Which camera Sony DSC H1, Canon PS S2IS, Panasonic FZ20 or F

[K. Pitre]

Hi,
I've been researching for weeks and have gone from powershoots to SLR's back to powershoots or super zooms whichever you call them.
I want a camera I can take quality pictures I can enlarge to 12 X 16 / 13 X 19 etc. to hang on wall.
Any wisdom would be very much appreciated. I need a simple camera I'm not experienced with cameras other than a point and shoot. My last camera was an Olympus C-720 which is destroyed.
I'm looking at the Sony DSC H1, Canon PS S2IS, & the Panasonic DMC FZ20 or FZ30.
Thanks, K.P.

[subeluvr]

I was impressed with the Panasonic but no more proprietary batteries for me. It's AAs or nothing. I've had bad expereince lately with Panasonic support. They're not the company they used to be so for those reasons the Panasonic is not in the mix for me.

The Canon S2 IS vs the Sony H1 is a better fight and there's apost that might help you a little lower down that's "Sony-H1 vs. Canon S2 IS"

I bought the Sony and am more than satisifed.

[K. Pitre]

But can you get quality prints you can enlarge to hang on walls?? Is a 5 Meg enough to get quality large prints???

[subeluvr]

Wouldn't that be a 5mb question not a specific camera question?

I'd ask that in the General Q&A

[Tullio]

Hi K, IMO, the H1 is a much better camera than the S2 or even the Panasonic with the Leica lens. The H1 image quality is superb, it takes only 2 AA (which lasts forever), it has a large 2.5" LCD and Sony really pays a lot of attention to details such as: the camera tells you if the lens cap is on (as opposed to the S2 which pushes the lens off when the camera is turned on), the flash pops up automatically if you have the camera set to flash forced on or auto in low light condition (as opposed to the S2 where you have to pop it open manually), a little knob by the shutter release which allows you to make changes to shutter speed, aperture, etc, at your finger tip, etc, etc, etc. It's trully an impressive and well put together camera.

[kenmck15]

i went through a similar dilema a while back looking at the h1, s2 and fz20.

h1
i found the h1 to be a very nice cam to use. very very fast and snappy performance. video mode is exceptional and image quality was also very good. i felt very comfortable with it as i was upgraded from an old p10. Bat life (On paper) seemed very good for only 2 nimh aa batts which are cheap as chips to replace. mem sticks and acc. seemed a little pricey but sony always seems to be like tht. The cam also comes well equiped with batts, charger and the normal stuff. I enjoyed using this cam. i also found the metering and focusing to be very fast but maybe a little sloppy over the likes of the canon. Noise seemed to be very lo and i did like the little thumb dials for shutter and fstop

S2
I thought the canon was the most uncomfortable cam to hold. Also being very expensive over the sony i was surprised to find no recharable batts or charger in its box. Using 4 batts std but as per steve ranked as one of the best for batt life. I did like the idea of the flipable screen and the mode where you cant take vid and images at the same time. Media seemed cheap as they use the almighty sd cards which can alsmost be bought at your corner dairy now they are so widely accepted. Images did apper a little soft but nothing a bit pf photoshop cant fix. I saw nothig like the so called FOG EFFECT when i was playing with the s2. The s2 also seemed to hunt a little carelessly for focus points. After using the cam i felt as if it were priced at the same price point as the sony it would prob be a decent cam.

FZ30
The pana fz30 is a fantasitc cam. I no its not really in the same league as these others as its panas flagship model with 8mp. This is prob more comparable to the fuji s9000/9500. I have owned my fz30 for about 4 months now and its an amazing camera. very easy to use, fantastic batt life. love the manual zoom ring which makes it so much easier to control and great for batt conservation. Focus ring is also exceptional. Raw and tiff shooting modes are also very good but a shame about the cheap software tht comes with it. resolution is awesome, bigest print to date would be equivalent to an a3 paper. still very sharp. Alot of ppl complain about the noise from the pana series in particuar the fz30. i have not had any issues in reference to this so far. i do admit i avoid any iso levels over 200 and cant happily run shutter speeds do to arnd 1/10 without any blur due to the awesome OIS gyro.

Ofcourse if you want to do prints upto 13x19 u need a whole heap of resolution. i think out of the possible cams you have listed the fz30 would defintely be the best choice.

Realistically to accomplish what you are trying to do i think fz30 or possibly the fuji s9000/9500. I opted for fz30 just for personal taste.



hope this helps

regards
Ken

Some messing arnd at the beach with my fz30

[kenmck15]

and the pana ois (optical image stabilzr) at work. this is taken with shutter speed of only 1/6 hand held shot no tripod. still nice and sharp. Also taken at iso 200.

[Tullio]

Awesome shots, KEn. Indeed the FZ30 is an excellent camera. However, its price is way higher than both the H1 and S2. I think the FZ5 would be the Pana comparable model.

[kenmck15]

yea it is much more thats y i was wondering y you are comparing the cam with the s2 and h1. indeed both of those cams are also very good and i did enjoy using the fz5 too



good luck

ken

[ride16]

I have the panasonic FZ20, and I love it! I haven't tried to blow up shots that big yet, so I'm not sure about that, but the shots come out great, so I imagine it wouldn't be a problem. You can check out my examples at www.mkklein.smugmug.com. Plus, now that the FZ30's out, you can get the FZ20 for much less.

Good luck-

Melissa