How I Chose a Compact Digital Camera, Part 1

My trusty, but much aged compact digital camera, the Canon S70 died. Well, it didn’t really die, but I can barely see the screen anymore and it’s having focusing issues. Plus, there have been major advancements in digital photography quality since that camera first came out.

I decided to research the newest ones and realized that although there have been a lot of advancements in features among digital p&s cameras, image quality has lagged far behind. This is especially true in regards to high ISO shots. Still, I persevered and decided on a camera, the Canon Powershot G9.

Canon G9

I rarely do not have my dslr with me but when I ski, it’s often too bulky to really relax with it on (in a pack). Therefore, I wanted a compact point and shoot that would provide me with most of my usual controls and without sacrificing detail. The major factors affecting my decision between the usual suspects at the top of the range (Canon Powershot G9, Ricoh GX100, Panasonic Lumix LX2 and a few others) were:

1. Manual Controls – Must have ability to set aperture, shutter speed, iso, flash, exposure compensation, etc…

2. RAW mode (ex. .crw, .nef) – in order to get the best out of a small sensor camera, or any camera for that matter, you must shoot in a proprietary. The high majority of p&s cameras only shoot jpegs. These are already compressed files for which you’ve already lost the ability to correct white balance in post-processing.

3. Optical viewfinder – Sometimes, even the best lcd screens are hard to see. You can always see through a viewfinder. They’re not great on these small ones but they’re better than nothing.

4. Low Noise – yeah right. The only one that seems decent of low noise is the Fuji F31fd or F30 but this has no RAW format, and I don’t think is even made anymore. Plus, it doesn’t have the next thing on this list.

5. Anti-shake mechanism – ccd-shift, lens shift, VR, IS.. A must have. It really works and enables you to take shots at much slower shutter speeds.

6. Good lens range – I want wide angle but I want telephoto as well. Although I’m primarily a landscape shooter, I know I’m going to want to shoot people skiing.

7. Decent autofocus – doesn’t need to be super-fast but I want it dead-on accurate. Luckily, due to the small size of a p&s camera sensor, even shutter speeds such as f/4 have amazing depth of field.

8. Continuous Shooting mode – If I’m shooting a skier I’m going to want to take a number of shots in a row and hopefully in quick succession.

9. Fast card write times and large buffer – I don’t want to miss a shot waiting for the photos to write to the card. Even in RAW, I want to shoot a number of shots in a row.

10. Lithium-ion battery – Nothing else has the juice, especially in the cold. Usually with two of these, you’re golden.

11. Decent Movie Mode – Might as well right? It’s fun, and I don’t even see why these new DSLRs such as the Nikon D300 with live view don’t have a movie mode. Anyways, at least basic tv quality. Unfortunately, most of these cameras don’t have an optical zoom in movie mode.

12. Size and weight – If it’s bulky I’m not going to want to carry it around. A great camera in the closet back home is no better than no camera at all.

13. Price

In a future post, I’ll explain why I chose the G9 specifically needless to say it seemed to meet most of my needs. I’m just learning how to use it, and yes, I’m reading my manual twice! (Check out my Six and a Half Easy Steps to Better Digital Photography) I have yet to see an image on screen so I’ll let you know about image quality once I’ve had some time with it.

In order to check out the features of the camera you are interested in, go to DPReview where you can compare camera features side-by-side and make real informed decisions.