BuRR

More to the point.... WHY.... and I'd rather it be a reasoned analysis, than an assumption, please?

The Sony DSCP92

or

The Sony DSCP10

They're both about the same price.




TIA

r32

Get a Canon or a Nikon ..............

BuRR

Can you elaborate please? Or is that just down to personal opinion?

any reason why NOT to go for the Sony?

r32

Experience has shown me that the Sony is more for the equipment copllector, they have a multitude of unnecessary electronic extras, adjustments etc etc. and I know that in the past battery life has been suspect on Sony, they probably have this fixed now.
But Canon are more the camera manufacturer that are making cameras that take digital pictures. So the camera is designed using all their camera expertise, they know what is important in photography. Consequently if you want a piece of flash electronic piece of kit with more options, bells and whistles than you'll will ever need or use buy a Sony. If you want a camera for taking pictures designed with the photographer in mind buy the Canon. You will always find that they have everything you need to take good pictures, they are easy to use with good easy navigation of menus.
If you're into photography then its easy to jump straight onto a Canon digital. If you get a Sony or any other non Camera Company camera (if you know what I mean)its not that intuitive. Nikon very good but have difficult and sometimes complicated menus. A digital camera from a camera company will always be that bit better on ergonomics. My opinion of course.

[Edited by r32 - 1/20/2004 1:29:46 PM]

paulr

There are no price details or spec so i cant really comment on that,but as for makes i'd agree with the above comments.

Canon and Nikon are specialist manufacturers with a great reputation.
Sony imo are starting to gain a reputation for unreliability,short life span products.
I have a top of the range 18 months old Sony dvd player (£430)which is starting to fault and Sony arent interested.IMO they spread their wings too widely.

lpski1

Casio Exlim

I have one of the casio exlim S2's, the one in the backpocket of the leather (mmmmmmmmmmm leather) trousers.

It was a present, also my first Digi Camera, as you can see its small, very light. IMO takes pretty good pictures although not very good on full zoom, need a very steady hand or tripod. I have upgraded the memory card to a 256mb, only £50, and can now take around a 1000 pics of decent quality, plus 60x30secs of video clips with sound !


Does me fine. Sorry not much use re the Sony ones, and i am a big fan of Sony products.

mattstant

R32 product prejucice strikes again !!!!!.

Sony do not make enthusiasts cameras i agree but when i wanted a solid easy to use 2 megapixel camera for work a sony dsc p2 came out the best, everything in its price band seemed to be made of tissue paper.
after a year or so of ownership i am very impressed i took it on holiday in preference to my half a ton of canon eos with 2 zoom lenses and came back with some very reasonable shots and i could pick and choose which ones to print.

at work it has been superb even the short video clips are very useful.

To answer your question burr it seems the dsc-p10 has the sony made rechargebale in camera battery which has very long life over 100 minutes whereas the p92 has cheap rechargeables you buy anywhere.

[Edited by mattstant - 1/20/2004 1:54:23 PM]

Sbradley

Personal experience tells me that although the Sony will be well specced and will be usable enough, optically it will fall short of something like a Nikon, Canon or (believe it or not) Casio, all of whom use higher quality lenses (Casio use Pentax opticals).

I've got an older Casio point & shoot - QV3500 - which gives great results for normal day to day use and a Fuji (Nikon) Finepix S2Pro for serious stuff.

If you're after a point & shoot style camera then the Exilim gets my vote, too...

SB

mattstant

by the way burr i'd go with the p10 as the battery is excellent just wish i had 5 meg instead of two

Only downside maybe that you have to wait while the battery charges in camera wheras the p92 will charge off camera and you can charge a spare set while you snap away but i have neverhad this problem as i charge ahead of time.

r32

R32 product prejucice strikes again !!!!!.

Dont think its product prejudice, this was based on personal experience. I was a semi professional motor sports photographer for over 20 years generally using Nikon kit for 35mm and Mamiya kit for the larger format stuff.

No need to carry huge amounts of kit about, I have for general personal use a Canon Digital Ixus, its built like a brick toilet and is not plastc like most, picture quality and ease of use are excellent and it fits into a pocket easily too ....... take it mountain biking in fact take it anywhere and its great. Video clips with sound and it plays well on the TV.

I also have experience of the Sony cameras too, using them at work. my son also had a Sony digital for a short while developing a serious fault in a matter of weeks. It went back for a full refund.

I also ran a Nikon Coolpix 5700 for several months but prefer the better canon digitals. The new EOS 300D is amazing value for money but not pocket size.

With my background I want a camera that handles like a camera and not a device that takes pictures. I also needed something reliable and know from experience that Nikon and Canon are to be relied on. How many professional photographers use Sony? Before you jump down my throat I know this is not a professional earn your wages with it question. But the product knowledge is there.

Now video would be another thing as most broadcast moving picture camera are in fact Sony .............

Most kit these days is pretty good. It's personal preference and not product prejudice.
STEVE.............

[Edited by r32 - 1/20/2004 2:28:22 PM]

[Edited by r32 - 1/20/2004 2:53:21 PM]

mattstant

fair enough r32 but you have to admit that the canons are a little pricier than the equivalent sony's.
I assume burr has done some research as he was asking a specific question about two products in sony's bewildering range he wasnt asking a semi pro to choose a camera for him.
As a keen amateur i am a big canon fan and i am green with envy that you can afford to use a large format Mamiya but i am gathering funds for the new eos 300D.

just one more point r32

.
perhaps Burr wants the opposite ???


[Edited by mattstant - 1/20/2004 5:01:37 PM]

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Have had two Canons, old Powershot A5 zoom and have recently bought an A80, both superb, rejected Sony based on the fact they use memoery sticks and they are expensive based on the mediocre reviews they seem to get.

BuRR

Cheers guys.... so I suppose that in the main people don't seem to like Sony. (I've no past gripe with them personally)

What about Minolta? The Dimage F300 for example?

or the Nikon Coolpix 4300?

Brendan Hughes

BuRR, maybe if you just give your price range and what you expect to do with it, the experts can suggest a few models?

JackClark

I've had my Sony P1 for 3 years now and have battered it with Snowboarding, Mountain biking, weeks in the desert and it's not let me down yet. It has a Carl Zeiss lens and I believe they know what they're doing.

LeeMac

iTrader: (1)

Fuji s5000, 22x zoom and a bargain

Hoppy

Not an easy question toanswer on the info given.

Some sense a some biased bollox being talked here. Check a mag like Digital Photo for comments based on at least some first hand experience and remember that there will always be something better and cheaper next week.

I like Sony kit, but the Memory Stick is certainly a bit querky.

I jumped into digital from Canon 35mm SLRs with a Canon S40 for £600. It was great and I never touched the film SLR again. Then Canon produced better versions and droped the price to £450 - that pissed me off. Then my dear Missus got wind that I'd taken a shine to the beatutiful little Minolta Dimage XT, and got me one for £320. Now I never use the lumpy Canon and the shirt-pocket Minolta takes brilliant pics with 3.2m pixel quality I cannot distinguish from the Canon's 4m. Colour is a bit cooler, though (but this can be adjusted on the PC, of course). Now the Minota is £280. Bu99er!

The best bit of digital kit I've got is an HP Photosmart mini-printer that takes all common memory cards or USB connection and that knocks out 6x4in prints in seconds without a computer (paid £200, now £150). It's the size of a small loaf of bread. Brilliant, and great fun. I often print out snaps while friends are round and they always want extra copies - beware, as these things eat expensive paper and even more expensive ink so it ain't cheap. If you want cheap prints, take your memory card to the local film procesors who will knock them out for half the price you can do at home.

As you can see, I've been bitten quite hard by buying the latest kit so I'm not getting that Canon 300D yet when I know it will be half the price next year. I'm also uncertain what digital format is going to win which is kind of important when you get really serious (and I usd to be) and start spending hun£reds on lenses.

Hope this helps. Sorry to ramble.

Richard.

[Edited by Hoppy - 1/21/2004 2:57:41 AM]

r32

BuRR, as already said a good idea is to get a few of the camera mags, have a look whats out there and for what price, see what spec you want, eg. how many pixels, memory type, (flash cards seem to be the most liked), and how much you want to spend, its amazing how much you can save by shopping round. Then go along to a decent camera shop (are you any where near the main Leicester Jessops?) handle the kit and see what fits your hands, budget and your requirements, do you need any special features etc.. Some cameras will fit into your hands and seem right others wont. Jessops also do a price match too, so you can buy with the confidence of good back up and get the best price too. Look at the two Sony's that you are interested in, get the assistant to explain the differences, most good shops will get them up and running so you can try them out.
Its down to personal preference at the end of the day. Bear in mind that there is always something new coming out and next week or next month the new super improved version will be along and yours may have halved in value (just like cars!).
Enjoy what you bought, its a great hobby......
STEVE................................

BuRR

Cheers guys..... I think I'll spend the money on some wheels









Seriously though.... some interesting points here..... this is going to take some thought

DavidBrown

What's wrong with Sony's memory sticks ?

I've got an ageing Sony Cybershot and a 128mb memory stick, and that works fine. My Sony optical mouse on my computer takes memory sticks, so uploading them to my PC is a doddle.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not touting them as "the best thing", just I don't know what everyone finds wrong with them

Hoppy

David, there's nothing wrong with Memory Sticks but, to coin the old cliche, Sony's Betamax was better than VHS.

I think Sony has learned that lesson but while Memory Sticks remain exclusive to Sony they will always cost more, will not be so easy to swap around with friends/processors/other cameras, and lock you into Sony.

But to be honest I wouldn't worry that much, given that you'll be chucking the whole lot in the bin a couple of years as technology really is moving very fast. And also, I think part of Sony's mission statement is to make their own products redundant. That's a brave and exciting statement for sure, but also somewhat depressing for someone like me who still wishes they'd never sold their Linhof 5x4.

Richard.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

The other thing with Memory Stick is that it was such an unnecessary thing for Sony to have come up with. Memory Sticks don't do anything that's not done equally well or better by Compact Flash, Smart Media or MMC/SD cards, all of which are used by multiple manufacturers and available from multiple sources. The entire Memory Stick range is now a complete farce - 'original' memory sticks are limited to 128MB which isn't enough, then we have 'Duo' which is like two sticks in one with a fiddly little switch to worry about, 'Pro' which isn't backwards compatible, there's a half-size one the name of which escapes me, then there's white ones, and pink ones, and grey ones... what a mess! Give me a Compact Flash card any day.

DavidBrown

Funny you should say that, after a bit of looking around, I'm on the verge of buying a Canon 300D in readiness for my holidays.. what are your views on it ?

IWatkins

David,

Don't know when you are going on your holidays, but I would hold out on the 300D (or any other Canon product) purchase until after the PMA show in the USA in early February.

Canon will announce (if you listen to the rumour mill) their 1D replacement and possibly another dSLR. Canon have stated they plan to release nearly 20 new digital cameras in 2004.

If a 1D replacement is announced, it is likely there will be a reshuffle of their full dSLR range where pricing is concerned that may have a knock on effect on the 300D price. Or you may find there is a 30D (or similar targetted between the 300D and the 10D, or the 10D may fall in price into your budget etc. etc.

Olympic years (i.e. this year) are traditionaly the big years for Canon (and to a lesser extent, Nikon). So if you can hold out long enough for the announcements, you may save some money/afford something better/more features you want.

Cheers

Ian

gregh

Ian,

Do you know what Canon are doing with the Ixus range? I fancy upgrading my Ixus 1 to a 400, but will wait if there is a newer model just around the corner.

regards,

greg

IWatkins

Greg,

Sorry, I know nothing. In fact, I don't even know any rumours for these cameras either

But if Canon are going to release close to 20 new digital cameras this year, it is a safe bet there will be a new Ixus or two for sure. But I would say that in the past, Canon tend to announce their flagship/high end releases at PMA in early February, some of their compact cameras throughout the year, then usually another batch of the higher end compacts in the Autumn.

However, Olympics year so most announcements and shipping of actual products usually before the summer.

Take all advice, pinch of salt etc.

Cheers

Ian

r32

I have a Canon 300D and am really impressed. I only use it for personal type stuff, didnt get the cheap lens as I was recommended to buy a better USM one.
But the camera handles beautifully, the menus are easy to use and the results are outstanding.

There is no doubt that as time marches on new things will pop out evry few months (Nikon are due to launch a Budget digital SLR any time soon) but it will be a long while before the 300D is ready for the bin. I have a digital Ixus that I also use and that a couple of years old it I have no intention of replacing it.

I can recommend the 300D.

ChrisB

There's talk that Minolta will annouce a digital SLR at PMA. Be nice if it uses the same lenses as my Dynax 5...

Diesel

What a bloody minefield this is! Bought the missus a Kodak DX 4530 for Xmas but took it back as it was pants - 5MPixels and pants!!!! I've been looking ever since...

I have the B&H NY catalogue in front of me and had decide on the Nikon Coolpix 5700 after reading many reviews (and checking the exchange rate!), but then I read that it has clipping issues on peak whites and no AF assist lamp. Also R32 here doesnt like it? At $700 it aint cheap (but certainly cheaper than buying it here and then paying VAT!)

I then thought Fuji finepix 7000, but the reviews say it way overcompresses the JPG images (and the filesize data suggests that too)...

If it was for me I'd have the Canon A80 or Sony DSC V1, but the missus hates the square boxy styling. Ohh dear, and the Coolpix 5400 suffers from bad shutter lag and has no AF assist either. HELP!

D

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Diesel, sounds like you need to stop reading reviews on the 'net and get yourself down to a decent camera store like Park Cameras. There you'll at least be able to pick up and play with a few, which will give you a much better idea about how they look and feel than staring at a PC.

There's no such thing as the perfect camera - at least, not yet - but there will be one whose flaws don't bother YOU in practise.