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I am looking for a new camera. Sick and tired of my point and shoot olympus taking bad pictures. if course, it needs to be light, any thoughts?
Of course, I just saw the electronics forum below, I will do a little reading
The Panasonic DMC-ZS6 may be a candidate: about $200 at Costco. Has a 14x optical and roughly 3x digital. Well reviewed at cnet.com
swjohnsey
03-27-2011, 18:47
The Canon S95 is a super little camera but a little pricey.
brian039
03-27-2011, 19:06
Canon Powershot A1100 is what I used on my thru. Not much of a zoom, 12.1 Mega-pixels, and decent video capabilities. Very lightweight and takes 2 AA batteries.
Panasonic FH20 is my new sweet toy! It has taken all of my (HD) videos as well as my pictures that I have been posting on my blog since last November. Great camera.
14 mp and 8x optical zoom. (May as well for the digital zoom.) I am not a big camera person but I found it pretty easy to use fairly quickly (as far as going through the different menus and changing the settings). And you can get it for $119 on Amazon.
My only complaint about it is that I cannot zoom while videoing, but other than this, I love it. Read some reviews of it here:
http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/products/panasonic-fh20
The Panasonic DMC-ZS6 may be a candidate: about $200 at Costco. Has a 14x optical and roughly 3x digital. Well reviewed at cnet.com
I'm convinced that Panasonic makes the best hiking cameras these days. They will do 99 percent of everything a hiker needs, easily, and 100 percent with a litle effort on the hiker's part, all at 8 ounces or less. What's not to like?
I agree. Mine weighs 5.7 oz with a battery and a SD card. I like to that it doesn't use regular AA or AAA batteries. It seems that I get much more use out of the rechargeable LI-Ion batteries. I did however buy a spare back up and carry it with me. It weighs 0.7 oz, so a total of 6.4 oz for camera gear, that I am happy with!
Old Hillwalker
03-27-2011, 21:08
Lots of choices, but make sure that it uses non-proprietary batteries like AAs. Avoid chargers.
swjohnsey
03-27-2011, 22:30
Camera that use AA or AAA batteries are much bigger, battery life is much shorter even using lithim batteries.
Some of the Canon stuff like the G12 or the S95 will do most of what a SLR will.
On my recent 2.5 day trip I carried my Panasonic camera and used the rechargeable battery for the whole trip. I recorded about 40 minutes of video as well as took about 250 pictures. No way in the world 1 set of even the lithium AA or AAA batteries would have done this, at least not in my past experiences with all my other P&S cameras that used which required AA or AAA batteries. The stock battery I used in the camera was a 3.6V 740mAh 2.7 Wh Li-Ion batter, but I did have a spare 3.6V 940mAh 3,4 Wh Li-ion battery as a back up, just in case.
I use my HTC Incredible. 8 MP ain't bad considering you have a phone and camera in one. I'm thinking about getting a Flip minoHD for videos and it also doubles as a pretty good point and shoot.
swjohnsey
03-28-2011, 08:24
With my Canon S95 weight with case/charger and extra battery is around 10.5 ounces. I can take around 20 pictures/day for a month without a recharge.
Mountain Wildman
03-28-2011, 09:27
I just bought a Nikon L24, 6.3 ounces with 2 AA batteries installed.
14.0 Megapixels, 3.6 Zoom, Installed a 16GB SD Card and have a memory capacity of 1,750 photos, Can take up to 700 pictures with two Lithium AA Batteries.
you cant beet the canon s95 for a lightweight point and shoot camera that takes great pictures. Its fast at f/2 and has a convenient dial on the front which makes it easy to change settings. its competitor is the fx5 by panasonic.
Really depends on your knowledge of cameras and photography. 90% of point and shoots are enough for any hiker. I used a simple Canon 8 MegaPixel A series that uses AA batteries on my 2009 thru. I sold several of my shots as 8 X 10 prints to excited buyers, and one to a calendar company, but taking photos is my biz.
Don't buy something that is too much for what you know, need, and want. The Canon S95 is great; one of the best small cameras out there. But do you need a camera that shoots Raw files at F2.0? Do you know what to do with Raw files? Yes, it's "fast" at F2.0, but what does that mean for outdoor and landscape photography? Maybe you need something that shoots F16.
I'd look for a brand you trust that is lightweight with a battery system that meets your needs (proprietary or standard), has a decent zoom (you'll want more standard vs digital zoom), uses SD memory cards, and possibly comes with software to help you tweak the photos if your computer doesn't already have similar.
Most Canon and Nikon point and shoots will meet your needs and will take excellent photos, so go to a retailer near you and play with what they have on display to see if you can understand their systems and menus.
My very long winded 2 cents. Please PM me if you want more info about photography or cameras.
I loved my Nikon CoolPix L something or other 10 mp that I got last year for 86 bucks at Best Buy. It took awesome pics after I read the manual. It got bad reviews for taking poor quality shots, I found though I took awesome pics with this easy to use camera, after I read the manual. That's the big trick. Best Buy now has the next generation 12 Mp Coolpix on sale for 72 bucks. Im going to get that one next time I hit the mall.
PS RTFM it (Read The F***ing Manual) for all cameras and your pics will be infinitely better. They are extremely high tech electronics after all.