decidin between thes long zoom cameras

[aman]

hey wassup !
i was plannin to buy a long zoom camera for pursuin my hobby of photography .
at present im usin the sony P72, its been a really wonderful camera, before
that i had also used the nikon 4300 for sometime, but it was really slow in takin pics n stuff but the pic quality was really good , then i got the sony that was really good , fast, durable ,good pic quality , evrythin i wanted

but now im plannin to up the ante and buy a better camera . at 1st i was deciding to go for the canon A640 but then i thought why not go for the longer zoom models in the market...
so at present im decidin between canon s2,panasonic lumix fz7 and sony h1 , though i mite be slight bias to the sony coz i have alot of memory stick... but i dont wanna make a choice on this bases... and slightly bias to the sony and canon as they use AA batt coz i go trekkin to the himalayas and stuff so at most of the places out there, there arent any electricity hence have to survive wid chargin forfew dayz to a couple of weeks, so i doubt the panasonic would be suitable as ill have toby like dozens of batt,prop batt which are bound to be expensive...

and plus i have been hearin out here n on other sites tooo that the panasonic has some serious noise problem even at low iso of 80/100?
so anyone who has some basic idea bout em can help me out.

i wanted a camera wid a really good macro(flowers n stuff), can take good lanscape pics, good pic - pic speed(coz wen go on treekin or somethin there are instance wen ya a really good pic (eg) like a bird flyin between 2 gorges, but by the time ya
startya cam and aim at the shot ithas already gone--- i hope ya understand wat im tryin to say), a relatively stable lens(is) kinda durable, low lightin pic quality should also be kinda good coz ya neva know if i mite have the urge of takin the pic of the moon or somethin in darkness... and the normal stuff.... like takin pics at home, limited parties n stuff... basically this one is gonna be like an adventure cam...lol
last time i went there i took my sony p72 but the pic it produced was kinda good , besides wen zoomin wasnt required--- after all wat can ya expect from a 3x optical zoom entry levelcam, though the macro pics were kinda good ....
so i wanted to know if ya could suggest me whichof these 3 would be really good for my purpose ? any suggestions are welcome ...
anywayz thanz for your valuable time .....


NOTE:- THE PIC ON THE BOTTOM WAS TAKEN BY THE SONYp72
NOT IN THE MACRO MODE, BUT IN THE NORMAL AUTO MODE,
FLASH WAS KINDA TOO STONG...

[vwmom]

I went from my old trusty Sony P71.. to my Canon S2 IS.. and LOVE it.. do a search on reviews and you'll see what I mean.

[aman]

vwmom wrote:

I went from my old trusty Sony P71.. to my Canon S2 IS.. and LOVE it.. do a search on reviews and you'll see what I mean.

i know , mostly everyone would say go for the canon , but y i dunno i have a mind block for the canon, im like sony loyal... but the panasonic one is really good ... couldnt let that one go buy...:-)
yeah i know from the past month or so im surveyin and *****hin bout em and the more i know bout em the more confused i get ...

[vwmom]

The new Sony cameras are NOT like the old ones. I was a Sony fan before. When you compare Canon and Sony, the Canon photos have much better color.

As for Panasonic. I can't get past the feel of their cameras. This is just me. I also had a Panasonic camcorder for years which I ended up selling, becaise I could no longer get a battery for it.. That did me in for Pannies.

[mtclimber]

aman-

You will find that BOTH the Canon S-2 and the Sony H-1 are very well reviewed and have many loyal users. You can hardly go wrong with either camera. Unfortunately, while the Panasonic FZ series has many loyal followers and has received good reviews, any ISO setting at and above ISO 200 shows a good deal of noise in their images.

Yes, there are many good noise reduction software programs, such as Noise Ninja and Neat Image, but IMHO those same very effective programs tend to soften the image a good bit.For me at least, the choice is between the Sony H-1 and the Canon S-2.

MT

[E.T]

aman wrote:

as they use AA batt coz i go trekkin to the himalayas and stuff so at most of the places out there, there arent any electricity hence have to survive wid chargin for few dayz to a couple of weeks

Well, AAs are cheaper and you can use alkalines in emergency, but of course even those aren't available outside "civilization" and again Li-Ions have higher energy density per volume/weight...
(and NiMHs "freeze" at much higher temperature than Li-Ions, no need for this kind temperatures)

and plus i have been hearin out here n on other sites tooo that the panasonic has some serious noise problem even at low iso of 80/100?

That's because sensors used in all these standard 10x + zoom cameras are such small that noise becomes visible very easily, Panasonics sensors are just most noisiest. (Fuji has somewhat less noisier sensors than others)

i wanted a camera wid a really good macro(flowers n stuff), can take good lanscape pics

Now again we come to definition of basic terms... "zoom" doesn't mean anything concretic, it's just ratio of longest and shortest focal length.
Both 50-100mm and 500-1000mm would be 2x zooms, while field of fiew of 50mm should be somewhat similar to FOV of human's sharp vision with both eyes 500mm is such that you would have to backstep ten-twenty meters to just fit your front door into picture.

And these standard 10/12x zoom cameras really don't have good wide angle at all.
Purely for landscapes Kodak P880's 24mm wide angle would be terrific, but tele of that camera is 140mm which is just little better than most compacts so I would suggest checking Fuji S9500 (S9000 in US) instead of those standard "me-too" super/ultrazooms designed by marketing clowns. It has 28-300mm zoom range which is much better wide angle for lanscape photography. (also wide angle is usefull inside when you can't backstep farther than wall)



IMO Sony is totally overhyped company, lot of proprietary scheisse... draconian/fascistic "copy protection" (in reality use limiting) politics for achieving stranglehold from consumers of entertainment... for example by infecting your computers with rootkit viruses.

[dwtbone]

I own a sony h1 and I am really impressed with the camera. The colors are excellent, the speed of operation is excellent and the low light capabilities are are ok for a non DSLR. If you own lots of memory sticks I would go for the h1 or wait for the h2 or h5 that will be released soon. My 11 by 8 prints of sunsets are stunning with brilliant colors and good details. The wide angle view would be better with the Kodak 880 or Fuji 9000 however. The Sony R1 would be great but the price is a little out of my budget at the present with a new home purchase on the horizon. C.W.

[aman]

dwtbone wrote:

I own a sony h1 and I am really impressed with the camera. The colors are excellent, the speed of operation is excellent and the low light capabilities are are ok for a non DSLR. If you own lots of memory sticks I would go for the h1 or wait for the h2 or h5 that will be released soon. My 11 by 8 prints of sunsets are stunning with brilliant colors and good details. The wide angle view would be better with the Kodak 880 or Fuji 9000 however. The Sony R1 would be great but the price is a little out of my budget at the present with a new home purchase on the horizon. C.W.

I live in india and out here the H1 has come out juss a few months ago and wen i called the sony ppl they said they have no idea/intention of comin out wid the h2/h5
and i cant wait that long either,coz ill be goin trekkin by july and i wanna play abit and get use to the camera be4 i go...
well readin the review at sony i found out that the h2 uses carl zeiss lens whereas the h1 uses sonys own lens,would that make much of a diff... and i dont think ill need the 6mp which has been cramped on the same sensor---> more noise problem
ohh yeah i have to keep it wid in Rs 18400(us$400) coz ill probably buy some wide angle lens and stuff and i also have to buy a new notebook(hp dv5000)too

cant make up my mind yet,think ill probably go to the store and check em out personally (though after my exmaz...) and see which one feels comfy in my hands...coz as i see it,the sony and the canon seem pretty much equal...so id probably decide on the feel of it
i have heard the sony one is kinda heavier than the rest? so that would be a good thin wen addin lenses on em?

ya have been really helpful... but i would want abit more help ... if ya were suppose to decide between em(the sony n the canon) which one would ya go for and why, sorry if i have been alot of trouble, but cant help...
anywayz thanz for ya help and valuable time...

[mtclimber]

aman-

Think of it this way. If you plan to do a lot of video clips in addition to regular shooting, the Canon S-2 IS is the clear winner because it has the best video clip capability.

On the other hand, if video clips will not predominate, and because you like Sony cameras, and you already have a goodly supply of Sony memory sticks, the Sony H-1will be a fine choice.

Either camera will serve you well. I agree also that you should purchase the camera early on and become experienced with it before you begin your trekking in July.

MT

[E.T]

aman wrote:

ohh yeah i have to keep it wid in Rs 18400(us$400) coz ill probably buy some wide angle lens...

Good quality wide converters cost considerably (easily 100$ + you need also adapter for attaching converter meaning ~20$ more) so in that case you should definitely add that extra expense to camera's price because you might get camera with hassle free "built in" wide angle at that total price.
I can guarantee you don't screw on lens converters just for fun, especially if you're on move those are lousy option.

i have heard the sony one is kinda heavier than the rest? so that would be a good thin wen addin lenses on em?

Good quality wide converters also weight considerably (nearly half of camera's weight) so I don't think there's much differences in which camera is less unbalanced when using one.


mtclimber wrote:

I agree also that you should purchase the camera early on and become experienced with it before you begin your trekking in July.

There's even better reason for buying camera well in advance instead of "day before" going to trip...
What if there's some problem in delivery of camera for example...

BTW, what that "best" video clip capability might mean? Almost all cameras can take 30fps 640x480 videos... Canon doesn't even use MPEG4 compression which could be kept as one of the requirements for best video mode.