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Best Coolpix for HD and low light too?



 
 
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  #1  
Old June 13th 10, 08:19 PM posted to rec.photo.digital
Jane Galt
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 148
Default Best Coolpix for HD and low light too?

I'd like to consider a newer purse sized Coolpix. I have the 4500 which is
nice, but not exactly purse sized.

I like to do a bit of low-light shooting without flash, so it looks like the
S8000 isnt up to that, though the 10x optical zoom sounds nice.

I enjoy mostly scenery and non-flash shots of our shoulder pet birds.

My purse cam is now a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S750 but the image quality isnt as
nice as the Coolpix. I suspect Nikon makes better quality lenses?

So suggestions?

I need to keep this in the under $300 street price range.

  #2  
Old June 17th 10, 12:51 AM posted to rec.photo.digital
Neil Harrington[_5_]
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Posts: 380
Default Best Coolpix for HD and low light too?


"Jane Galt" wrote in message
. ..
I'd like to consider a newer purse sized Coolpix. I have the 4500 which is
nice, but not exactly purse sized.

I like to do a bit of low-light shooting without flash, so it looks like
the
S8000 isnt up to that, though the 10x optical zoom sounds nice.

I enjoy mostly scenery and non-flash shots of our shoulder pet birds.

My purse cam is now a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S750 but the image quality isnt
as
nice as the Coolpix. I suspect Nikon makes better quality lenses?

So suggestions?

I need to keep this in the under $300 street price range.


Of the current crop of Coolpixes, the S640 looks about the best for your
purposes. Its lens is a relatively fast f/2.7 at the short end and it also
has Nikon's "4-way VR" -- both of which will help in low-light shooting. The
"4-way VR" is actually a combination of optional features and includes
Nikon's exclusive Best Shot Selector feature, by itself a big help in
low-light shooting (BSS lets you hold the shutter release down for up to 10
shots, then saves the sharpest one; since slow-shutter-speed shots usually
vary a lot in sharpness, this helps a great deal). Also part of the "4-way
VR" is the camera's offering auto ISO settings up to 6400 -- great for low
light, though at the cost of increased noise. I have found high-ISO settings
very useful in Coolpixes despite the increased noise, but I may be more
tolerant of noise in photos than some other people.

I don't have that particular model myself so can't speak about it from
experience, but I do have a gaggle of other relatively recent Coolpixes and
have consistently fine results from them all. The S640 has a MSRP of
$219.95, so street price should certainly be no more than that. And it is
very compact -- no problem at all for your purse, you could carry two or
three there if you wanted to.


  #3  
Old June 17th 10, 08:37 AM posted to rec.photo.digital
Jane Galt
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 148
Default Best Coolpix for HD and low light too?

"Neil Harrington" wrote :


"Jane Galt" wrote in message
. ..
I'd like to consider a newer purse sized Coolpix. I have the 4500 which
is nice, but not exactly purse sized.

I like to do a bit of low-light shooting without flash, so it looks
like the
S8000 isnt up to that, though the 10x optical zoom sounds nice.

I enjoy mostly scenery and non-flash shots of our shoulder pet birds.

My purse cam is now a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S750 but the image quality
isnt as
nice as the Coolpix. I suspect Nikon makes better quality lenses?

So suggestions?

I need to keep this in the under $300 street price range.


Of the current crop of Coolpixes, the S640 looks about the best for your
purposes. Its lens is a relatively fast f/2.7 at the short end and it
also has Nikon's "4-way VR" -- both of which will help in low-light
shooting. The "4-way VR" is actually a combination of optional features
and includes Nikon's exclusive Best Shot Selector feature, by itself a
big help in low-light shooting (BSS lets you hold the shutter release
down for up to 10 shots, then saves the sharpest one; since
slow-shutter-speed shots usually vary a lot in sharpness, this helps a
great deal). Also part of the "4-way VR" is the camera's offering auto
ISO settings up to 6400 -- great for low light, though at the cost of
increased noise. I have found high-ISO settings very useful in Coolpixes
despite the increased noise, but I may be more tolerant of noise in
photos than some other people.

I don't have that particular model myself so can't speak about it from
experience, but I do have a gaggle of other relatively recent Coolpixes
and have consistently fine results from them all. The S640 has a MSRP of
$219.95, so street price should certainly be no more than that. And it
is very compact -- no problem at all for your purse, you could carry two
or three there if you wanted to.


Before coming back here to see this, I've been loking around, and am very
tempted by the Powershot SD4000IS now, except for the price. Whew. Then the
Coolpix S8000 is PHAT too. sigh What to do, what to do....




--
- Jane Galt
  #4  
Old June 17th 10, 09:19 AM posted to rec.photo.digital
Jane Galt
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 148
Default Best Coolpix for HD and low light too?

Looking some more, the S90 is also tempting, so it's between the

S90 $350
S8000 $250
and SD4000IS $350

It would stretch the budget for the more expensive two ( $350 street price )
if it would bring $100 more joy to my shooting, but what's a credit card for?




--
- Jane Galt
  #5  
Old June 17th 10, 02:50 PM posted to rec.photo.digital
David J Taylor[_16_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,116
Default Best Coolpix for HD and low light too?

"Jane Galt" wrote in message
. ..
Looking some more, the S90 is also tempting, so it's between the

S90 $350
S8000 $250
and SD4000IS $350

It would stretch the budget for the more expensive two ( $350 street
price )
if it would bring $100 more joy to my shooting, but what's a credit card
for?




--
- Jane Galt


If you're paying that much you might as well get a DSLR - the larger
sensor will make for better low-light performance.

David

  #6  
Old June 17th 10, 02:59 PM posted to rec.photo.digital
Tony Cooper
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,748
Default Best Coolpix for HD and low light too?

On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:50:08 +0100, "David J Taylor"
wrote:

"Jane Galt" wrote in message
...
Looking some more, the S90 is also tempting, so it's between the

S90 $350
S8000 $250
and SD4000IS $350

It would stretch the budget for the more expensive two ( $350 street
price )
if it would bring $100 more joy to my shooting, but what's a credit card
for?




--
- Jane Galt


If you're paying that much you might as well get a DSLR - the larger
sensor will make for better low-light performance.

Jane specified in her first post that she wanted a "purse-sized"
camera. No dslr is truly purse-sized.

I can see why someone wants a pocket-sized or purse-sized camera to
carry around. There are times you want to have a camera available but
not carry around a large dslr. Ideally, you should have a good dslr
and a good p&s and take whichever one that suits the situation.


--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida
  #7  
Old June 17th 10, 03:15 PM posted to rec.photo.digital
James Nagler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 70
Default Best Coolpix for HD and low light too?

On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:50:08 +0100, "David J Taylor"
wrote:

"Jane Galt" wrote in message
...
Looking some more, the S90 is also tempting, so it's between the

S90 $350
S8000 $250
and SD4000IS $350

It would stretch the budget for the more expensive two ( $350 street
price )
if it would bring $100 more joy to my shooting, but what's a credit card
for?




--
- Jane Galt


If you're paying that much you might as well get a DSLR - the larger
sensor will make for better low-light performance.

David


Now add in the $1,500 to $15,000 needed for lenses to make it the least bit
functionally equivalent in image quality to P&S cameras. Why do you
DSLR-Trolls always forget that important bit of information?



  #8  
Old June 17th 10, 04:01 PM posted to rec.photo.digital
David J Taylor[_16_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,116
Default Best Coolpix for HD and low light too?

Jane specified in her first post that she wanted a "purse-sized"
camera. No dslr is truly purse-sized.


Agreed. Interesting to see how the higher-price small-sensor cameras can
be similar in price to the lower-end DSLRs, though.

I can see why someone wants a pocket-sized or purse-sized camera to
carry around. There are times you want to have a camera available but
not carry around a large dslr. Ideally, you should have a good dslr
and a good p&s and take whichever one that suits the situation.


--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida


Yes, I take around either a DSLR (with one, two or thee lenses), or a
purse-sized (105 x 59.2 x 36.7 mm) compact camera, and sometimes both.

Cheers,
David

  #9  
Old June 17th 10, 08:02 PM posted to rec.photo.digital
Neil Harrington[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 380
Default Best Coolpix for HD and low light too?


"Jane Galt" wrote in message
. ..
"Neil Harrington" wrote :


"Jane Galt" wrote in message
. ..
I'd like to consider a newer purse sized Coolpix. I have the 4500 which
is nice, but not exactly purse sized.

I like to do a bit of low-light shooting without flash, so it looks
like the
S8000 isnt up to that, though the 10x optical zoom sounds nice.

I enjoy mostly scenery and non-flash shots of our shoulder pet birds.

My purse cam is now a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S750 but the image quality
isnt as
nice as the Coolpix. I suspect Nikon makes better quality lenses?

So suggestions?

I need to keep this in the under $300 street price range.


Of the current crop of Coolpixes, the S640 looks about the best for your
purposes. Its lens is a relatively fast f/2.7 at the short end and it
also has Nikon's "4-way VR" -- both of which will help in low-light
shooting. The "4-way VR" is actually a combination of optional features
and includes Nikon's exclusive Best Shot Selector feature, by itself a
big help in low-light shooting (BSS lets you hold the shutter release
down for up to 10 shots, then saves the sharpest one; since
slow-shutter-speed shots usually vary a lot in sharpness, this helps a
great deal). Also part of the "4-way VR" is the camera's offering auto
ISO settings up to 6400 -- great for low light, though at the cost of
increased noise. I have found high-ISO settings very useful in Coolpixes
despite the increased noise, but I may be more tolerant of noise in
photos than some other people.

I don't have that particular model myself so can't speak about it from
experience, but I do have a gaggle of other relatively recent Coolpixes
and have consistently fine results from them all. The S640 has a MSRP of
$219.95, so street price should certainly be no more than that. And it
is very compact -- no problem at all for your purse, you could carry two
or three there if you wanted to.


Before coming back here to see this, I've been loking around, and am very
tempted by the Powershot SD4000IS now, except for the price. Whew. Then
the
Coolpix S8000 is PHAT too. sigh What to do, what to do....


Buy one of each? :-)

The S8000's lens is just over 2/3 stop slower (f/3.5 vs f/2.7 of the S640),
which gives the S640 a slight advantage in low-light shooting, all else
being equal. Also the S8000 does not have quite the wide-angle capability of
the S640 (30mm equiv. vs 28mm), which might be of some importance to you
since you've mentioned your interest in scenery. These are reasons I
suggested the S640 as being perhaps the best choice for your purposes.

Yes, the 10x zoom is nice, provided it works well. I had (very briefly) a
Coolpix S10 which also had a 10x zoom, nice lens except for its horribly
unreliable autofocus at the longer focal lengths, which made it practically
useless. I promptly returned it for that reason, the only Coolpix I have
ever returned. Of course that doesn't mean the S8000 has a similar problem,
but it did tend to make me leery of superzoom lenses in very small cameras.

Other than that, the S8000 has what advantages? It's a 14-megapixel camera
instead of the S640's 12, but the 12 is already cramming far too many pixels
into such a tiny sensor as far as I'm concerned. I have Coolpixes in 8, 10,
12 and 14 megapixels -- and I routinely set them all to 5 megapixels. The
Great Megapixel Race serves no purpose as far as I can see except to help
manufacturers sell more cameras to people who think their pictures aren't
sharp because they don't have enough megapixels.


  #10  
Old June 17th 10, 08:15 PM posted to rec.photo.digital
Neil Harrington[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 380
Default Best Coolpix for HD and low light too?


"Jane Galt" wrote in message
. ..
Looking some more, the S90 is also tempting, so it's between the

S90 $350
S8000 $250
and SD4000IS $350

It would stretch the budget for the more expensive two ( $350 street
price )
if it would bring $100 more joy to my shooting, but what's a credit card
for?


The two Canons you mention look sort of interesting, though if I were buying
a Powershot I'd go the extra $100 for a G11. I don't know if you'd consider
the G11 purse sized, however.


 




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