Hello Guys,
This blog is regarding finding a digital camera which doesnt hurt your wallet.. and gives you best quality of pictures.. This blog was written approximately 3 years ago... For past few days I am constantly searching for a perfect digital camera with in my budget. I have canon powershot A520 with me, which gives good quality pics but lots of time due to my hand shake pictures become blurry and you will know this when you get them dowloaded to your computer, I have lost lot many good pics because of this.
So I was looking for a camera which has anti shake or image stablization capability. Well God has granted my wish but this wish came at very high price in initial days of launch of this type of camera. Canon and panasonic took the lead with launch of Canon Powershot S1 IS and Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ5. I likeed them but they were too costly. So i waited and as patience always pays this time i had lot many models to chose from with in affordable range of 250-350$.
With digital cameras photography has become so simple. You dont have to work had and adjust just a few things and boom.. a nice pic is there for you to see. As choices become more so the confusion. I started googling for my new camera and Oh lord!! the more i look for, more i become choosy in making a choice.
Well i have narrowed down my choices on 4 main models now. They are Canon powershot S2 IS, Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ5 or DMC FZ7, Sony Cybershot DSC H1 and Konika Minolta Dimage Z6. These all cameras have image stablization software but each one has its own pros and cons.
Common problem with all cameras is high image noise at ISO sensitivities more than 200 and purple fringing in bright light.
Canon Powershot uses 4 AA batteries and that makes it more bulky but its 12 optical zoom works very fine. One of my friend has this one but it still gives blurred images sometimes. Than this camera has low capability in red eye reduction and some other technical jargon which i m not going to discuss.
Panasonic is over all good but this one has problem in its battery, This camera comes with special panasonic battery and you have to buy a spare since you dont wanna miss a good pic. But the problem is this batery is having cost of 70$, cheaper alternatives are available but still if u r in middle of nowhere and both of your battery are discharge than you cant get a photo since normal batteries are not going to work in this camera. This is the only drawback with the panasonic ones.
Sony Cybershot is good in red eye reduction and pic quality but purple fringing is very prominent in this camera. One advantage is this camera works on 2AA batteries which is a plus over Powerhot. But sony is extortionist it compells you to buy its own memory stick since ordinary SD and Flash cards are not going to work with sony cameras. and the problem is i have already bought the SD card. The memory stick is costly.
All the above three cameras have good flash range and work fine in low light situations. Low light performance of Canon is low than the other two. But still it works fine.
Than there is konika minolta, which is fine except very blurry pics at ISO sensitivities of 200 and more. and its not going to work in night for you in efficient manner since it doesnt have a AF illumininator. This camera runs on 4AA batteries.
So i m still confused what to do with this. Well the quest continues and i hope someday i will get a camera in which i will get maximum that i m looking for. Since perfection is impossible in this field. There is always going to be something missing from some cameras. But i am still waiting for something which covers all aspects which i am looking for. If you found yourself in similar situation here are some cool sites from where you can get some good info about your selections.
http://www.photoxels.com/article_compare.html
http://www.steves-digicams.com/
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/allreviews.php
I hope this information will be of some use for you guys.
Bye for now
