Brother looking for a P&S

[Invertalon]

Hey everyone,

My brother approached me looking for camera help, but unfortunatly, I am very limited in P&S knowledge. I explained to him what he would need, which he says would be used for taking shots at basketball games, concerts, etc... Now, I explained to him that he would need a fast lens along with greater zoom, which usually (at least not that I am aware of) come on a P&S (lens speed with longer reach).

Either way, he wants the "best bang for the buck". Basically, he would like 4x optical zoom, or better. Something fast for it's focal length, so he could zoom in and still get high shutter speeds. High ISO reach (without being unusable).

I know most P&S limit to around ISO 400 before getting out of control noisy, but this is where I need your help!

Brand does not matter here... I need something with high iso capability to enable high shutter speeds if needed, faster lens for it's class, 4x optical (but flexible here), and a decent all around P&S...

His price is around $300 it seems, give or take. This will be for him and his girlfriend to use for whatever.

So what should he look into? What would best fulfill his needs?

Appreciate it everyone!

[MtClimber]

Sports photos are really the domain of the DSLR cameras. There is probably no under $300 P&S camera that will meet his needs. $500 will get you into an entry level DSLR camera.

Sarah Joyce

[RadAL]

there are some P&Ss that can do sports... G series/some A Series... the ones with manual modes (like TV/AV etc)

[Invertalon]

Yeah, I explained to him that P&S won't be able to get you much in terms of low-light, but basically he is looking for the best that he can do with in terms of P&S capabilities. The S90 has a nice f/2 lens at the wide end, but is probably out of his price range.

Just looking for a lens, which on the wide end would be f/2 or f/2.8 and at the end of the zoom range, still be somewhat fast for its focal length. I am scanning specs now for him, but they are all pretty similar.

[tkbslc]

This is the camera everybody wants but it does not exist. It is hard enough to shoot basketball and concerts with a good SLR and L primes.

Honestly if I wanted to shoot action and concerts on a pocket cam, I would just use video mode. Stills are going to be a blurry noisy smear (not exaggerating). The new S90 is only f2 at 24mm, so unless he wants to run up on stage to take his pictures, he will be zooming in where it is only f4.5. That is about the best there is.

So again, pick a above average model from Canon or Panasonic with HD video and use that when the light drops.