glick

I'm not a big point and shoot person, but one thing to keep in mind is the shutter lag time. some of the canon point and shoots have ridiculously long lag times which can make you miss the picture that you thought you were taking.

bly109

From everything Ive read, canon's have the fastest shutter speeds out of all the point and shoots... I know none of them are fast compared to a "real" camera, but I thought canon's were the best of the worst as far as shutter speed went. Of course I could be interpreting the data wrong since I am fairly new to camera's. But from everything I have been reading, Canon's D880 is the best point and shoot out there with Panasonic DMC-TZ5 and Sony's Cyberhshot (forget the #) a close second.. I would rather get a better camera right from the start, but my wife really wants an ultracompact or compact and I dont want to spend 500+ at the moment on an entry level SLR

Offroadme

in my professional opinion i would go with the canon G-10 i just got one aside from my 40D and it's awesome. it's a great point and shoot and you have a lot of options to get into manual photography too, and it is very easy to operate.

GreytSilly

I'm going to chime in here again, please remember this is just my opinion and isn't meant to be a statement of fact of any kind. Everyone's needs are different in a camera. We've had cameras here since the '70's, point and shoots, throwaways, slr's, film, and digital and had our own darkroom when film was the only thing out there. We currently have a wonderful Konica/Minolta A200 digital, great camera, good optics, takes excellent photos. We also have a Canon dSLR with a couple lenses, another great camera. Also in the fold is the Pentax Z10 I mentioned in an earlier post. Takes okay photos but not great but it fits in a shirt pocket. When we walk out the door to do a greyhound meet and greet or go wheeling a little or go to the range to shoot a little, guess which camera always goes? Yup, the Pentax because it's so small. We've taken more photos with that little camera than the other two combined. I think everyone needs to assess what they are going to use the camera for and go from there. If you are looking for a snapshot camera to have along all the time, small will win every time. If you are looking for the best optics and lots of manual override potential, a dSLR can't be beat. If you are looking to make big enlargements to frame and hang, the dSLR or one of the high end point and shoots is a better choice but for the 4x6's you want to stick in an album or a digital file to post up on the web, the little guys are sufficient. Again, just my 2 cents. Hope you find just the one that fits your needs, photography is a great hobby. Look around your area for a camera club, most urban areas have one. Join up and see what everyone is using and what they like and dislike. A club is a great source of information, just like this forum is a great source. Happy shooting.

armycop

The best way I found to test the cameras is to go to Best Buy or any other major electronics store and snap pics with different cameras. That's what sold me on the Sony. The real world pushing of buttons and seeing the speed helped me decide. Most of the major stores have them plugged in and you can test drive them.

GreytSilly

Maybe your Best Buy is a lot bigger than the one we have locally, but our's has a pathetic selection of digital cameras. The Imaging Resource site gives shutter response times as well as start up, shut down, and changing mode times for every camera they test if shutter lag is an issue.

bly109

Thanks... I'll be on that site for days... looks like my JK-forum time is going to suffer

So far Ive narrowed things down to:

Canon sd880
Sony W170
Panasonic DMC-TZ5
Pentax W60

We are also going to check out bestbuy this weekend. Ours is fairly new, so they have a pretty nice camera section.

Thanks again everybody!

bly109

Well we went to Best Buy this weekend and got to look at the Sony, Canon and panasonic. So after reading all the reveiws and some first hand testing, we decided to get the Canon SD880. Out of the three, the Canon was the only one that didnt feel awkward for me to take pics with. The layout of the buttons made them very easy to change while holding the camera with one hand. The Panasonic and especially the Sony, were very awkward for me. My wife didnt have any issues with them, but her hands are about 2/3rds the size of mine.

Thanks again everyone for all your suggestions!

Jeep Mama

So Brian - when are we going to see some baby pictures???

bly109

pmed you