camera advice.

alright. so i'm sick of the crappy camera i have. it was great... five years ago when i got it. and mom's isn't much better. i'm spoiled after playing with my bff's canon rebel xs i, and my other bff's nikon dslr.
HOWEVER, i don't think i'm enough of a photographer to warrant buying such a big camera. because i know myself. and i'd buy it and love it.... and not use it like it should be used. maybe after i'm out of school and working and all that.

so i need a point and shoot. mom has a nikon coolpix from a couple years ago. and while i like it, it doesn't really take that awesome of pictures. maybe it's that she lost the book for it, and has the settings on weird. so they come out fuzzy and orange and ugh. not good.

i also really hate the delay between pictures. again, spoiled from using the dslr's of my friends. but it annoys me when i want to take consecutive pictures.

SO. i come to you, the wealth of knowledge about cameras and photography which is ssd. there has to be some sort of middle ground between mom's coolpix and the canon dslr i love to play with. right?

Well, they have the larger sort of hybrid cameras -- they look like smaller SLRs, but don't have interchangeable lenses. I don't have experience with those, unfortunately. I do, however, have a Canon s95. It's a P&S with raw capabilities and can shoot at f/2.0 -- which is incredible for a P&S! I can get awesome low-light photos with no flash. It has a 28-105mm (35mm equivalent terms) lens. I love it!

Here's an overview:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/1008/10081918canonpowershots95.asp

The Canon 40D dSLR is my "main" camera, but when I'm going places that I don't want to lug around the big camera, I bring the s95 and I'm quite happy with it!

I have a Canon Powershot S5IS. It has alot of the same capabilities as a SLR. It is probably either slightly smaller then a SLR or right at the same size. It has incredible zoom. Cant remember now what that is but I am not sure you can buy it in a regular camera store anymore. I am upgrading to a SLR eventually but I will keep that one for when I dont feel like taking seperate lenses and a camera and everything for the SLR. It is just my preference but I dont think I will ever buy another brand outside of Canon. I just love Canons so much!!

Oh and the S5Is does have interchangeable lenses...sort of. You cannot use just any lens on it but you can add a different lens to it.

reveiw for the S5IS

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons5is/

iciclelady- so there is sort of a middle ground. awesome. i knew there had to be! i'm reading right now. thanks so much!

jessica- it looks like a mini one of what i want! and yeah, people swear by canon or nikon. at least, everyone i know does. thanks for the link, i'll look at it.

thanks! i appreciate the feedback. if anyone has any other options, please let me know. i think i may have like, everyone chip in and buy it. if i can do enough research and they all agree..

Gonna check those out. Anyone else with camera recommendations? I need a new one, but since I just got my wedding ring upgraded I can't afford a DSLR (plus they sorta intimidate me) So maybe a point-and-shoot that takes AWESOME pics like a DSLR?

I have a Canon Powershot S3 IS (which came before the S5 mentioned above) and I LOVE it. I imagine the S5 IS is similar and probably offers more than my S3 does. It takes amazing pictures and it definitely offers a middle ground. I had it for about a year before I got my DSLR, and I'll never get rid of it because I still love it and use it when I can't take my DSLR with me.

I believe it is pretty similar....at least according to the reviews I read. The one thing I really dislike about my camera is that you have to open the battery case to get the SD card. I did not have to do that on any previous digital cameras. Its really the only complaint I have about the camera.

suzann said:

I have a Canon Powershot S3 IS (which came before the S5 mentioned above) and I LOVE it. I imagine the S5 IS is similar and probably offers more than my S3 does. It takes amazing pictures and it definitely offers a middle ground. I had it for about a year before I got my DSLR, and I'll never get rid of it because I still love it and use it when I can't take my DSLR with me.

Click to expand...

I have been looking at a smaller camera as well since I don't want to lug around the DSLR all the time - not only that, but I don't know how to use all the fancy settings either. I went with a list of cameras I had looked at to a local camera store where the owner has been a photog. for 40+ years. It took him about a second to look at my list and pick out the Canon G-12. Has the new 'HS' technology, which appears to take great pics in all conditions, 720 video capability and 2.8 inch swivel screen thingy - the correct term escapes me. He picked this out of even the other Canons I had listed, so I'm thinking of going with it.

http://shop.usa.canon.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10051_10051_255917_-1