canon A530 or S2IS OR olympus500 .....CONFUSED

mountaintrekker

HI Imers

after doing an extensive market research, i am very much confused ambg these cameras....

canon A530 - S2IS - A620
olympus 500
Nikon S4..


i shoot landscape..mostly Himalayas and portraits of the Himalayans...
keeping this in mind i thought to buy a camera of more OPTICAL ZOOM like S2IS has..but it is bit costly..(17,500)

A530 costs 9,500/- (5mp & 4x).....and i think its cheap & bst

even A620 which costs 15,500/- (7mp & 4x) confused me,,,,but now i think i dnt've require too mch pixels..can get a good enough sized print frm 5mp...

today i saw S2IS..costed 17,500 (5mp & 12x)...fr shooting landscape i think one requires good zoom..which this cam provids...bt the cost ??
...bt then i think its not again n again in life....so why not a good stuff.....

ON the other hand i saw Olympus 500 costed 15,000 (6mp & 10x) ...good resolution and good zoom

saw NIKON S4,,,,,costed 14,000 (6mp & 10x)...


Canon's goodwill attracts me..


NOW PLZ SUGGEST ME SMTHING..........

PS - all rates in INR in grey market
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one more thing...

is there any problem to buy the things from Gry market??

Paagla Dashu

S2IS will be the best choice - if not get the A620.

You will get much better information by going to forums on www.dpreview.com or www.photo.net or www.dcresource.com

Btw, for landscape shooting, wide angle is more important than zoom.

Eldaras

hi mountaintrekker!

I bougth a few day ago a canon A610. It's about u$s 100 less than the A620 and has the same features, except for the 7mp (it's 5mp). Like you said, you won't need a lot of mp, but it becomes handy when you need to zoom above the optical zoom (don't use the digital zoom! just crop the picture later).

One very important thing (at least for me) it's the size of the camera. The A610 and A620 are little bigger than "pocket cameras"... the S2 is big... This is important for me because the way I carry the camera.
One important thing if you are planing to take pictures of landscapes is that the camera has manual settings. I believe that the A530 and the Olympus 500 don't have manual controls.

I also have a sony P41 (4mp, no optical zoom) which I use when I go out with my friends, since it quite small...

well, there are a lot of factors to keep in mind when buying one of this gadgets... personally I like cannon and nikon. I believe they are the best brands in digital cameras.

and i strongly agree with Paagla Dashu about the wide angle. And another site to see reviews is http://www.steves-digicams.com/.

mountaintrekker

so do you recommend any brand / model keepind WIDE angle in mind

john.sw

Grey imports will cost you less than buying from authourised dealers, but they will not normally come with a manufacturer's warranty.

This can be a problem.

I bought a Sony digital camera in India (DSC-T33 and I'm delighted with it!) and tried to register it on my online www.sony.com page. It didn't come with a warranty card, and although I entered the camera's serial number it would not let me register it for the warranty.

I contacted Sony to ask how to register the camera and they were not interested in helping me. To my mind this is disgraceful - Sony made the camera so they should be happy to guarantee its function for a reasonable period.

All I hope is that it will not go wrong for a few years - then i can throw it away and buy another!

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Eldaras

yes, but again most of those cameras can have a wide angle lens attached with an adapter...
Again i don't believe that the canon A530 and olympus 500 have the option of attaching lenses to the body. For the others you'll need the adapter.

mountaintrekker

bro these sites have doubled my confu....

now there is S3 IS......however not sure,,its in INDIA or not? or wat'll be the price..........

plz help

sunilg

Hi Varun

canon A530 Nothing great about it, simple point and shoot, not so usueful when you need manual settings to catch the shots which are not possible to take with the auto presets.

- S2IS The best among your options, if your budgest allows. Also keep in mind the cost of Memory Card + extra batteries + chargers apart from teh cost of camera.

A620 I am using it. I find it superb. Even if it doesn't have the great optical zoom, 7 mp allows me to crop the image and get almost the desired result.

Nikon S4.. Simple point and shoot, the only great thing about this camera is 10 x optical zoom. no manual options. but it has great video quality.

Olympus 500: It has 10 x optical, but no image stabilization; without stabilization ultra zoom is useless. Or you'll have to carry a tripod always to use this zoom.

Yes, for landscaping shots, wide-angle lens is more useful than more optical zoom. but almost all cameras come with same wide-angle range. You can buy add-on wide-angle lens but this feature is not available in Nikon S4, Olympus 500. Canon A-620 has this option; not so sure abot the S21S.

The only harm in buying stuff from gray market is the unavailability of manufacturer's warranty; but some gray market dealers provide 1-time replacement warranty for soem period of time but only if you insist. check this option before buying anything.

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Yogesh Sarkar

mountaintrekker if you can get the cam with warranty, then it is defiantly worth spending extra bucks. Also remember that batteries, charger and memory cards will cost any thing above 2.5-3k to get you started!

oh yes, any camera is only as good or bad as the nut operating the shutter release button

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Paagla Dashu

Advantage with A620/610 or S2IS is that they use AA batteries - you can use alkaline or rechargeable. Where I live I would expect at least the battteries/chargers to come with the camera - in most cases 512 MB cards as well. But then looking at the prices you have been offered it looks like you are getting very good prices - specially for the S2IS.

Do not woory too much about the S3IS - its a minor upgrade over its proven predecessor.

And as someone said earlier - A620 is simply fantastic.

AND - PLEASE for your own sake - Do NOT buy from the grey market.

kashi

looking at the costs that you have been quoted, there seem to be two options. in the 15,000 bracket, S2IS wins hands down. this is because of the long zoom range of the lens, and more importantly, the image stabilizer.

the only competition is the A530 solely on the basis of price.

keep in mind that all these cameras are 35mm (35mm equivalent) at their wide end, which is not all that great for wide angles. the S2IS, however would be very helpful at the tele end for close up of far away mountains. if you want to capture sweeping vistas, i would advice you to get a camera which is 28mm at its wide end.

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Paagla Dashu

How much is a Powershot S80 (28 mm) selling in India for?

In case you do want to go down the cheaper route, try to buy the Powershot A700 - a lttle more expensive than the A5XX but has full manual controls and real widescreen shooting ability - a great plus for landscape shooting.

astaffy

Maybe Just Had A Lemon But Had A Cannon Sureshot 4mp And Had It In For Repairs Twice For 2 Totally Different Problems Make Sure You Get A 10x Optical Zoom Hard To Find In A Compact Size Found A Nice Kodak But Need To Research Its Reliability Etc.

theshutterbug

I follow this top 10 guide religiously !! its very fair and square ... makes buying a cam easy http://imaging-resource.com/WB/WB.HTM

At the same time chk this link http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/1128958202.html
Some recent digital cams and camcorders have manufacturing defects. Please think twice before buying them.

Also dont go for MegaPixels unless u plan prints. MegaPx is the biggest marketing BS. i am using my oly c 740 for last 3 years

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