USVI-On-Line

Camera questions are frequently asked, I know... This is yet another. Bear with me if you can.

I'm thinking about upgrading my old Canon. Does anyone have experience with the Canon PowerShot S110? How do you like it? I'm not planning to take it underwater at this point and will use it only on land. I haven't counted out the G15 but prefer having a pocket size camera. I like traveling light and for that I'm rather okay to compromise the quality of a camera to some degree. I will fiddle with some settings - still, it's nice to have a camera that takes very good shots even with the simple Auto setting.

If you have other recommendations on high-end point-and-shoot cameras for under $500, my ears are open. I would appreciate any insight before committing to the S110.

We have always been very happy with our Canon point and Shoots. We have had a SD950 for years and to tell the truth many times you can't tell the difference between it's pictures and our top of the line DSLR.

I've had numerous G-canons and am super pleased I've left them behind for the S100 (the predecessor of the S110). The S100 and S110 are better at low light shooting the the G's and the quality of the shots are indistiguishable in regular light. The only thing I don't like about the S100 is that side of the camera is slightly curved, making impossible to set on its side for vertical timed shots.

pmk

Mit43, I've been pretty much a Canon faithful for the past decade. Before that I was more capriciously impulsive.

Thank you for the info, pmk. Good to hear from someone who has both the G series and the S110/100. I had been indecisive between those two models but rather made peace with the S110. Nice to know about the S110's/100's low-light performance. I will have to get used to that pop-up flash...

My most recent camera is the Nikon Coolpix P510. I've always been a Canon girl, but I'm absolutely thrilled with the Nikon. It's not exactly pocket-size, but it's not as big as an SLR either. It has some amazing functions and the 42x optical zoom is wonderful. I'm really super happy with it!

Florida Girl, nice to see you here. I do remember you were quite thrilled with the Coolpix P510. I've seen the photos you took with the camera and I thought they were great.

I did consider those rather bulky options... but, in the end, I wanted something more compact and even pocket-friendly. I've come to realize that I'm too lazy to carry around a more substantial camera than a pocketable one.

pmk - thats high praise because stuff shot with the G series has always knocked my socks off. I have an old S series that has served me well over the years, but it was no G series, so its good to hear that it has caught up to the G series in terms of image quality.

The Panasonic Lumix and Sonys (with the in-camera HDR ability) in this class might also be part of my due diligence if I were in the market now, but you cant go wrong with that Canon.

Thank you, jmq. Lumix is my sentimental favorite as it was my first digital camera. I picked Lumix because I like Leica, which was my film-camera for a long time prior to the digitals.

I looked into the LX series as well as Sony's RX100. The RX100 is a little over my budget. I couldn't make up my mind if I liked the Lumix LX5 or 7 more than the Canon S110. Since I have been a Canon person for a while now, I'm leaning towards the S110 which is more compact than the LX. Do you have any more insight into this? All said and done, I imagine you can't go wrong with either.

The personal experience I have with a Lumix you can fit into a thimble. Used a friends to take some group photos at party and was quite impressed with the results. For example when taking a wide shot of a group at a long table and those closest to the lens as well as those at the end of the table were evenly lit by the flash and in focus. Safe to assume if it can do difficult stuff like that, that it would do easy things like landscapes well also.

The low light performance and ability of digital cameras to deal with the wide dynamic range of light and exposure in a scene have gotten so good in recent years and has been one of the few differentiators among the big players. Panasonic and especially Sony excels in this area, and are usually first to the market with those kinds of innovations, and Canon is a bit more cautious and then follows with their versions, which is known as Canon’s proprietary “High Sensitivity” system that the newest models like the S110 now have. I assume Nikon also has something like this too in their higher end point n shoots and/or DSLRs.

The review at trustedreviews.com notes how “the S110 delivers a level of image quality that impresses across the board. JPEG images straight from the camera display rich tones and an even balance between shadows and highlights. In addition, the S110 also manages to retain good levels of detail in both shadow and highlights – even in when faced with tricky high-contrast scenes.”

I was a Canon guy for 30 yrs and if Canon had greater in-camera dynamic range capability (and wasn’t so expensive) 2 yrs ago when I was in the market for a high end fixed lens or DSLR, I would’ve stuck with them instead of buying a Sony alpha series. Not that I am unhappy with the Sony (it is very lightweight for DSLR and does some amazing things in high contrast and hand held low light situations) but the lens action isn’t as silky smooth as a Canon.

If you havent already, maybe go to a retail store and put your hands on the Lumix and the S110 to get a feel for build quality, ergonomics, and how it fits your hand and let that be the deciding factor, along with any differences in capabilities between the two that appeal most to you, such as optical zoom length, variable aspect ratios, ability to shoot RAW, etc.

Just got an email from Panasonic (I get stuff from them as I recently bought a new Pana plasma TV).
They have a new ZS model Lumix with a 20x zoom for $350 with some nifty features http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/DMC-ZS30K
Not sure how the ZS series differs from the LX series.

Very much appreciate your info, jmq. I'm planning to drop by a store later this week to see those models. I know it's just a camera but I have a tendency to get attached (my husband inherits my no-longer-current cameras and I hesitate when I hand them down to him ), so it's a relatively big deal for me to get a new one.

Well, I ended up with the G15. I didn't realize the G15 is slimmer compared to the previous G series. It's still not exactly pocket-friendly but I can deal with that size.

I also looked at the Canon S110, Panasonic Lumix LX-7 (ZS30 was not available), Nikon Coolpix P7700 and Sony RX100. They all seem to be good cameras and have pros and cons of their own. As attractive as the RX100 is, it's above my budget and the G15 was $200+ less.

Anyway, I settled on Canon again... Appreciate all your help.

I was wondering what you would decide! No doubt you'll be pleased with the image quality. Consider getting a filter adapter kit so you can use a polarizing filter. Google "canon g15 filter adapter" Note that a non-Canon brand can work just as well. Happy shooting!