Now what compact?

I had an S90 and an SD1400. Truthfully, the S90 had noticeably superior IQ, but we liked having the HD video of the SD1400 for family stuff. I have a DSLR system, so I figured I didn't need two compacts and so I sold the S90. Well as luck would have it, the SD1400 got dropped and broken not one week later. So I go from 2 compacts to Zero in a matter of a week.

So what to do? I still have the money from the S90 sitting in my paypal, along with $50 I got selling the broken SD1400. So that's a bit over $300 - not that I want to spend it all, but I can if I need. Just looking for the best video quality along with good portability and at least decent image quality. The two requirements from my wife are that it is a Canon and it has an instant video record button.

S95 refurb from Canon. Simple. Instant video record I would say its not Instant but close. You could maybe use the broken SD1400 for the loyalty portion and get it for around $260.00 http://shop.usa.canon.​com …uct_10051_10051​_276388_-1

I will have to call and see if it is on the loyalty program, but a forum member told me it was not. I do worry if 24p video and lack of constant AF during video will be ideal for filming children, though. That's primarily what I need this compact for - filming kids and family stuff. I'd just get a camcorder, but all the ones under $800 have lenses starting at about 40mm and I like having 28mm or wider for indoor stuff.

500 HS? around your price point, full HD, 24-105mm.

the SD4000 is going for $215 new on amazon

Also consider the SX130, selling for $209 on Amazon. It lacks an instant movie button, but you can rotate the mode dial.

Dennis

Edit: I just read a review of the 500HS on Steve's, and he liked it, except for the touch screen. Something to consider;

http://www.steves-digicams.com …t-elph-500-hs-review.html

I like my SX230. Has instant HD video and pretty solid IQ imo. Close to the top end of your budget, though I saw it on sale this morning at One Call for $329. 14X zoom is nice; and Slo Mo video will be a hit with the kids.

You should also look at the 300HS for $229. It's like the 500HS without the touch screen.

Dennis

all great options, thanks. My wife is leaning more toward the A3300 or 100HS because they come in blue! She never let me live down how ugly the black SD1400 was that she HAD to use.

Looks like the main difference between the 100HS and the 300HS is the 28 vs 24mm lenses, right? The A3300 looks decent and the extra zoom range would be nice, but I think I would rather have that backlit CMOS and 1080p on the 100HS. Plus, 16MP?!? Canon always has to win the MP war, even if nobody wants them to.

I usually don't advise people to wait for the next model.
However, you are a DSLR user and therefore value image quality.
You already had an S90, so downgrading to an SX230 or an SX130, not to mention an A3300 would probably hurt.
Since the S95's successor is right around the corner, I would wait for it.
It will probably have 1080p video with optical zoom and continuous focus,
and of course superior image quality to the 'regular' compacts.

Seems you are comfortable with buying and selling, so you could get an ELPH 100/300 for the time being,
and sell it once that new S arrives. That way you won't be left camera-less for long.

(on top of the 24/28mm difference, the ELPH 300 also has optical zoom during video, which the 100 does not)


-eyalg

I appreciate the advice.

I did like the S90, but my wife did not. That's why we had the SD1400, too. I ended up not really needing a fancy compact as much as I thought and so I didn't care so much and had already downgraded to the 1400. So not a huge deal.

The optical zoom would be nice, but I don't know if I can get my wife to give up on blue!

Hmmm... I see.
That's a constraint I'm not used to taking into account
How about a nice, blue, ZS10?
Compared to the ELPH 100 you get a wider lens, a much larger zoom, manual exposure,
optical zoom during video, a touch screen (which you can ignore if you want) and a GPS.
True, you pay almost twice as much as the ELPH 100, but you have the money of the S90, and it's blue!

-eyalg

The Irony is that in 2009 we had a ZS3 that she hated! It's my fault because she just wants a (blue!) point and click camera, and I like to complicate things.

Okay, back to the topic and sticking only with Canon cameras, I was reading about the 300HS and read a few comments about soft images. The 100HS samples looked sharp to me, so I compared them with the generic sample shots at imaging-resource and wow, the 300HS has horrid corners. I think they went to far on the zoom range.

Check this out:

100HS vs 300HS (other four corners are just as bad):

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That difference between the 100 and 300 in the corners is huge.
If you can live without the optical zoom in video, I say go for it.
Like we wrote before - you can always sell it for a small loss if you don't like it.
I thought you already ruled out the ELPH 300 on account of its blue-less-ness...

-eyalg

Crutchfield let me use a $20 coupon so I just ordered the 100HS from them @ $159. Thanks for helping me narrow things down.