What's a good P+S Canon in the $300.US range?

[Johnny V]

Hi everyone,

A friend of mine is looking for a good Canon point and shoot camera. I'm kinda out of the loop with point and shoot cameras and couldn't really give him an educated answer. I'm using the Rebel and just ordered the XT.

Basically he would like to shoot family picks.

What Canon are you happy with?

Thanks,

John V.

[VesselinG]

Canon PowerShot A85...

I am very, very happy with this camera. It has ... hidden abilities, heh-heh. I am very happy with my macro and night shot results. Landscapes, portrets, stuff.. I am really happy with it and I recommend it.

[Geeeyejo]

S1Is will provide you with a super zoom lens but unless you play with hyperfocal - indoor focus can be a pain in the -ss. Still love my S1 though!

[khiromu]

I have A95, and very happy with the results. (I also use 20D.)

I like, full manual controll, pop out LCD, AA battery, CF card memory, 5 MP (enough for me), Around $300 new, good battery life

I don't like, slow focus (still acceptable for P&S), wide end not wide enough for me, no hot shoe for external flash, and no raw mode.

I think this is very good camera for family use.

[digital_satori]

I use a Canon Powershot A95, and it is a great camera.

I think it would be more than acceptable as a camera for family pics. Why?

5 megapixels, autofocus, compactflash and a USB cable to transfer pics, pretty user-friendly software for managing pics, all kinds of different modes...including Pets, Snow, Foliage, etc.

The drawbacks are the zoom (only 3x...don't expect to be far away and zoom in for shots), the battery life (he *will* need to get rechargeable batteries, 4 AA and a charger..about $35 if he shops around), the standard storage (32 MB isn't much if he's taking ~2MB/pics on the highest settings...again, if he shops around, he can buy a 512MB card for another $35 or so), and the digital zoom creates quite a bit of noise.

Yeah, it sounds bad with those drawbacks, but the moment he does a macro shot of a flower (see my avatar for an example, or my photo gallery) or takes some spontaneous shots of his family, he'll be pretty amazed.

Just my two cents.

PS: go to your fave search engine and type in: consumer digital camera review, and you should find some good sites to guide you. :) "Shopping around" is best done at Froogle. (http://froogle.google.com)

[kenedy]

Hi,
I´m facing the same question. I want a P&S for my daughter start playing with photography.
What do you guys think about the A510 and A520 models? Canon says that 520 replaced A85. It has a good zoom range.

Thanks.

Kenedy

[Monarque1972]

I have an A95, which has been getting extremely good reviews since it came out. IT takes wonderful pictures and with a little image editing, your pictures will look like they were taken with a high-end camera. In its price range, it's probably one of the best, if not the best.

regards!!