G7 vs S9500 vs ???

[GeX]

howdy people

I've been looking into getting a proper camera. At the mo I only have 1.2mp fuji finepix, 3.0 kodak summit and the 3.2mp camera on my phone. Despite the cameras not being *that* good i've still taken a lot of photos that i think are really good... anyway, i think i should buy a proper camera.

I've done a bit of research so far, a friend of mine has a Canon 350D - which from what i've seen looks quite good. but i'm not sure i want a DSLR camera. I've been reading reviews of the canon G7 and the Fuji S9500. That is about the price range i'm looking at.

I like taking photos of light effects, low light photos, reflected light that sort of thing. Also photos of buildings; which i guess wide angled lens would be useful for that.. but it will be primarily low light features that i'm after. How portable the camera is will also be a factor. It will be carried about a lot, i do a lot of climbing and would also like to take my camera with me.

I read in one of the stickys that the Fuji F31 is very good at low light, should i be considering that?

 

[GeX]

current list..

Canon Powershot S70.
Canon G70
Fuji FinePix S5600
Fuji FinePix S9500

digesting reviews of them, but would love to hear from people that have these cameras.

 

[Arsey]

I have the S5600 and it was about £145. I've been shooting for about a month now and the results can be seen on my Flickr page (in sig). It is a great camera for me to start with and has all the advanced options, a 10x zoom, and is easy to work out what you are doing. Well worth the money if you are on a budget.

 

[Sol]

The fuji f31 will be good at low light because it has high usable ISO settings which let you double the speed of the lens with each iso setting. Most compacts get to ISO 400 and fail miserably. Those cameras you listed are not "proper" cameras...you do not have the same detail capturing capabilities and/or creative capabilities as you do with a D-SLR. It is still possible to take really good photos though obviously.

I have a PowerShot S80 back home and it's a nice camera although expensive. Not great for low light but I have taken some nice pics with it.

If you go the D-SLR route you would get better photos but obviously it is infinitely more expensive because you need lenses + body. I reckon I've spent well over £1500 and I've only been doing it for about 8months .

If I was you I would go for either the Fuji f31 or the 5600, both cheap nice cameras. If you want the dynamic zoom capabilities then go 5600, if you want low light performance then go F31. The F31 will be a lot more compact too. If you like what you are getting out of the P&S camera then you may decide to go the D-SLR route in future (I did).

If you must choose the upper end cameras then I would go for the G7 but only because I don't need the super zoom and it's construction and features are quite appealing.

There is also the Nikon D50 in competition to the 350D.

Oh and one last thing, if you are serious about low light, i.e. not pub photos, then you would probably want a tripod for that and the camera would not be so much of an issue.

 

[GeX]

thanks for the replies so far guys.

I would argue they are proper cameras, just not professional cameras. I do not have the money to start buying all the bits i'd need for D-SLR. Once i start, i wont be able to stop buying accessories..

I'm not on about using it for taking photos in pubs either, my k800i can handle photos on nights out fine!

swaying more toward the F31. I like messing with low light things like this also will be looking at doing low interior photographs. Is the F31 good at both?

What about the Canon Powershot 70, i've heard that has a wideangle lens on it; or would it have similar/inferior low light performence to the 80?

Tripod wise, i'll be getting a gorilla pod.

 

[Sol]

I dunno a cameras a camera in the P&S range imo, proper camera = not a phone . The S80 will have similar low light performance I would imagine. The S80 was ok up to ISO200 and a bit noisy at 400 so I would expect more of the same. You'll get red eye if you have people as with most P&S cameras.

The S70 and S80 both have nice quality wide angle lenses. They are great for landscapes and similar things, some distortion though.

The F31 is great in low light and average in good light. It's pretty cheap and worth a look definitely. The likes of the G7 has image stabilisation to have fun with though, just to confuse the issue .