Camera Labs

Hello guys,

im new to this site and trying to buy a P&S camera as im travelling in a week. I purchased the Sony DSC-HX5V and love the little options it has like GPS and all but then I found out about the Canon SD4000. taking pictures with sony is great but looking at the pictures they almost look like a painting or just not as real or maybe im just crazy. then i looked at some reviews and picture samples about the canon sd4000 and everyone says good things about them. im looking for a camera that has a real life looking pictures. now with you guys being experienced with cameras which one should i go with? your help would be greatly appreciated.

wooow, what a great site this is. not even one member can help. amazed.

Patience is a virtue, and this is a messageboard. Notice the lack of "Instant" in "messageboard". Keep in mind that all this is for free. We don't get paid, which means we do it in our spare time. And spare time can be scarce. So please, have a little patience.

As for your question:

most compact cameras tend to do weird things to the colors, depending on the situation. If the camera thinks it is photographing a landscape, it will bump up the blues and greens to get a more saturated look. For portraits, it lowers the reds a bit and softens the image somewhat.
Most cameras offer controls to manually select what "picture style" you want, but I have little experience with compacts so can't give you a good recommendation on that.

Right now I think the best compact to get is the Canon S90, it's quite customizable, but it doesn't come cheap. If the SD4000 looks good to you, and looks good in reviews, I'd get it. Beware that one week is a short time to get the hang of a new camera though!

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

+1 -- the S90 is about as good a compact as there is out there. I am partial to Canon P&S cameras, and find they never have let me or my family down.

In the end, of course, what matters most is how the camera feels in your hands. Test driving both cameras should give you a sense of which one you will prefer to use.

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Olympus e-620 / 14-42mm / 40-150mm
Metz 48 AF-1
Kata 3-N-1 20, LowePro Orion Mini, LowePro Nova 2
My Flickr

hey guys, thanks for your input. didn't mean to be disrespectful, its just that im goin away and really needed some expert advise. i compared my sony with my old 8 mega pixel canon and to be honest i think the canon has better picture. its really frustrating when you have to decide when so many choices are out there. i really like the sony with all the options and 10x zoom where as the canon sd4000 has only 4x zoom. thats a huge difference. at the end i need something with good quality picture.

Sounds to me that you are somewhat budget-bound. So if you think you are going to be happiest with the Sony, the by all means, get it. It also sounds to me that the zoom of the sony is a key deciding factor for you, but in the same breath you allude to wanting the best IQ. Have you had either of these cameras in your hand yet?

In the end, it's a P&S - which means you will likely be replacing it within 3 years anyway.

I am confident that you would be happy with the results of either camera.

_________________
Olympus e-620 / 14-42mm / 40-150mm
Metz 48 AF-1
Kata 3-N-1 20, LowePro Orion Mini, LowePro Nova 2
My Flickr