I'm wondering if there is consensus on a good family point-and-shoot
camera. In particular:
- fast focus, even in low light, for capturing kids
- capable of giving reasonable snapshots indoors (incandescent lighting)
- reasonably compact (<1/2 lbs and fits in a coat pocket or smallish
belt case)
Also, I'd prefer 28 mm wide angle, but I suspect that's hopeless. I
bought a Panasonic FX01. Nice camera in good light, but it did so poorly
indoors with low light (slow focus, very noisy images) that I returned
it. The Canon S80 has slow focus (but otherwise seems very nice).
So far I know of:
- Casio Z750 - fast, some complaints of poor image quality and easy
breakage but overall seems well liked
- Fuji F10/11 (or the upcoming F30). I can't get a handle on this one.
Some folks love it, others seem to hate it. The focus seems a bit slow
unless one turns on fast focus (which according to dpreview means it
can't focus closer than 1m? that could be a problem indoors).
- Sonys have fast focus (at least in decent light), but again a lot of
folks are down on them.
-- Russell
John Smith - 03 Apr 2006 01:30 GMT
Interesting you didn't like the Panasonic... I got the lx1 about a month ago
and find the shutter lag to be very slight...and you can put the focus in
manual for even fast response.
> I'm wondering if there is consensus on a good family point-and-shoot
> camera. In particular:
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
>
> -- Russell
Interesting you didn't like the Panasonic... I got the lx1 about a month ago
and find the shutter lag to be very slight...and I can put the focus in
manual for even faster response.
davek57@yahoo.com - 06 Apr 2006 04:12 GMT
Kodak's new V570 has a 23mm wide-angle lens and very fast focus,
according to published reviews. It's not a perfect solution but the
23mm lens, along with the second 39-117mm zoom is a hard combination to
beat.
I find, though, that wide-angle lenses don't do justice to family
photos unless the subjects are gathered in the center of the frame.
Faces just become distorted at the edges of a wide shot.
That said, I currently use a Canon SD400 (very fast startup and AF,
with assist light) and a Kodak DX7630, which has an equally fast hybrid
AF system.
Good luck.
-CD