Best Coolpix for HD and low light too?

On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:02:00 -0400, "Neil Harrington"
wrote:

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

Good. Then it eventually fell into the hands of someone that knows how to
use cameras properly.

Contrast detection focusing depends on the camera being able to latch onto
any contrasting edges. When fools like you wildly wave around a long
focal-length lens and then expect the camera to compensate for your lack of
coordination and imbecility it won't be able to focus.

Thanks for proving to the world what a moronic, inept, imbecilic, and
uncoordinated buffoon that you are. Not to mention providing a "refurb"
priced camera to someone that probably has far more talent than you will
ever have in 10 lifetimes.

LOL!

"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



Its for my purse, dont want something big that I gotta carry separately.


--
- Jane Galt

tony cooper wrote :

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

"Jane Galt" wrote in message
2...
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.

Exactly. I'd love to have a nice Nikon DSLR, so I could have a polarizing
lens and all, but it IS for my purse and I already have a bunch of stuff in
there, including the XD-45 ACP, so it's already pretty full and slightly
heavy. ;-)




--
- Jane Galt

"David J Taylor" wrote :

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.

Their features are starting to approach them too, are they not?

Imagine a Nikon DSLR the size of a SD4000IS, but with interchangeable Nikor
lenses, filters etc. WHOA!





--
- Jane Galt

"Neil Harrington" 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?


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 mentioned that I could spring the extra from the $250 price of the S8000
to the SD4000IS. Now you're talking $450. Creeping price here. LOL

I don't know if
you'd consider the G11 purse sized, however.


Not so much?


I looked up the S90, the S8000 and the SD4000IS:


S90 3.9 x 2.3 x 1.2 6.2 OZ.
S8000 4.1 x 2.3 x 1.1 6.5 OZ.
SD4000IS 3.9 x 2.1 x .9 6.1 OZ.

G11 4.4 x 3 x 1.9 12.5 OZ.

sigh The purse IS kinda big already, to hold the size and weight of the
XD-45 ACP and the 14 rounds of JHP. Hmmm....

Is the G11 THAT much better than the other 3?
( thinking this is gonna cost me more... )

At what point will I need to start moving other stuff out of the purse to
make room for it?

I like the size of the Cyber-Shot DSC-S750 that I have in there now. It's
in a little hard shell case. It just doesn't take very sharp pictures, and
after all, what's a camera for if not that? Oh and the video it takes are
tiny. And I love the idea of taking HD stills and video...

IOW I want a new purse camera for my birthday. :-)


--
- Jane Galt

"Neil Harrington" wrote :


"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? :-)

ROFLMAO

If only...

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.

The S640 doesnt get such great reviews on Amazon, though not many reviews
there. Dont see anything about high def stills or movies either.

Most of what I want to do is either scenery or my pet birds, or
combinations thereof. ( I take one of my parrots out for walks in parks, on
a leash ) I'd also wish for a polarizing filter for any of these but am not
sure if they can do that. Makes a big diff in scenic shots.

Frankly I'd love a $3000 Nikon DSLR but it's like with guns. They say that
the smaller gun you can carry is better than the bigger gun that you have
to wind up leaving at home. Same with this. If it fits my purse, I have it
in a snap. pun If it's baggage, I probably would leave it at home most of
the time, then I'd miss something like that video of Congressman ( Thug )
Bob Etheridge if I saw something like that going on. :-)

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.

True. Well now that I have a HD 24" LCD monitor ( Asus VK246H ) and HDTV at
home, I'm really enjoying true HD, so it would be awesome to be able to
take full HD photos and video and see them on these at home, even as
wallpaper.



--
- Jane Galt

On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:06:48 -0500, Jane Galt
wrote:

tony cooper wrote :

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

"Jane Galt" wrote in message
42...
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.

Exactly. I'd love to have a nice Nikon DSLR, so I could have a polarizing
lens and all, but it IS for my purse and I already have a bunch of stuff in
there, including the XD-45 ACP, so it's already pretty full and slightly
heavy. ;-)

I just hope you remember to draw the right one out of your purse when
you want to shoot something.


--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:07:25 +0100, Paul Heslop
wrote:

"LOL!" wrote:

On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:02:00 -0400, "Neil Harrington"
wrote:

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

Good. Then it eventually fell into the hands of someone that knows how to
use cameras properly.

Contrast detection focusing depends on the camera being able to latch onto
any contrasting edges. When fools like you wildly wave around a long
focal-length lens and then expect the camera to compensate for your lack of
coordination and imbecility it won't be able to focus.

Thanks for proving to the world what a moronic, inept, imbecilic, and
uncoordinated buffoon that you are. Not to mention providing a "refurb"
priced camera to someone that probably has far more talent than you will
ever have in 10 lifetimes.

LOL!

dick

When the shoe fits so tight that it pinches one's toes, one must cry out!

You identified with those comment on why you can't use P&S cameras
properly, didn't you. No doubt it applied to 99% of the rest of you as
well. It most definitely applies to every last ****ed-up tester at DPReview
who can't even figure this out--that slow auto-focusing at long
focal-lengths is due to their OWN incompetency when using ANY cameras.

LOL!

tony cooper wrote :


Exactly. I'd love to have a nice Nikon DSLR, so I could have a
polarizing lens and all, but it IS for my purse and I already have a
bunch of stuff in there, including the XD-45 ACP, so it's already pretty
full and slightly heavy. ;-)

I just hope you remember to draw the right one out of your purse when
you want to shoot something.


Yes, the appropriate one for the task at hand.

When you choose to carry, it's not the kind of thing you take lightly, or
"forget".





--
- Jane Galt

"Jane Galt" wrote in message
. ..
[]
True. Well now that I have a HD 24" LCD monitor ( Asus VK246H ) and HDTV
at
home, I'm really enjoying true HD, so it would be awesome to be able to
take full HD photos and video and see them on these at home, even as
wallpaper.

You do know that "full HD", and your monitor, are only about 2MP, I
presume?

Cheers,
David