular pictures
This would be the regular pictures that people take. Photos of friends and family at gatherings, hanging out, at parties, things when you go on vacation, etc.
sky pictures
During the summer where I live I see a lot of awesome views of clouds, storm fronts, thunderheads, etc. Every time I see these awesome scenes I just want to take a picture of them to share it's magnificence with others.
cityscapes
I like daytime city scenes and night time skylines of cities. I'm not too sure what the best settings/ways to take these types of shots are though. I know that long exposures and use of a tripod are two things that are used, but I'm not sure about the other settings and options.
nature
I like to take pictures of nice looking flowers I see, and cool nature scenes during the summer, and even winter. For example, during this hail storm we had this summer there was so much hail that it looked like there had been a light snow. It all melted over the course of 15 minutes or so, but while it was there it was an awesome shot I wanted to take (please note that I shouldn't have been outside of the basement during this storm that turned the sky dark, as in the sun has gone down dark, at 2PM in the afternoon. But a pic of the way it looked outside would have been cool too.)
I list these things here because I'm not sure options are the best when wanting to take such shots. Also keep in mind that this will be my only camera, at least for now. As far as the battle goes between the two cameras, I think that I have narrowed the field down to a few things that I'm unsure about
:
Movies
This isn't a feature that needs to be a large issue, but there have been some situations where taking a little video would have been cool. For example, at the Toledo Zoo I got to see a baby orangutan up close with one of the staff holding it. This is one of those things that you don't do too often and capturing a couple of pictures and a good video clips would have been ideal. On the s500, the 640x480 video is limited to 30 seconds which isn't a BIG deal, but the 10fps seems to me like it's a little lacking. The Sony DSC-W1 on the other hand has unlimited length (limited by memory space) and 30fps. Winner: DSC-W1
White Balance
The Sony doesn't have a manual white balance setting. It just has 4 presets. As opposed to 5 presets and a manual setting on the s500. I'm not sure how important this is, especially for the types of shots I'll be trying to use it for. It's even less important if I can just do some touch-up in Photoshop/GIMP/etc to correct a poor 'auto' white balance setting or such. Winner: s500
Batteries
The Sony has a large advantage here. It uses AA batteries. This, to me, is a huge boon because I can then use off-the-shelf AAs if the need every arises. This comes with a draw-back though. The rechargeable AAs take 6 hours to fully charge. Granted, this can be worked around by having 3 sets of batteries ( This allows you to have 2 on hand at all times, and one on the charger. If you end up using BOTH sets during the course of the day, for whatever reason, you charge one set over-night. The next day, you then throw the other drained set on the charger and you have two sets for the new day). But the s500 has a Lithium-ion battery that isn't 'off-the-shelf'. The recharge time on the battery is significantly smaller than 6 hours though, which is a good thing. The only thing here is that if I run out of battery power for whatever reason, then I'm SOL with the s500, but with the DSC-W1 I can just buy some AAs at a local store and pop them in. Winner: undecided.
Accessories
The Sony has a huge advantage here with a lot of lens accessories and even a flash accessory. But the Sony is missing one thing that the s500 has, an underwater case. I don't *plan* on needing to take underwater pics anytime soon, but if I ever decide to go on a vacation in the tropics, I'll probably do some snorkeling or scuba which would steer me towards getting an underwater case. As for most of the other accessories, other than a tripod (which both can use) I don't plan on needing the lens or flash accessories. Though since I view this as an investment into my 'future' camera the ability to extend it's uses without needing to shop for another camera would be nice. Winner: Undecided.
Media
The DSC-W1 uses Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro, but the s500 uses Compact Flash which is loads cheaper, and my preferred media. Winner: s500.
Quality Settings
The DSC-W1 has 'fine' and 'standard'. The s500 has 'super-fine', 'fine', and 'standard'. The 'super-fine' from the s500 is a little less compressed and better than the 'fine' from the DSC-W1 so far as I can tell from pictures taken with both of the same scenes. Though I've read that the 'fine' setting was improved in this model as opposed to previous Sony models. Winner: s500.
LCD
The DSC-W1 has a nice large 2.5" LCD which makes it nice for previewing the picture you are about to take. On the other hand, it might drain more of the batteries than the 1.5" on the s500. (I've seen no figures on this) The s500 also has a higher res on the 1.5" screen that it has. (118,000 for 1.5" as opposed to 123,000 for 2.5") I would have to say that based solely on the LCD though, I would go for the W1. Winner: DSC-W1
ISO
They both are pretty much the same, with ISOs of 100, 200, and 400. The s500 has an ISO of 50 as well though. Less ISO means less sensitivity, so I'm not exactly sure how much the ISO 50 matters since ISO 100 is the standard lowest setting from what I've read. I have seen a difference in colors in photos of the same scene between the two, but I'm not sure if ISO 50 (on the s500) vs the ISO 100 (on the DSC-W1) is the culprit or not, since it could have something to do with other settings or image processing. Winner: I wouldn't know.
Long Exposure
This is pretty cut and dry. The lowest shutter speed on the DSC-W1 is 30 seconds, while the the max on the s500 is 15 seconds. I don't know much about long exposure shots, other than some basics I've read like limiting aperture and such. I have no experience to know if I probably won't need more then 15 seconds in most cases or what. Winner: I wouldn't know.
Auto Focus
The s500 uses Canon's Ai AF TTL 9-point, while the DSC-W1 uses Sony's Multi-point 5 area. I've not seen any reviews of how the two compare, but the W1 has manual focus (selectable presets). If Canon's system is good enough, them maybe I won't need auto-focus. But I don't know how good it is for the types of shots I would want to take. Winner: I don't know.
Resolutions
The DSC-W1 has these resolutions: 2592x1944, 2592x1728 (3:2), 2048x1536, 1280x960, and 640x480.
The s500 has these resolutions: 2592x1944, 2048x1526, 1600x1200, 640x480.
The Sony has more resolutions to choose from. Of note is the 3:2 which would be good for 4x6 shots, but the other can always be cropped down. I will probably just take all the pics in 5MP anyways and just edit them down after the fact, unless I'm running out of memory and the picture isn't too important, I might take a smaller or more compressed one. Winner: Sony, but who cares?
Aperture
The s500 has a smaller telephoto aperture which would make it more ideal for low light pictures (I've read up, can you tell?
) But the s500 also doesn't allow you to control the aperture manually. The DSC-W1 does allow some manual aperture control, but only to a certain extent. Winner: Not sure how much manual control matters.
This is all I can really think of at the moment. As I said, I'm gearing towards the s500, but I like the AA option and smaller price of the DSC-W1. Although the price of the memory sticks almost makes up for that. For $500, I can get a 256MB Kingston CF card, and the s500 where I work. (tax is mostly negated because I get a 5% discount, and the sales tax is 6%) On newegg.com, I can get the s500 for ~$450 plus ~$60 for a 512MB CF card (I think it was SanDisk). On the other hand, it's ~$350 for the DSC-W1 on newegg.com and $104 for a 512MB memory stick pro (I think this was SanDisk as well). So $450+shipping for a DSC-W1 with 512MB, $500 for the s500 with 256MB, or $510+shipping for a s500 with 512MB. This also doesn't account for purchasing an extra $50 battery for the s500 or purchasing 4 extra batteries (6 if the Sony batteries are too expensive and the charger that comes with the DSC-W1 doesn't accept anything but the Sony batteries) for the DSC-W1.
Any input that any of you have to this would be greatly appreciated.
Battle of the Minis: Canon s500 vs Sony DSC-W1
Sony W-1 versus the Canon S-500
Thanks Sarah
Linear Mode
