Narrowed down camera choices

The Canon S95 was announced this week, it should be released in the next few weeks. The only thing ‘missing’ from it, when compared to other top-level compact cameras, is a pivoting LCD methinks.

I haven’t seen it advertised anywhere yet but it might be a little more than the other prosumer compacts that are out there.  So to compare:

The Canon S95 has HD video, 28-105mm, non-pivot screen, HDR mode, about £400??

The Samsung EX1 has no HD video, 24-72mm, a pivoting screen, about £300

The Panasonic LX5 has HD video, 24-90mm, non-pivot screen, about £360

Everything else is about the same: RAW shooting, full manual control, loads of scenes, face recognition, tons of aspect ratios and all that.

I think for me the EX1 for me is out because of no HD video, so then I guess it becomes a coin toss between the Panasonic wider angle and the Canon’s better zoom. The Panasonic is probably going to be cheaper as well…

In the market for a new camera!

So my Canon A95 is dying a slow death. Too many drops, I guess.

I was really thinking about getting a nice fat superzoom camera (600mm lens and full HD recording? yes please!) because every now and then I like to get a little more serious about taking pictures – but then slip back into ‘simple mode’ – and sometimes I like to play around with the manual settings. The brand new (as in not yet released) Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100 was what had caught my eye recently.

But now I’m thinking a superzoom  will be too big for simple snapshots and possibly not techie enough for when I want to take serious photos (which isn’t that often these days and I’m happy with what I get from the A95). If I wanted to get properly into photography I’d just get a digital SLR, but that’s a minimum £600-700 investment right off the bat for a used 20D body, cheap wide angle lens and halfway decent telephoto lens.

So I’m looking at the ‘prosumer’ top-level  compact cameras, the ones designed for ‘advanced amateurs’ (ahem) and professionals or DSLR owners who don’t want the bulk of their big camera on a trip, but want much of the control of their fully-featured DSLRs.

These are the models I’m thinking of:

• Canon G11
• Panasonic LX5
• Samsung EX1
• Canon S90
• Canon Ixus 300 HS

The S90 doesn’t do HD video but is very highly regarded by photographers, the LX5 and I think the G11 have tilt-swivel LCD screen, and they all have loads of manual controls and good megapixel counts.

If anyone has other suggestions or opinions on any of these, let me know!