[go4saket]

Hello friends!

I am very confused as to weather or not should I change my present Sony P200. No doubt the result of P200 is awsome but there are a few problems that I am facing.

1. Because of the position of its flash, all my indoor snaps has a very bold shadow behind it.
2. Flash is not very powerful.
3. Lack of manual controls like aparture control and shutter control.
4. Pictures get blurred if taken without flash due to absence of image stabilisation.

As one of my friend is ready to buy the camera for Rs.10000 ($220), I am just not able to decide weather or not I should go for the deal.

If I should, which camera (compact) would you recommend me in a budget of approx. Rs.12000 ($260). I prefer either Canon or Sony, whichever is better, with atleast 7 MP sensor.

Thank you.

[Guyzer]

This is a great sit for reviews
http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html

My camera of choice is a DSLR but I also have a Canon A630 ( 8mp ) and am very pleased with it. It doesn't have IS and you really don't need it if you remember to keep your camera steady before, during and after you push the little button.

[slipe]

I find stabilization to be a very desirable feature. With a steady hold and eyelevel viewfinder the better stabilization systems like Canon and Panasonic let you get sharp images at 1/4 second. I find a good burst mode helps as well – usually one of the subsequent shots after the first is sharp if you are really pushing the speed.

Stabilization doesn’t help for moving targets though. You need high ISO for that.

Aperture and shutter priority don’t help at all in low light. Your camera is f2.8 at wide and is giving you all the aperture available well before you get to a shutter speed where you can’t handhold. Aperture priority is an auto mode and will give you exactly the same shutter speed. You can get a faster shutter with shutter priority but the picture will be dark because you aren’t letting enough light reach the sensor. You can do the same thing in your camera in program mode by decreasing the EV.

Your P200 was on my short list of two cameras when I bought my last pocket camera. The 7Mp 1/1.8 sensor is one of the best yet made. Full autofocus lag and cycle times are good even by current standards. I find I use manual exposure sometimes but find no requirement for aperture and shutter priority. I do use aperture priority to try to blur the background and to maximize shutter speed in good light, but there are scene modes to do the same thing. “High speed shutter” opens the aperture all the way on your camera. In the rare instance I would want flowing water or whatever to lower the shutter speed I would use full manual on your camera.

It is one of the few small cameras with an optical viewfinder. If you don’t use that it isn’t a big consideration for you. I personally like having a viewfinder.

You already explored the flash shadow on another thread. If you prefer taking flash shots with a solid wall close in the background to generate a shadow and can’t bring yourself to hold the camera in portrait mode with the flash up then you might consider another camera. You will still have the shadow but it won’t be as large. The tradeoff is that you will have to remove redeye from a lot of shots.

The Canon SD700 might be low enough in price now that the updated SD850 is out. It has no manual modes but has stabilization and a viewfinder. It has an excellent lens and takes good pictures. You might also look at the Fuji F31. It has extremely good high ISO noise for shooting moving things in available light. The supply is drying up here because they discontinued it and it is popular. The replacement joined the Mp race and probably won’t be as good.