I'm in the market for a new digital camera, and my (non-professional) requirements are:
Minimum 10 MP
Compact and light enough for easy toting (in purse or husband's pocket)
Solid construction that stands up to lots of handling
Excellent auto-focus for point and shoot
Quality photos in low light, zoom, close up, etc
Good image stabilization
Takes good quality videos (a plus if it can zoom while in video mode)
Practical battery/memory configuration
Under $200 (willing to go over for the right combo of everything I want, plus super-useful features I didn't know I wanted)
...and most importantly, a lightning fast shutter speed. I can't tell you how many times I have wanted to kick all my previous cameras for missing the perfect moment because of the ridiculous shutter lag time between photos.
Anyone have suggestions?
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews
aka the site my pro friends use/direct me to for researching new cameras. They have *stellar* reviews of nearly every camera ever on the market
Panasonic Lumix - I LOVE< LOVE< LOVE my Panasonic - the first I ever owned!
I did tons of research and this was recommended, and I picked it out espically for the qucik shutter speed.
Good luck
I second dpreview. Also go to your local camera store for advice and to test out the cameras. That being said we are a cannon family and they are wonderful cameras with great shutter speed. We currently use one point and shoot and 2-3 dlsr ones. Our point and shoot is one of the smallest ones and a couple years old now. I think some of the slightly larger ones take better pictures, but am really happy with ours and it does take nice video too.
I have a Canon Powershot SD1300 IS and it has just about everything on your list. The one thing it doesn't have, that I don't think you will find on any point and shoots, is the super fast shutter speed. It isn't bad though, and I just take videos when there is a lot of action. This is my second Canon Elph (the first was stolen), and it does have awesome photo and video quality (HD and it is beautiful), although no zooming in with video. It is light and small, and works really well. I bought it because it had great reviews, and I couldn't be happier with it.
I agree with the Canon Powershot review above. I had one for years and loved it and when it broke I went and tested a whole bunch and ended up back with a Powershot. Love it. Does not zoom on video but it does all else really well. I have a friend who has a new Sony that is super slow and does this funky processing after each picture, so beware of that brand/issue.
I love photography (amateur) and i have owned several "point and shoot" camera's (canon, nikon, panasonic, fujifilm). By far the best one that I have used is the Canon Powershot - it just takes great photos (it is fast and take clear crisp photos). Especially for a mom on the go trying to take quick pics of kids etc., you cant beat it for the money. I got mine at Costco and they had it at a good price with some bonus goodies (this was a while back though).
The only digital camera that won't have the lag is a Digital SLR like the Canon Rebel. This is because they use the same mechanics as the old style film manual cameras. These are much more expensive than your price point- around $600 or more (you can probably find them used, though) but totally worth it. I call these "mom" cameras since I see so many of them at playgrounds and other kid areas. You'll also find that a lot of bloggers use them to photograph their crafts and food. You'd think people wouldn't want to lug around a huge expensive camera, but they do because once you shoot with it you can't go back. It's too frustrating to lose those once in a lifetime moments.
If you can, use all your birthdays and Christmases and save up and splurge.
