Cannon Powershot?

[UnknownVT]

Is it the camera or my photography skills, I can take a good 35mm picture though?

Sounds like mostly your skills are OK - although one has to adapt to any camera and some of the idiosycrasies of digicams do need getting used to.

Shutter lag - or more accurately the delay between pushing the shutter and picture taken - is normally the biggest compalint -
digicams have improved a lot over the years - but there is still a significant delay - in the order of about 1/2 sec for focussing (the digicam also sets the exposure during that time).

This unfortunately is intrinsic to the beast.

Even dSLRs have NON-negligible delays - focussing is still in the order of about 1/2 sec (some can be as fast as 1/4-1/3 sec)
depending on the light level.
(dpReview's otherwise excellent reviews singularly FAIL to give the delay for focussing on their dSLR reviews -
whereas Imaging-Resource.com, and Popular Photography magazine (also PopPhoto.com) both do, and the results can be revealing).

The technique to overcome this, is to Pre-Focus the camera by an initial HALF-depression of the shutter button and hold -
then when the moment's right, press rest of the way -
then most digicam's true shutter lag is reduced to better than 0.1 sec - fast enough to catch most action - then a plain P&S digicam can be as fast (or slow) as any multi-hundred$$ dSLR.
I know, I do this all the time.

If you still want a digicam - then please look at my post #30 (link) previously cited - and stick with a Canon PowerShot A-series (good value).

The cheapest low price from an on-line vendor is about $112 shipped for a Canon A460 - or bid on an A530 on eBay (those lower prices I saw were for used ones - the A530 sells mostly for above ~$120 for a new one, but that is still very good value).

For better expsoure control options such as shutter and aperture priority as well as full manul control then look at the Canon PowerShot A570IS low priced at below $200 shipped -

or bid on an A540 on eBay

Hope that helps,

--
Vincent
http://clik.to/UnknownVT2007
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[thatmguy]

I bought a 530 last Sept, and love it. Of course, like everything else, paid too much ($200, but the 540 was $275 at the time at the store) because I bought spur-of-the-moment instead of reasearching.

I wanted something that used AA's, not a proprietary rechargable POS that will fail eventually.

Great pix, good size, SD card (can find 2G for under $20 now).

Main drawback is the small screen IMHO.

For work I just bought a little Nikon for under $140 that uses AAA's. Amazingly sharp pix, but all indoors and many are closeups.

 

[glockman99]

I have a little Canon A300...It's a good little "shirt-pocket digicam" with alot of usefull features.:thumbup:.:thumbup:.

However, if you want to get a REALLY good 5mp digital camera, take a look at the Olympus Camedia C5050...That little bugger is PACKED with cool features! I bought one "used" (in "like-new" condition!) at Craig's List for...Get this...$80, shipped!...And it included two Olympus 256MB xD cards (as well as the Olympus lens cover, PC/video cords, strap and manual). This camera uses AA batteries. As a side-note, I bought 12 new Energizer 2500 NiMh batteries and 2 Energizer chargers in a package deal for $22, shipped, at eBay...What a DEAL!..