PLEASE HELP!!!! Canon SD700 IS vs. Fujifilm F30

[Ruski1982]

Thanks for your extensive posts kenbalbari.

Just so that i dont have to go reading through the reviews again...can u recall the main manual features that are lacking on the SD700 but are present on the F30???

Just trying to get an idea of what i will be missing if i get the Canon.

Since i am currently a student and working almost full-time, i most likely wont have too much time to explore manual features anyway and will look to doing that in a few years time with a new camera.

Anyway, always more info appreciated. Thanks again everyone!!!

[kenbalbari]

Ruski:

The Cannon apparently has no way to manually set the aperture or the shutter speed. They have a mode which they call "manual", but that's misleading, as "manual" traditionally means controlling aperture and shutter speed.

The F30 doesn't have a full manual mode, which would allow for setting both manually at the same time, but it has aperture priority and shutter priority modes, which can give the same effect. In effect, if I want a certain aperture, shutter speed, and ISO combination, I can go into shutter priority and set my shutter speed, and then adjust the ISO and Exposure as needed to get the aperture I want before taking the shot--as the camera's automatic choices are displayed on the screen.

The SD700 "manual" mode only includes setting things like ISO, exposure compensation, and white balance. On the other hand it generally does an outstanding job of picking appropriate settings for good exposure, and if you want to learn you could simply pay some attention to some of it's choices.

I also should correct what I said about the less saturated colors on the F30 might be more accurate. In this case it appears the Cannon is more accurate. The F30 undresaturated by some in digitalcamerainfo's color test using manaul white balance; the SD700 is outstanding on color tests (as have been several other recent Cannon models).

[meanstreak]

swgod98 wrote:

When I was outdoors, the camera didn't use anything less than ISO200?!?! *boggle* BRIGHT DAY! ISO200! Wha?!!? That doesn't make sense to me. I want the best quality possible. Bright days = ISO 100...But, the AUTO400 mode wouldn't use 100 (grrrrr)...

I love the F30, but ISO3200 isn't usable (IMO) and ISO1600 seems unreliable (sometimes pictures look ok, sometimes not depending on lighting). ISO800 is acceptable, but I don't know why the auto mode is sticking to ISO200 when it's bright and sunny! :roll:

My F30 shoots ISO 100 in auto... not sure why yours doesn't. I'm not saying it gets it right every time but I just reviewed several shots I took in average daylight and I got ISO 100 most of the time.

Also don't understand why there are some complaints about color...maybe I'm just easily pleased.

Here is an ISO 100 sample and I think the colors are just right the way I remember the scene. The camera processing was set to natural.

Excuse the size, but Photobucket does some strange things during the upload process due to file size limitations. Kills the sharpness a little at this viewing size, but still pretty good.

Edited:Now the the next day, the size of the picture is smaller and looks fine.I can now see the EXIF info on this image which missing last night. I'mon a different computer, but I don't think that is the issue. Maybe it's the Photobucket site. I've got to find a better place to store pictures.

[meanstreak]

Here's one at ISO 400. Don't know why the camera picked it.... same day taken within 15 minutes of the previous shot, maybe it got shadier, but I have no complaints about the quality of the image at ISO 400.

Now in this case Photobucket resized but left the picture smaller

[meanstreak]

Here's an indoor ISO 1600

[meanstreak]

Here's another indoor ISO 1600

[meanstreak]

and yet another ISO 1600... color just the way it was in person.

[plop]

if you take pictures indoor without flash to moving persons, go for fuji F30.....
if you take indoor with flash, and you want outdoor very good qulity pics, go for Canon SD700 IS...

[swgod98]

meanstreak wrote:

My F30 shoots ISO 100 in auto... not sure why yours doesn't. I'm not saying it gets it right every time but I just reviewed several shots I took in average daylight and I got ISO 100 most of the time.

I took outdoor pictures another day and the camera used ISO100 often enough. I should have noted this so ppl weren't wondering what was up with it.

Anyways...it just seemed wierd that the camera picked anything beyond ISO100 in bright settings w/ auto mode.

[swgod98]

meanstreak wrote:

Here's an indoor ISO 1600

Amazing a compact PnS can do that! But,the images look washed out at 1600. I still think ISO100-400 is where it's at...800 if need be. I really wish the F30 had an AUTO800 mode.