powershot s2 or the fuji s5100

[b-dawg]

Hi

i used to own a 2mp fuji camera. I loved the lens on it and it would take good photso but it was horrible indoors. Anyway, I have some questions.. I am debating between a fuji s5100 and a canon s2 IS.

I know the S2 is the better camera but it's amazingly more costly. I want to know if it's worth the price. 5MP is a bit much for my needs, although the 12X zoom isn't bad.

my biggest draw to the S2 is the image stabilizer. is that a good deal? is it worth it?


I am mostly a casual photographer who takes photos of social events and other things... i like taking outdoor shots but primarily it's the social events I like taking photos of... anyway, which camera would be best suited for my needs. is the s2 worht the cost?

thanks

[sincerecowboy]

well never used the S2. I just had a kodak 7360 6.1 megapixel, had it for about a month then sold it and ordered the S5100. Had so many people on here recomend it to me and saw a lot of pics taken with it and was very impressed. It does have the 10x digital zoom but saw a site where you can order lenses for it to make it 17x zoom. I ordered the S5100 and it should be here next wek cant wait. There are a lot of pics posted on here taken with the S5100

[sincerecowboy]

oh yeah several people on here told me the image stabilizer wasnt that big of the deal, they showed me pics takken with the S5100 at full zoom and they looked great. No tripod was used and one was even t aken in a boat on the water.

[PhilR.]

b-dawg wrote:

my biggest draw to the S2 is the image stabilizer. is that a good deal? is it worth it?

If you are going to be doing a lot of shooting in lower light levels, or a lot of high-zoom shots in mediocre light levels, then IS would certainly help. If you will be doing outdoor shots (at any zoom length)in bright light, or indoor shots w/flash, then IS won't be of much use.

Remember that IS only cancels out handheld camera movement. As long as your shutter speeds are high enough, you won't need IS. Only you can decide if your "social events" have enough light to obviate the need for IS.....

PhilR.

[b-dawg]

hi..

I got a great deal on the fuji camera and I thought the image stabilizer would be of benefit becuase of the amazing capabilities of the 5100's zoom. I've seen the panasonic's z20 and z5 zooms and they're amazing.but... these cameras don't have the compression movie mode and that's essential.

I've looked at the Canon S1 IS, which seems like a good camera but it has a preety small resolution.

At this point, I just take photos of my friends and me and we usually take photos of each other when we play tennis or go out to movies. I was pleased with my old 2800Z but it was horrible indoors. I needed a camera with the ability to take photos indoors.

so where does an IS really help? when would it be more beneficial?
anyway.. any advice would be great.

[PhilR.]

b-dawg wrote:

I was pleased with my old 2800Z but it was horrible indoors. I needed a camera with the ability to take photos indoors.

What do you mean by "horrible indoors"? Were you using the flash? What is the flash range of your 2800? Any camera can do just fine indoors, as long as you stay within the working range of the flash.

so where does an IS really help? when would it be more beneficial?
anyway.. any advice would be great.

The first sentence of my post above stated where IS helps, but I'll state it again. IS helps when light levels are too low to handhold the shot. How low is too low depends on how well you can hold a camera steady.