Recommendations please Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX5 or Samsung WB2000.

stefanr

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Hi guys

My camera has just broken, Pentax Optio 550, thought it was good at the time and cost £399 :eek: so looking for a replacement around the £250-300 mark.

The camera was okay when I purchased it, liked the macro facility but the pictures always seemed darker around the edges and the response of the shutter was agonisingly slow. Lost count of the amount of hours in Photoshop retouching and adjusting colour levels/balance.

Could some of you post a few short lists (3-5) for me to have a look at. It's seems a minefield out there since my purchase in 2003.

Some requirements are;
Quick shutter speed, don't want to wait an age for the picture to be taken.
Large LCD viewer.
Video mode, Quicktime / MPEG4 or other Mac supported files.
Macro / super macro, like the close up insect as big as a fist shots.
Universal card, SD or similar with a large capacity (2-4GB), can't stand not having enough memory.
Good optical zoom, like taking long distance pics
Good variation of resolutions, web through to high res, although I generally shoot high and reduce afterwards but the option would be good, save some more man hours.
Reasonable battery life, something that will last a day taking pictures.
Something I can carry without it feeling like a brick.

My pictures vary from studio shot packaging, products to the great outdoors, scenic and closeups as well as the drunk get them in quick party shots and people. An all rounder in other words.

Not interested in changing lenses or anything complicated, I'm getting too old. :rolleyes:

Had a quick look and quite like the following;
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ45 Black, although not a pocket camera.
The TZ10 Black, because of it's pocketability.
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX5V Black, although I dislike Sony's memory sticks for some reason.
Canon PowerShot SX210 IS Black, obviously a lot cheaper but like the Canon's size and it's 14 megapixel.

So the you go, there's a lot of althoughs in there I know but any help would be great.

TIA.
 
On looking at your requirements, the TZ10 certainly would be a very good candidate, especially at recent lower prices.

The only 2 things it may fall short on, is battery life, which TBH I personally have not found it a problem, turn off GPS when not using it, and also turn of the 'Continual focus' under the Pre-Focus settings, and it's then quite easy to achieve 400 to 500 shots per charge. Spare third party batteries are cheap enough anyway.

The other is it's limitations under poor lighting without flash, it's reasonable but not brilliant in that respect, unless you can mount it on a tripod etc...but thats also typical of many compacts.

One things for sure, the IQ at times can be very good indeed. I carry mine everywhere, sometimes when I see some of images taken with it, I often wonder why I still keep my DSLR camera's as well. ;) I'm a control freak I suppose, and it looks the part. :laugh:

Whatever you go for, I would advice you don't put to much importance on the camera mega pixel sensor capacity. Those are just things that look good to help sell it, in reality, especially in compacts it can be a step backwards. Anything around 8 to 10 mega-pixel would be more than enough. IQ does not necessarily improve with higher sensor resolution, unless one spends a small fortune on better lens quality. JMO
 
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The list you have looks pretty good, but add the Canon PowerShot S95 (Amazon are doing it at around £288) to your list. It's compact and should cover your requirements.
You should take a look at a few reviews, and I usually take a look at some of the shots people have taken with the cameras using flickr's camera finder.
 
Also add the Samsung WB2000 (under £200!) :)
 
The list you have looks pretty good, but add the Canon PowerShot S95 (Amazon are doing it at around £288) to your list. It's compact and should cover your requirements.
You should take a look at a few reviews, and I usually take a look at some of the shots people have taken with the cameras using flickr's camera finder.

I noticed in reviews there is some chromatic aberration, is this quite common on these type of cameras as my Pentax suffered from it as well. Not a big deal really except when doing packaging shots etc.

Does any one know if the S95 supplied Raw conversion software that corrects it is Mac compatible?

It certainly seems to have more colour depth than the TZ10.

A noobie question, sorry. What's the difference between shooting at ISO 80 to 1600?

Thanks for the other recommendations, getting a nice list together to visit my local retailer.
 
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Don't know about the software that comes with the S95, so cannot comment on that.

ISO is basically how sensitive the cameras sensor is to light. So the higher the ISO the more sensitive your sensor is to light. Effectively the difference between ISO 80 and 1600, is that at 1600 the sensor is 20x more sensitive to light compared with 80. In practice generally, you use low ISO numbers in good light conditions and higher ones in darker situations. You'll notice more noise at higher ISOs too.
Here's a simple but more detailed explanation What is camera ISO? Help with digital ISO with this simple guide – Digital and film ISO explained | Freelance Photography & Travel Photography Blog

Some chromatic aberration are common in most cameras, but to be honest I don't really notice it unless I'm looking at the image in actual size and it's very rare I print anything larger than A4 in fact most still on 6"x4".
 
I have now discounted the FZ45, the size wore me down without having to hold it.

Think I'll stick to the more compact sizes, there's nothing like having a camera readily available in a pocket. ;)
 
Okay, narrowed my search down to two cameras as listed above. I discounted the Canon as the Samsung picture quality is superior, as seen on trustedreviews.

Have reviewed the above again, whilst less inebriated... hic, and now disagree with myself... D'OH!, although i was focusing on blurring in the far corners of the frame, barrel distortion and chromatic aberration which do go in favor of the Samsung over the Canon, imo.


But a friend, a part-time professional, has recommended the Sony although I can only find the WX1 on trustedreviews to see accurate/clear comparisons. Is the WX5 a newer model? can't seem to find that out. :confused:

As far as image quality between the WX1 and the WB2000, the Samsung clearly has the edge but not sure whether the WX5 is would improve it's chances.

Now looking at the HX5V, now that is outstanding and is now on the top of my list over the WX5, thank you Sony for introducing SDHC cards to the cameras.

The only other issue is the battery life of the Sony which seems to be the only con, although the Sony has HDMI as well which would be good for connecting to my TV and this version doesn't rely on Sony's memory sticks as it can use SDHC cards.

It may come down to quality (WB2000) over features (WX5) I love the iSweep Panorama setting and would probably use it if there.

Any help again, greatly appreciated.

BTW, Happy New Year to one and all.
 
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I didn't realise this was going to be so intense, but it certainly pays to search and read everything.

At least my budget has come down and I can get some extras with the left over cash i.e. SDHC card and a case, will get on to them when I have the camera. :)
 
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