Time to buy a P&S

Hello All,

It's time for me to break down and get a P&S. I have a Canon 5D2 and love it but with a 1 and 5 year old it's a little big to bring everywhere we go.

Budget: My birthday is coming up so we'll just keep under $500

Size: Pocket
Features: Fast shutter speed to capture my kids both indoors and out.
How many megapixels will suffice for you? 10 or more
What optical zoom will you need? Ultrazoom = 10x-12x
How important is “image quality” to you? 9 to 10
Do you care for manual exposure modes? Not really that important, if I want that type of control I'll bring my big camera
What will you generally use the camera for? Taking photos of my kids (action), nature photography, everyday events
Will you be making big prints of your photos or not? 8x10 and maybe 12x12 but most often 4x6 and 5x7
Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos? Yes
Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos? Yes

Right now the camera that has caught my eye is the Sony HX5V Cyber-shot but open for better options.

Other cameras that I think are in this class are Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7, Samsung HZ35W, Canon PowerShot SX210 IS, Casio Exilim EX-FH100, Fuji FinePix F80EXR, Ricoh CX3.

 

You've obviously done your research.

All the cameras you mentioned are good in overall image quality - none stands out.

Since you intend to shoot sports and action photos, I'd avoid the Canon SX210 IS, as it has a very slow continuous shooting mode and also has very slow shot to shot speed. The Ricoh CX3 also has a rather slow shot to shot speed.

The Sony and Casio have the advantage of a CMOS back-lit sensor which enables them to have better than average (for a P&S) low light images, fast continuous shooting speeds and high speed movie ability. But between the two the Sony HX5v is a step ahead with 10 frame per second continuous shooting speed, 1080 HD movies and a GPS. The Casio is still a very solid camera with good image quality in low light and normal lighting.

The Fuji F80EXR uses EXR technology for good low light images. Plus the Fuji is a very quick camera - probably the quickest of the group in focusing and shot to shot speeds.

The Samsung HZ35W is solid all around plus has a very long 15x optical zoom and a GPS.

The Panasonic is also very solid in all respects, has full manual controls including aperture and shutter priority, a 12x optical zoom and an excellent GPS.

In the end it probably comes down to what's important to you. The Sony HX5v that you've been looking at is probably the best choice for low light shooting, continuous shooting speed and movie ability. It's not quite as good at speed of operation and overall image quality and its GPS is not quite as good as the Panasonic (but better than the Samsung).