Suggestions for a P&S ?

My better half is looking for a camera. I've gone looking for some, but want to get some insight into someone more knowledgable and/or familiar with P&S cameras.

She'd like a longer reach rather than wide angle - most P&S don't seem to be 75-300, so optical zoom is important.

Close focusing ability is important. She'd like to do some macro (yes, 1:1) and an adapter of some sort is OK if it's good.

External flash is a must - she'll be takingpictures of our cats, and the on-board just produces green-eye.

Shutter lag - the faster the better. Start-up time is unimportant, but the time between hitting a button and taking the picture is important.

Size - not too big. The Sony F828 was too big for her. The Nikon 5700 was a very nice size.


Any hints or tips would be great. I know about the research places on the web, and we're going out to look at cameras today. I'd just like some insight to make sure I'm not missing something important.

Thanks!

If you're going to stick with the Canon brand, I guess the only option would be the G5 or a dSLR. Or, you can wait until the Pro1 comes out in a month or so.

Canon doesn't matter. I understand this is a Canon forum but I'm hoping someone here has looked at other P&S cameras.

I should also mention that price is $1000 or less - which pretty much covers the field - though $600-700 is preferred. After spending $6000 on my gear, I'm not allowed to quibble over a couple hundred for hers.

How about the Olympus C750UZ or something like it. It has a hotshoe for an external flash and it's got some awesome zoom range. It it's something like a 10X optical zoom (38-380 35mm equiv.). Don't know the specifics except that an officemate has it and she bought it specifically for the zoom capability.

The G5 has all of the Canon shooting modes, so if she asks you how to get a certain type of shot it will be easy to convert; it has a hot shoe that uses all of the 'EX' flashes, so she can use yours (or you can migrate one to her so you can upgrade ); and there are wide and tele add-on lenses available. 8)
You can probably find a good deal on a G5 right now, as the retailers try to close them out.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Have Fun
Rick 8)

To get out to 300mm, your looking at Olympus, Fuji, Panasonic, and I guess the new Canon Pro?

I had an Olympus C2100 which was 38-380mm "equivelent" .. it didn't have the hotshoe but could use the excellent Oly FL-40 digital zooming flash with a bracket and cable...

It was a fantastic combo.. even shot a wedding with it (I was working as the "digital" photog along with a friend shooting Film on a Nikon)

The Oly 700 series are the newer version of this great Camera.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Rick, that's an excellent suggestion about the modes and such. I found that out today when we were playing with a couple cameras - I had no idea what button did what.

And I didn't know about the tele and macro add-ons. AND I can give her my 420EX and go for the 550 like I should have in the first place.

Leo, the 750UZ is one of the ones she's looking at.

Shopping today was not easy, and did not make things easier. Even though our selection criteria made the selection limited it wasn't easy.

However, I did get a 1-Gig CF card. So it was a good day.

Scottes, any day where a day out shopping with the wife, for the wife, that still nets the husband something at the end of the day is a good day!

PacAce wrote:
Scottes, any day where a day out shopping with the wife, for the wife, that still nets the husband something at the end of the day is a good day!

Oh, YEAH! I agree wholeheartedly.

Granted, we're out looking to buy her an $800 camera and she still managed to snag a figurine and a pair of earrings... What she doesn't know yet is that tomorrow we'll be shopping for a $600 camera...