Shortsord said:
That's funny, because I've seen them online for the low 300s, but even that price is within my range. I was gonna top off at 600 anyways.
Law guy, are you saying the S600 would be better, or just below? It looks better than the 550, but that doesn't matter to much.
Basically, is there anything to differentiate these two cameras largely? I do like the idea of having a wide angle p&s, but could live without it. Are the sensors on these large enough to not be underwhelmed by light with a high megapixel count?
Oh, and are there any others worth looking at, or should I just find a shop and check these two out?
Thanks a lot for all the help.
I don't know if the S600 would be an improvement or not. It could be that Canon improved from the prior 500/550 to the new 600/630/700IS, but it could have gone the other way as well. I haven't seen in-depth reviews for the 600 or 700 yet. (in order of preference on digicams) I'd like to see what
http://www.dpreview.com,
http://www.dcresource.com, or
http://www.stevesdigicams.com would say about the new model before going in for one. Some of those sites may have reviews out on the 600/630/700 by now, I haven't noticed one (and I tend to click on them once a day to see whats new) but I haven't been looking specifically for them. The 2.5" screen on the 600 should be clearer than on the 550, that's why I was leaning towards the 2" on the 500 (which was well reviewed so it's a bit more of a known quantity). The new models do have an ISO 800 speed, but I did see a review of one of the new Canons in the A line and it noted that the 800 speed was noisier than they expected. The 700 IS has image stabilization built in for $499, which will help keep those lower light photos from blurring. I'm keen to see a review.
Update: A very positive Steve's Digicam review of the SD 600:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/sd600.html
Update: CNET review - a very good 7.8 rating, noting the good image quality (which is what photographs are all about after all):
http://reviews.cnet.com/Canon_PowerShot_SD600/4505-6501_7-31740583.html
From that review:
"The Canon PowerShot SD600 boasts excellent performance, with fast start-up and responsive shooting. The quick shutter lags no more than 0.7 second, even in dim light. We measured a quick shot-to-shot speed of 1.5 seconds, which bumps up only slightly to 2.1 seconds with the flash enabled. Burst mode proves equally fast, delivering about 2.1fps.
Of course, the most important aspect of the camera is photo quality, and this compact shooter delivers in almost every respect. Besides exhibiting Canon's signature smooth, noiseless images at ISO 80 and ISO 100, the SD600 manages very well to as high as ISO 800, a sensitivity many compact digitals don't even reach. At that speed, the SD600's pictures are noisy but in an unobtrusive, almost filmlike way; ISO 800 images on the SD600 actually look a bit better than many other cameras' images shot at ISO 400. The SD600's ISO 200 shots are almost indistinguishable from those taken at ISO100, and its ISO 400 images are still very usable, though noise starts to become noticeable at that setting. With less noise than usual, this camera performs better than other cameras in its class, especially in low-light, no-flash conditions such as indoor performances and museums.
It's hard to find any fault with the SD600's imaging pipeline. Colors are appropriately warm and saturated at all speeds; it produces very sharp and detailed pictures. The camera's automatic white-balance and exposure decisions are consistently accurate and pleasing. Lens distortions such as vignetting or pincushioning are negligible in the SD600, though as with many ultracompacts, lens sharpness falls off dramatically in the upper-left corner of the scene. Fringing is also barely there, even under heavily backlit objects such as branches against a sky. Ugly JPEG processing artifacts such as color banding and halos around high-contrast edges are, likewise, hard to spot."
So given these, my next pocket companion may be the 600, which is a very reasonable msrp of $350.
As to your other questions, I found my 4MP elph produced great photographs - wonderful colors, low, low noise, great exposure. The sensor on that Elph was very capable and the reviews seem to indicate the same about the new 600, which I might lean towards given the improved screen, and another generation of improving everything else (which as I noted could go wrong, but the reviews indicate that they were actual improvements, so my fears there were not realized, apparently).
Further update: SD700 IS CNET review:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Canon_PowerShot_SD700_IS/4505-6501_7-31740585.html