Another Digital Camera Thread - Point and Shoot

[timwhit]

A coworker of mine bought a Nikon Coolpix 7900, he is not happy with it.

Apparently it does a HORRIBLE job at auto-focusing in low-light conditions, taking tons and tons of blurry photographs.

He is looking to trade it in for a different camera.

Does anyone have a recommendations of cameras under $400.

The options he wants are multiple shutter speed settings, good focus, 3x zoom or more, good video and COMPACT.

If you need more information let me know and I will ask him.

 

[LunarMist]

Send him to dpreview.com.

 

[timwhit]

Yes, he is aware of the existence of dpreview.com

Does anyone have any real advice. For example, I own the Canon XXX it is a really nice camera and does well in low-light conditions.

 

[LunarMist]

Well it is written that...

"Focus problems in low light

Despite boasting an autofocus illuminator (something missing from the previous generation of compact Coolpix cameras), the 7900 simply cannot focus reliably in low light at any distance or focal length setting. I found myself half pressing the button over and over again when trying to photograph a dining companion sat opposite me in a typically dimly-lit restaurant. The AF illuminator is not very bright, and certainly doesn't seem to help matters at all in these situations. The worst thing is that even when the camera finally does indicate it has found focus - on the face of your subject - the resulting photograph is often out of focus. I would estimate that when the light gets to a certain level (such as in a pub or bar in the evening) you are lucky if one out of every 10 shots you take are in focus. Switching to macro mode (which sometimes helps in these situations) failed to improve matters, though moving further away (say 2 meters) improved wideangle focus accuracy slightly. At the end of the day, however, if you want a pocket camera for social snapshots in low light then you might want to look elsewhere."

 

[Mercutio]

I really like the Canon G-series. They're incredibly versatile.
Unfortunately, they are also nothing like compact.

 

[Bung]

The Canon A620 is an equivalent to the Nikon. Has been getting good user reviews but would be on the $400 limit.

 

[Deadwood]

I've found dpreview, steves-digicams, etc to be way too time-consuming to read as they mostly just list features. If I had the $300 to replace my crummy camera (HP m305), I'd buy the Fujifilm Finepix F10 based on the strength of this reviewer's comments and my experience with other Fujifilm Finepix cameras. Your friend would still make it under the $400 limit after buying an overpriced xDpicture memory Card.

From the review:
"With a 500-shot battery life and an incredible sensitivity range that stretches from ISO 80 to 1600, the FinePix F10 Zoom is a camera to be used at any time of the day or night. "
...
"Can take good photos in low light, and also has a flash plus background mode (if you can remember which icon to select) which means that not only the foreground appears in photos."
...
"The camera is fairly quick to switch on - taking about 1 seconds - focus in dark indoor conditions is quite good thanks to the [blinding green] focus-assist lamp. The screen updates are quite quick and smooth (in good light)."
...
"It records unlimited 640 x 480 / 30fps videos with sound"

 

[Deadwood]

dpreview's take on f10

Okay, I read the whole dpreview review review (review) on the F10, and I want this camera!

It is superb in lowlight compared to other point and shoots. It has a very usable ISO 800, and an ISO1600 better than similarly priced camera's ISO400. Plus it has very fast click to shutter release. I haven't been to dpreview in a while, and I'm impressed with their standard writeup of timing stats!

The goofiest thing about it is the adapter/splitter box -- basically you plug the adapter into the camera, and power and usb plug into the adapter.

 

[e_dawg]

Told you so...

 

[Deadwood]

F10

How's it holding up, e_dawg?

 

[Gilbo]

The Fujifilm F10 is the pick of the litter for low light purposes --if you're looking for a digicam. It's also a very good camera in general.

 

[ddrueding]

I bought this one without any research whatsoever, and I'm pretty happy with it. Traveled well to China and Argentina, and has since been pressed into service photographing jewelry for my girlfrieds website. (the URL of which I'm ashamed to post as I'm nowhere near proficient at photography, HTML, or Javascript).

My 1cent

 

[e_dawg]

Re: F10

How's it holding up, e_dawg?

Good so far. Haven't really been able to test it in "real world" conditions, though (travel, parties, weddings, etc.). I was only really able to pronounce the Canon PowerShot SD110 as crap after I found the majority of the shots I took at my friend's wedding were underexposed, blurry / out of focus with a yellow/orange cast. It performed adequately while taking scenery / travel photos in bright daylight conditions.

The xmas season will provide many opportunities for parties and travels... there will be many indoor low-light shots with and without flash along with the usual daylight scenery pics. The resulting pics will allow me to pronounce judgement on the F10 at that time. But it would be premature to say how good it is now.

 

[timwhit]

I told him to buy the Fuji Finepix F10 based on the your recommendations. I will let you know if he gets and if he likes it.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[timwhit]

Anyone want a 1GB SD flash card for $50?

 

[Santilli]

I bought this one without any research whatsoever, and I'm pretty happy with it. Traveled well to China and Argentina, and has since been pressed into service photographing jewelry for my girlfrieds website. (the URL of which I'm ashamed to post as I'm nowhere near proficient at photography, HTML, or Javascript).

My 1cent

David:
this looks like a great deal. Costco backing, huge LED screen, etc. Any other cams have that big a screen, and close to that price, worth anything?

GS

 

[Tannin]

I'm out of touch with P&S cameras these days, but Fujis have always been pretty good, aside from their asinine devotion to stupid, non-standard flash card formats. Fuji are serious players in the camera market, and usually very good value for money.

 

[Santilli]

After a bit more production, the Canon Rebel 350 may finally get me a serious
SLR digital camera.

Costco has a very nice package for this setup: zoom and printer, for about 1100.

No presents until after Christmas...

gs

 

[timwhit]

Is there any reason not to get a Finepix F11 instead of the F10, other than the increased price?

It is newer and has a few more features.

 

[e_dawg]

The shutter and aperture priority of the F11 is a rare and valuable feature that most compact P&S digicams don't have. The F11 is, quite possibly, the ideal compact P&S digicam.

Only problem is that availability is poor and Fuji never said it would bring the F11 to North America. So if you want one, you gotta order it from Japan or from selected retailers overseas. Perhaps if you wait a few months and enough people pester Fuji, they will release it through normal distribution channels in North America.

 

[timwhit]

He got the F11 yesterday. He found it from a shady online retailer in NY. These guys actually removed the memory card from the box before shipping it. I'm sure it didn't come with a large one, but still that is pretty bad.

This camera is so much nicer than my Canon S200. It has a very nice LCD, big, bright and high refresh rate. It turns on and off really quickly and overall he is very pleased with it. Plus, it takes really nice low-light shots.

Thanks for the help guys. (Especially e_dawg)

 

[e_dawg]

Congrats to your friend. Excellent camera. The included memory card is 16 MB. Not even enough for half a dozen pics at 6 MP.

 

[Will Rickards]

Not to hijack the thread or anything but...
Do you think the F11/F10 is a camera I could recommend to my mom?
She has a Fuji A205 now and it feels like a toy and is pretty crappy.
But it is a really low-end camera and I told her it would suck.
Now she is looking to get a better one.
But she needs it to be -really- point and shoot.

(Heck I think I'd replace my Canon A60 with this F11)

 

[timwhit]

Well, in the five minutes I played with it, is seemed to be a pretty simple camera. I don't think any of the cameras are all that difficult to use though.

If you put the camera on Auto mode, I'm sure she would be fine for most shots.

In my opinion, the most difficult thing for people using a digital camera is being able to copy the pictures to their computers and then doing something with them.

 

[e_dawg]

I agree with Tim: the hardest part of using a digicam is getting the pics out of the camera and viewing/storing/printing them. I would want a PICTbridge like system where you could easily connect the digicam to a printer or put the xD card in a slot on the printer, preview the pics you want to print on the LCD screen, and select the ones you want to print.

The F10/F11 is easy to use and should take good pics in full auto mode. (if she is going to use it in full auto mode all the time anyways, might as well get the F10 since the only improvement of note that the F11 brings to the table is shutter and aperture priority)

 

[Will Rickards]

Thanks. She might not want Fuji again because her current one is Fuji.
I recommended Canon to her a while ago but she hasn't done anything.
And lately I've been getting disappointed with my Canon A60's low light shots. Too many are out of focus.

 

[mubs]

I'll continue here instead of starting a third thread.

What's the current greatest compact digicam? The Fuji F11 seems nowhere in sight. Canon's released new Elph models that are presumably better - I'm looking specifically at the SD600. The Panasonic FX-01 has image stabilization, but the CCD appears to be very noisy. Would the Fuji F10 still be considerd the best recommendation?

Tim, how has the F11 held up for your friend? Where did he/she buy it?

Halp! Thx

 

[timwhit]

He bought the F11 from a shady internet store based out of NYC. They even took the memory card out of the box before shipping it to him.

I just asked him if he has had any problems/complaints and he said this:

occasionally this weird vertical line shows up in the photographs, but other than that... no

I saw the vertical line he was talking about a few months ago and it is very unnoticeable unless you zoom pretty close into the picture and stare at it for awhile.

Apparently his Dad also purchased the same camera and has had no big problems either.

 

[Groltz]

The F30 is supposed to be out in a month or so.

 

[mubs]

Thanks Tim & Groltz.

I guess the F11 needs to be written off. The F30 looks like it's "available" but not shipping from the usual suspects for ~$400.

The buyer has a budget of $300 max and she wants it in two weeks or less. We'll see what plays out.

 

[timwhit]

I guess the F11 needs to be written off.

Why?

 

[mubs]

'Cause it's not generally available; I'm on the left coast, and don't want to deal with shady gray-market operatives on the other coast.

 

[Groltz]

.....F11's bought from Shirokiya (a top retailer of digital cameras for FujiFilm Hawaii), come with a USA factory warranty. They are the only ones that can make this claim. The camera will be repaired for one year at FujiFilm Hawaii in Honolulu. The reason the warranty card indicates repairs can also be made in NJ is because often times FujiFilm Hawaii brings in cameras that are also marketed by FujiFilm USA - but this is not the case with the F11. Warranty cards are to be returned to Hawaii and in fact I was told the office there is the best qualified for any repairs since, afterall, they market this camera.....

Full Post



Shirokiya Website

The buyer has a budget of $300 max

Well, I guess this is where the magic ends...Shirokiya is selling those F11's for $349.



.

 

[timwhit]

Other than the memory card not coming in the box he didn't have any problems. He ordered and had it shipped next day and he got it next day. I probably wouldn't care enough about a 16mb memory card to care anyways.

If you want the name of the dealer I can ask him.

 

[mubs]

Tim: Please do, I'd be interested. Who cares about the 16MB card anyway! Price could be a problem, though.

Groltz, man, you are awesome. I even did a Froogle search (but I fess, I didn't have too much patience with it). And you provide me a link to an authorized dealer in the US!

$350 + shipping is a problem, though. We'll have to think about what to do. There is the temptation to buy an Elph for a lower price (Dell has been having 20% off + $35 off 300 coupons). I think the Elphs are smaller than the F10/F11, but the photo quality is probably better on the Fujis. The real question is whether that price difference is worth it.

 

[mubs]

Curiouser & curiouser. In looking for reviews of the F11, I found The Camera Box selling the F11 for $289. Their telephone # & prefix put them in Brooklyn (north). Their Reseller Ratings are decent too. Looks like they sell "import" models. aka gray market.

 

[timwhit]

He got it from here: http://www.bwayphoto.com/product.asp?id=fjfpf11

 

[mubs]

Thanks, Tim. The price is certainly right, at $260. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeoow, horrible Reseller Ratings numbers: 0.85 lifetime from 1126 reviews, and 2.02 6-month from 73 reviews. You friend is a very brave man!

 

[timwhit]

I think the reason that so many people do not like this store is that after you order they will call you and try to upsell. Do you need a memory card, tripod, extra battery, etc??? If you know how to say no forcefully you should be fine.

Like I said he got the camera and it works, which is what really matters.

Plus, that price is better than anywhere else.

 

[LunarMist]

According to comments on Resellerratings.com there are many bait and switch artists. Here are some with low ratings.

amphotoworld.com
bestpricecameras.com
bwayphoto.com
ccicameracity.com
digitalliquidators.com
expresscameras.com
geniuscameras.com
preferredphoto.com
royalcamera.com
usaphotonation.com
wawadigital.com
thecamerapros.com

The chance of damaged/defective merchandise, useless return policy and zero customer service is not worth the hassle. Usually these "Crooklyn" type of stores will cancel an order if no overpriced accessories are purchased.

Take a look at some NY photo stores, both good and bad.