Buying a Camera - Review Overload

[staticz]

I hate to be 'that guy' but I really need help buying a camera. For a bit of background the nicest camera we have is an iPhone 4, so that tells you pretty much all you need to know. Anyway, we're getting ready to have our first kid and my wife's blog is picking up a lot of steam so she feels like she should be putting out higher quality images.

Since we're noobs I really don't want to spend over $250 on a camera. I don't see the point in hopping straight into something with so many settings, am I wrong there?

I've read all of CNET's guides, 2cameraguys shootouts, etc and think I have just gone overboard on information (especially when I don't have any real experience).

I think I've narrowed it down to either the Panasonic Lumix ZS20, Olympus SX260 or the Nikon 9200. Obviously these are all 'compact megazooms' my question is - is there a better camera out there that I'm overlooking? The 20x optical zoom seems like it would be awesome but I have to imagine you'd lose quality considering the price of the camera.

Are there standard point and shoots (10x zoom?) that would be a better option and is $250 a realistic budget for our needs (pets, baby, blog pics)?

I've seen a lot on the S100 and also the SZ1 from Panasonic, how do those compare to the 'megazooms'?

Thanks in advance guys, I'll appreciate any input!

 

[cyclone3d]

The Panasoniuc Lumix are good cameras(at least the fz60). Their low light (high iso) performance is not that good, but that is true of pretty much any P&S camera.

The 24x zoom lens on the fz60 puts out pretty good quality pics. The fz60 is around $270 right now.

I did a bunch off research for my sister-in-law and we ended up getting a Panasonic Lumix for her. Was $350 when she bought it.

 

[MN Scout]

The image quality on the shorter zoom ranges - say 5X - have a chance of being better than the megazooms. I bought the Canon Elph 110 for my Mom which has a 5X zoom, and I spent some time looking at full resolution pictures taken with the Canon SX260 on Flickr and a few review sites. The 110 pictures were sharper and had less haze then the SX260. For those compact megazooms they have to make some compromises to get there. In reality though, unless you are comparing them side by side and zooming in to 100% on your screen, you won't notice.

Regarding the Panazonic ZS20 vs Canon SX260, I like the image quality a bit more on the Canon that I'm seeing in this review from Camera Labs. Though the flashes on these cameras are so puny, that when shooting indoors handheld, you'll find that in the automatic mode the camera is selecting an ISO in the range of 400 - 800+ and in that range the Canon looks a bit better. That doesn't speak to if one is easier to control and use than the other. I didn't read close enough to make any recommendations in that regard.

One megazoom I'm very impressed with is the Canon SX50, but it isn't compact. All the images I've seen are quite sharp, and I love how it can save a RAW image file.

Have you considered getting a software solution to help like Lightroom 4? Watch a few of the free videos at Adobe's site on tweaking photos to make them there best - contrast, levels, saturation, sharpness. Not too difficult and can make a picture from most any camera look good in the traditional blog format. I've been very impressed with it's abilities to let me fix up any shortcomings that have come along with the Elph 110 photos - wrong whitebalance, lifting the shadows, reducing saturation, sharpening the photos, etc etc.

 

[staticz]

The image quality on the shorter zoom ranges - say 5X - have a chance of being better than the megazooms. I bought the Canon Elph 110 for my Mom which has a 5X zoom, and I spent some time looking at full resolution pictures taken with the Canon SX260 on Flickr and a few review sites. The 110 pictures were sharper and had less haze then the SX260. For those compact megazooms they have to make some compromises to get there. In reality though, unless you are comparing them side by side and zooming in to 100% on your screen, you won't notice.

Regarding the Panazonic ZS20 vs Canon SX260, I like the image quality a bit more on the Canon that I'm seeing in this review from Camera Labs. Though the flashes on these cameras are so puny, that when shooting indoors handheld, you'll find that in the automatic mode the camera is selecting an ISO in the range of 400 - 800+ and in that range the Canon looks a bit better. That doesn't speak to if one is easier to control and use than the other. I didn't read close enough to make any recommendations in that regard.

One megazoom I'm very impressed with is the Canon SX50, but it isn't compact. All the images I've seen are quite sharp, and I love how it can save a RAW image file.

Have you considered getting a software solution to help like Lightroom 4? Watch a few of the free videos at Adobe's site on tweaking photos to make them there best - contrast, levels, saturation, sharpness. Not too difficult and can make a picture from most any camera look good in the traditional blog format. I've been very impressed with it's abilities to let me fix up any shortcomings that have come along with the Elph 110 photos - wrong whitebalance, lifting the shadows, reducing saturation, sharpening the photos, etc etc.

Thanks man! That was actually my next question. Will Lightroom or Aperture be a worthwhile purchase with the camera, looks like you answered it for me.

The Panasoniuc Lumix are good cameras(at least the fz60). Their low light (high iso) performance is not that good, but that is true of pretty much any P&S camera.

The 24x zoom lens on the fz60 puts out pretty good quality pics. The fz60 is around $270 right now.

I did a bunch off research for my sister-in-law and we ended up getting a Panasonic Lumix for her. Was $350 when she bought it.

Thank you for your reply as well. I'm not too worried about going $20 over, I'll check out that camera as well.