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Camera with fast image acquire - recommendations?

D

debaucher

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 13, 2002
Messages
1,636
Hello everyone.
I am in the market for a new camera and I am finally moving up to a good camera (not just the low end items I have been using for years).

The main reason I am upgrading is I am tired of having that perfect shot of my child only to hit the button and have it take so long for the camera to acquire the image that he has already moved on and not I am just left with a blur.

I am open to all sorts of suggestions, but am trying to stay in the ~$400-$500 range.
Would prefer one that I don't have to carry around a lot of lenses for, so maybe more of a point and shoot type.
Also, one that could take a succession of 3 shots at a time to make sure I get the shot I want would be a plus.

Thanks in advance and please forgive my lack of camera knowledge.

D.
 
Canon PowerShot G9 or a Nikon Coolpix P6000. either one you get you'll be more then happy with the quality and performance. Canon shoots with approx. 2fps. the P6000 is a new camera from Nikon and i wan unable to find the full specs for it, however the continuous shooting capability of the P5100 is of 1fps. i would hope that Nikon improved on this.
 
FPS is not the same as shutter delay.

But any decent camera, like the Nikons or Canons, should have very little shutter delay.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I am sure my explanation of what I want/need wasn't the most technical but hopefully everyone understands what I tried to say.

From the 2 mentioned above, the Canon G9 is looking nice.
As long as it is able to take a picture and save it to memory fast enough after I press the button (with a quality shot of course) I am happy.
I am unable to find an exact time in the specs, but I am still liking how it looks.
It is one of the cameras I looked at a few months ago when I first started looking into upgrading my camera.

I wonder if there is a store nearby (LA area) that has one on display that I can play with to get an idea of its speed (taking and saving pictures).

Any G9 owners care to chime in?

Thanks!

D.
 
I have a G7 and it does the job, I have an Ultra II and Extreme III SD card for it and it stores images faster than I can take them off the camera.

If your in continuous mode it will hit its 1fps (G7 is older than G9 so no 2fps for me) and hold it until the card fills up or I am done.

Most of the medium to higher end ones can store images faster than you can take them, otherwise having the FPS time would be pointles.

You could also consider the G10 which was announced a few days ago. It gets a decent body grip and a new lense which would be nice.
 
Maybe pickup an SLR like the e510 or e420, heck my e520 was only $520 on launch date, they can be had for that price with a decent kit lens. They have point n shoot modes too.

You don't HAVE to carry around alot of lenses with an SLR. Just get a decent standard zoom or prime lense. Heck even the 14-42mm olympus kit lense isn't bad at all, olympus really does make some nice glass and their camera is considerably lighter than my canon G1 /G2 with the kit lens on it.

SLR's will give you the speed your looking for.
In most cases the speed of the memory card will not matter, as most cameras work off a built in buffer. Once the buffer is full, it writes the images to the card. Most SLR's can take quite a few images in a row before the buffer is full, certainly focus MUCH faster, and can take multiple images per second. Having a faster card will moslty help when pulling the images off the card reader, especialy if you have a firewire card reader or faster.

I have always been a canon/ nikon fan in the past, but I'm VERY happy with my olymous SLR. Canon / Nikon do make better SLR's than the olympus they are are also considerably more expensive. Olympus gives you a huge bang for the buck, especialy if you get one with image stabalization built into the camera, it can save you $800 a lense later down the road , and also alot of space / weight.

no camera takes 3 shots at a time that I know of but there are many SLR's to take 3 shots a second with EV bracketing to make sure you don't over / under expose.
 
Shutter lag sucks. Any modern SLR will fix that problem for you. Some of the more modern p&s cameras might be better with shutter lag than older models, but I wouldn't call them spectacular by any means.
 
Wow, getting a lot of good information here.

I was looking at the G9 last night and found (as mentioned in one of the replies) that they G9 is discontinued and is being replaced by the G10.

I am trying to find a camera that will give me the most "bang for my buck" as I am by no means a professional, just want to be able to take good quality pictures in a variety of situations mainly concerning my child who does not sit still for long.

The only thing about SLR's that worries me is finding the best "everyday lens" and carrying the camera/lens' around as well as all the other things you have to carry as a parent with a young child (diapers, snacks, drinks, change of clothes etc..).

I sometimes feel like a Sherpa just when we go to the zoo for an afternoon.

D.
 
debaucher said:
Wow, getting a lot of good information here.

I was looking at the G9 last night and found (as mentioned in one of the replies) that they G9 is discontinued and is being replaced by the G10.

I am trying to find a camera that will give me the most "bang for my buck" as I am by no means a professional, just want to be able to take good quality pictures in a variety of situations mainly concerning my child who does not sit still for long.

The only thing about SLR's that worries me is finding the best "everyday lens" and carrying the camera/lens' around as well as all the other things you have to carry as a parent with a young child (diapers, snacks, drinks, change of clothes etc..).

I sometimes feel like a Sherpa just when we go to the zoo for an afternoon.

D.
Click to expand...

Young child is EXACTLY the reason my friend switched to an SLR. Finding the right every day lens is no problem at all. for the e520 it's the kit lens, or if you want even faster performance and more zoom the 14-54mm Other SLR's are similar. The camera will be much faster than a point n shoot when not using the live view, but you have the option to upgrade to a better lens later if you want.

the e420 is the smallest digital SLR, but olympus is going to release a micro SLR soon where you can still swap lenses, you might want to wait for that if your not in a rush, it should be pocketable from the rumors.

Here is the info.

http://www.photographybay.com/2008/08/05/olympus-micro-four-thirds-system/
 
I have a G9, and it has alot of features, but is probably the best Point-and-shoot you can get. The G10 has a wider-angle lens, and a few other improvements from the G9.

Highly recommended for sure!
 
Thanks everyone.
I am looking into the G9, but as it is discontinued it is very hard to find sold anywhere.
Now, I am waiting to see if either I can find a slightly used G9 for a good deal or I am going to have to wait until either the G10 is in stock or until the new micro SLR is available.

I am hoping I can find a G9 for a good deal as that would probably do me really well until I make the next move up.

D.
 
I'd really skip the G9 and go to a dslr. The larger sensor makes a huge difference, especially in low light/high iso situations. Also, I've not found a P&S yet with the response time of even an old dslr. You can get a used 30D for less than a new G9 and its imho a drastically more capable. For that matter you could get a used Rebel XT for very little $$ and still have an excellent camera with very fast response and the ability to burst at 3fps in full res + raw for quite some time. The 30D will do the same at 5fps.

A Rebel XT with the 18-55 kit lens is an inexpensive alternative to a P&S and is much more fun to use, faster and allows for drastically lower-noise images for a given ISO setting.
 
If you plan to upgrade to an SLR in the future having a good P&S will be a nice backup. However if you can wait skip the G9 and wait for the G10 to get the better lens. The 14mp is pointless but if you dont take pictures at the max resolution your images will be better quality.

If your not sure how far you want to go with photography then starting out with a good P&S is a good way to start off.

I love my G7 but its too limited for most things I want to do now, so I just ordered an SLR. However I still will keep and use my G7 :)
 
Fastest I have seen is the Panasonic TZ5 for a compact camera. It's auto focus is fast and it's focus to shot is very fast. It's also in production and a good price.

Review of the TZ5

Here is a comparison of the G9 and TZ5
 
Thanks for the info.

I think I will stick with a P&S for now.
I am trying to find a good G9 on craigslist right now.
If I can't find one by the time the G10's are in good supply, I will probably get a G10.

D.
 
FYI setting a high-mp sensor to a lower mp setting isn't the same as having a lower mp sensor. Each pixle is still tiny and not getting hit with many photons. The only diff is instead of having a high resolution, noisy picture you'll have a low res noisy picture. You'd be best off shooting at max res in raw mode then use Adobe camera raw or light room or something to get rid of as much noise as you can.

I use the wife's DSLR for any serious camera work, an oly 770SW for my biking stuff (can't kill it) and a pan LX-1 as SLR-backup or when I want to take nice pics and the SLR isn't available. Its pretty snappy, does raw files and has an excellent lens. Its also physically a lot smaller than the G series.

Still, you can get an SLR for the price of a G9, stick it in full auto mode and it will work like a P&S, only producing much better images with drastically less lag. You probably won't have live view or video modes though.

have fun!
 
Yea, I am now looking to either get a G9 (G10) or a Rebel XT (XTi) depending on what I find first at a good price.

I just missed out on a good G9 for $250 on craigslist yesterday as I could not get off of work fast enough.

So, if anyone sees a good deal, let me know!

D.
 
Will do. If you can test out both cameras as they are very different to use. You might find you really like the response and low noise/high iso of the SLR or you might like the live view and video abilities of the G9. CL is a great place to watch for camera stuff. I got my last camera off CL for a great price:)
 
new SLR's have live view, if you want smaller your best bet might be the new olympus micro SLR.

This forum is heavily Canon/Nikon fanboys. While I have always liked my canon cameras I'm really impressed with my new olympus. Excelent performance especialy for the money. G9 is almost as larger as an SLR anyways, in fact the micro SLR is probably smaller. Don't be afraid to try something other than a canon / nikon.

I always thought Canon was really nice, and well they are not bad, but I feel like I got ALOT more out of my olympus for the money I have invested in it. A similar canon setup would cost about 3x as much. With the largest improvement being igh ISO pictures like 1600 or so which I dont shoot often anyways.

if youw ant fqast image acquire SLR is the way to go hands down, if you want other features you might go for a point n shoot.
 
Used Canon XT or XTI ? :)

and learn the manual settings, even most digitals once you know your way around them you can have it set up perfect for most any pics and it will take decent shots
 
I like the Olympus bodies quite well. What bothers me about them is the smaller sensor size (2x crop vs. 1.6) and comparatively large amount of noise at higher ISO's. The build quality of the entry level Oly bodies are well above that of comparable canons for sure though. The unusual crop factor also reduces the availability of aftermarket lenses. All that said, the Oly has way, way, way better high iso performance than any P&S and probably makes the best P&S replacement as they are small, typically a bit more user friendly and have a great body. If Oly comes out with an affordable APS-C sensor or FF camera i'll be giving them a very serious look.

Also worth looking at are the Pentax models, the K10D is about the price of a rebel XT and has a much more solid body (and dust proof/water resistant). Sensor quality is similar, burst rate is the same etc. The 20/200 series have live view if that matters.

have fun!
 
Quick update.
Talked with the wife and for her convenience, decided to choose the G10 (over a DSLR) due to size constraints.
Almost bought a used G9 off of craigs but found a good deal on the G10 for not much more (comes with 16gb SDHC card, table tripod, case etc).
Everything will be by mid next week so I will update with pictures for everyone.

I figure I (and the wife) can use this one for a while and then when I need to I can update to a DSLR and she can continue using the G10.

Here is to hoping I made a good choice.

D.
 
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