Steve'sDigicams

Ale · Sep 19, 2006, 2:08 PM

Hey girls and guys,

I urgently need your help, since I want to buy now one of the above mentioned cameras.

Quality of photos are as important as videofunctionality to me.

Could you please tellme which one I should buy?

Thanks in advance.

Bya

puper78 · Sep 20, 2006, 9:09 AM

I'm in the same situation like you are. I searched the web for reviews and sample movies of the Canon IXUS 850IS (Powershot SD700), the IXUS 900 Ti (Powershot SD900) and the Exilim EX-S770.

The Canons seem to make better photos, at least a little bit. And the IXUS 900 Ti has a couple of new maybe useful features and probably a very good low-light performance (ISO 1600). Unfortunately there's no third-party review so far of these models.
I downloaded some movie samples of an earlier model, I guess the SD700. The movies looked very good. They were sharp and didn't show many compression artefacts. The movie sound was really bad, so be sure you check out this one before you buy on of these Canons. And be aware that the Canons record the movies with Motion-JPEG. The bitrate is around 1,9 MByte/s!! So for one hour of movie you need a 4 GB SD card.

The Casio in comparison uses MPEG4 compression for movies. The bitrate is much lower than the Canon's one. I think you get around 50min of HQ movie on a1 GB SD card.But on the other hand you can see much more compression artefacts and the movie image is not that sharp. You can check some sample movies from Steve's review of the EX-S600. The movie feature should be almost the same.

But nevertheless I haven't found other digital cameras with better movie features. My last cam was the Sanyo Xacti C5, which claims to be a camcorder digicam hybrid. But the video feature was not better than the Exilim's one, except the sound, which was great.

Ale · Sep 20, 2006, 1:25 PM

Hi Puper78,

thank youvery much for your support.

you seem to be the only one in this forum to be kind enough as to give some advice to my buying decision.

Frankly, I don't know what to do.

I am waiting for two weeks for steve's review of the EXILIM S770, but until now he did not publish anything. Do you happen to know when he is going to put a review of this camera online? This might facilitate my decision.

As for the Canon IXUS 850IS, it seems tobea very nice cam, but the problem with the sound distburbs me a little. On top of that, the fact that you cannot really record long movies on it, is not very good for my purposes. Canon's quality, though,is a good point to buy this cam,nonetheless. Instead, Casio is not reallyhigh quality,but it offers all the features I am looking for.

I think, I will buy the Exilim, but I do not want to regret this decision.

So what are you going to do? What's your plan?

Thanks for your answer in advance.

Bye

puper78 · Sep 21, 2006, 4:47 AM

My plan is to wait for another month or so. I'm not in a hurry in the moment because there's no vacation ahead. :-(

As for you I would wait for any third-party review of the new Canons. Regarding the SD900/IXUS900Ti I wouldn't worry about the missing IS. Since the sensor chip is larger and since the SD900 supports higher ISOs than the IXUS850IS I'm sure you wouldn't see and feel the difference.

Regarding the video, I think I've read that you can record up to 4 GB / 1 h of video (maximum SD card size) with the Canon digicams. Check the specifications on the Canon website.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/co...;modelid=14220

Ale · Sep 21, 2006, 8:07 AM

hmm

it sounds interesting..

maybe I should go for thecanon then, if the video recording quality is as good as the exilim's one.

But, I think I will be waiting another month like you do in order to wait for reviews and for prices to fall..

Thank you, Puper78.

If there's any news, just post it here.

Bye

vadimp · Sep 21, 2006, 5:07 PM

Ale,

you can get an impression about Casio ex-s770 image/video capabilities here: http://ex-s770.blogspot.com/ (sample movies/images).

It's my blog about this camera. I'm playing around with it and sharing my experiences there.

Vadim.

puper78 · Sep 24, 2006, 6:54 AM

There's suddenly another cam, that got my attention. The Sanyo Xacti C6 for around €300. I owned the Xacti C5 before, which made great daylight videos - better than the S770 sample videos. But the C5 had terrible low-light performance.
The C6 has much better low-light performance what you can see on the following sample movies: http://achama.cocolog-nifty.com/

The C6 has 6 megapixel, 5x optical zoom, HQ stereo AAC sound! You can check out Steve's review, which is average. The photos are good enough for my needs - I mean I cannot see a difference to the Canons and Casios.

Ale · Sep 24, 2006, 9:26 AM

hi puper78,

thanks for yourupdate.

the movies seem to be better than those of the ex-s770,because they look much sharper and more stable.

but what I don't like though, is the design of the xacti c6. it's not my taste.

so you're gonna buy this cam or are u still waiting for prices to fall?

btw, I like the features of ixus 850 is very much, but thiscam is nearly 1 cm! bigger than the ex-s770. Did u already see the 850 and did u hold it in ur hands? I think that the ixus 850 is is actually too big for thetrouser pocket.what do u think?

puper78 · Sep 24, 2006, 11:48 AM

No, I haven't had the Ixus in my hands. I just guessed that is slightly bigger than the S770. The Xacti fits good into the pocket, too, just a little bit bigger than the S770.

Checkouthttp://hd1a.com and download the sample movies. Ok, this cam is far too expensive, but the movies are on minDV camcorder level.

I'll wait another 2-4 weeks until I had all the cams in my hand, except the C6, which has the same case than my former C5.

puper78 · Sep 25, 2006, 5:50 AM

And after the C6 it's maybe the Sanyo HD1A I buy. :-O Ok, it's much more expensive and the quality is not 100% HD because of minor bugs. But when I downscale it to DVD level I get awesome movie clips!! I've downloaded about 10 movie samples and on my usual TV they look really great, much better than the movies of the S770, Xacti C6, Canon SD?? and so on...
And the photos are okay, too.

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Sep 19, 2006, 2:08 PM	#1
Ale Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 15	Hey girls and guys, I urgently need your help, since I want to buy now one of the above mentioned cameras. Quality of photos are as important as videofunctionality to me. Could you please tellme which one I should buy? Thanks in advance. Bya

Sep 20, 2006, 9:09 AM	#2
puper78 Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 18	I'm in the same situation like you are. I searched the web for reviews and sample movies of the Canon IXUS 850IS (Powershot SD700), the IXUS 900 Ti (Powershot SD900) and the Exilim EX-S770. The Canons seem to make better photos, at least a little bit. And the IXUS 900 Ti has a couple of new maybe useful features and probably a very good low-light performance (ISO 1600). Unfortunately there's no third-party review so far of these models. I downloaded some movie samples of an earlier model, I guess the SD700. The movies looked very good. They were sharp and didn't show many compression artefacts. The movie sound was really bad, so be sure you check out this one before you buy on of these Canons. And be aware that the Canons record the movies with Motion-JPEG. The bitrate is around 1,9 MByte/s!! So for one hour of movie you need a 4 GB SD card. The Casio in comparison uses MPEG4 compression for movies. The bitrate is much lower than the Canon's one. I think you get around 50min of HQ movie on a1 GB SD card.But on the other hand you can see much more compression artefacts and the movie image is not that sharp. You can check some sample movies from Steve's review of the EX-S600. The movie feature should be almost the same. But nevertheless I haven't found other digital cameras with better movie features. My last cam was the Sanyo Xacti C5, which claims to be a camcorder digicam hybrid. But the video feature was not better than the Exilim's one, except the sound, which was great.

Sep 20, 2006, 1:25 PM	#3
Ale Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 15	Hi Puper78, thank youvery much for your support. you seem to be the only one in this forum to be kind enough as to give some advice to my buying decision. Frankly, I don't know what to do. I am waiting for two weeks for steve's review of the EXILIM S770, but until now he did not publish anything. Do you happen to know when he is going to put a review of this camera online? This might facilitate my decision. As for the Canon IXUS 850IS, it seems tobea very nice cam, but the problem with the sound distburbs me a little. On top of that, the fact that you cannot really record long movies on it, is not very good for my purposes. Canon's quality, though,is a good point to buy this cam,nonetheless. Instead, Casio is not reallyhigh quality,but it offers all the features I am looking for. I think, I will buy the Exilim, but I do not want to regret this decision. So what are you going to do? What's your plan? Thanks for your answer in advance. Bye

Sep 21, 2006, 4:47 AM	#4
puper78 Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 18	My plan is to wait for another month or so. I'm not in a hurry in the moment because there's no vacation ahead. :-( As for you I would wait for any third-party review of the new Canons. Regarding the SD900/IXUS900Ti I wouldn't worry about the missing IS. Since the sensor chip is larger and since the SD900 supports higher ISOs than the IXUS850IS I'm sure you wouldn't see and feel the difference. Regarding the video, I think I've read that you can record up to 4 GB / 1 h of video (maximum SD card size) with the Canon digicams. Check the specifications on the Canon website. http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/co...;modelid=14220

Sep 21, 2006, 8:07 AM	#5
Ale Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 15	hmm it sounds interesting.. maybe I should go for thecanon then, if the video recording quality is as good as the exilim's one. But, I think I will be waiting another month like you do in order to wait for reviews and for prices to fall.. Thank you, Puper78. If there's any news, just post it here. Bye

Sep 21, 2006, 5:07 PM	#6
vadimp Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 3	Ale, you can get an impression about Casio ex-s770 image/video capabilities here: http://ex-s770.blogspot.com/ (sample movies/images). It's my blog about this camera. I'm playing around with it and sharing my experiences there. Vadim.

Sep 24, 2006, 6:54 AM	#7
puper78 Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 18	There's suddenly another cam, that got my attention. The Sanyo Xacti C6 for around €300. I owned the Xacti C5 before, which made great daylight videos - better than the S770 sample videos. But the C5 had terrible low-light performance. The C6 has much better low-light performance what you can see on the following sample movies: http://achama.cocolog-nifty.com/ The C6 has 6 megapixel, 5x optical zoom, HQ stereo AAC sound! You can check out Steve's review, which is average. The photos are good enough for my needs - I mean I cannot see a difference to the Canons and Casios.

Sep 24, 2006, 9:26 AM	#8
Ale Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 15	hi puper78, thanks for yourupdate. the movies seem to be better than those of the ex-s770,because they look much sharper and more stable. but what I don't like though, is the design of the xacti c6. it's not my taste. so you're gonna buy this cam or are u still waiting for prices to fall? btw, I like the features of ixus 850 is very much, but thiscam is nearly 1 cm! bigger than the ex-s770. Did u already see the 850 and did u hold it in ur hands? I think that the ixus 850 is is actually too big for thetrouser pocket.what do u think?

Sep 24, 2006, 11:48 AM	#9
puper78 Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 18	No, I haven't had the Ixus in my hands. I just guessed that is slightly bigger than the S770. The Xacti fits good into the pocket, too, just a little bit bigger than the S770. Checkouthttp://hd1a.com and download the sample movies. Ok, this cam is far too expensive, but the movies are on minDV camcorder level. I'll wait another 2-4 weeks until I had all the cams in my hand, except the C6, which has the same case than my former C5.

Sep 25, 2006, 5:50 AM	#10
puper78 Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 18	And after the C6 it's maybe the Sanyo HD1A I buy. :-O Ok, it's much more expensive and the quality is not 100% HD because of minor bugs. But when I downscale it to DVD level I get awesome movie clips!! I've downloaded about 10 movie samples and on my usual TV they look really great, much better than the movies of the S770, Xacti C6, Canon SD?? and so on... And the photos are okay, too.