What is a good point and shoot?

[Jeff Kilgroe]

S90 doesn't look too bad. How fast can it burst-shoot RAW? The f4.9 on the long end of the zoom is kinda iffy too, but it is a long zoom for a camera this size. I played with an S90 at a local BestBuy store today, not a bad little camera overall. But the way they had the anti-theft deal connected to the camera, I was unable to insert an SDHC card to really give it a run-through.

I also played with a Panasonic DMC-LX3 and talked to a photographer friend who happens to own one. I should note Scott Webster mentioned the LX3 in his post above, but I kinda glossed over it for some reason, probably because it's over a year old and I have only been looking at the just released or current models in my search.

Anyway the LX3 is nearly identical to the Leica D-Lux 4. It lacks a couple of the real high end bells and whistles, but it uses the same sensor, same exact Vario-Summicron lens. It also shoots RAW and handles shooting up to 2.5fps and up to a 3 frame burst at full speed when shooting RAW. This was at the Wolf Camera store at the mall across the street from BestBuy as BB didn't have any of these older models.

I have the same feeling about the LX3 that I have about the D-Lux 4... That an update is probably imminent. However, Panasonic has announced their 2010 line-up and there are no updates for the LX3 and there's a good bet there won't be this year. I may pick this camera up, I almost did today, but hesitated because of its age. I may just tough it out and see what comes out as more cameras move to CMOS in the next year as I know several camera makers are moving that way for the small P+S cameras. The LX3 was a huge step up from my G9 and is a much more pleasant camera to use than the G11. I may just go back and pick this little guy up. Really, I don't know how I missed this one in my searching.

 

[Sam Eilertsen]

If your willing to go into that price range, you might want to consider the Canon Rebel XS. Throw a cheap zoom lens or the 50mm f/1.8 on it.

 

[Scott Schneider]

We used a SD990 for our ebay pictures. We are happy with it.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

While I agree that G10-G11 are a step backwards compared to the competition, I still think the G9 was a good camera when it came out (with f/2.8 at the wide end). In my opinion its better than the G7. The G7 doesn't even have RAW. I disagree with your opinion on SDHC too. The speed limit lies within the camera, not the card (especiallt due to the slow Autofocus), and I like the compactness.

Yeah, I guess the G9 does do f2.8 at the widest end... It seems I'm typically hovering about f3~3.5 though with my most used focal lengths on the camera. Not too bad in that regard, but it does ramp quite a bit.

As for SDHC, it's slow. A Class-6 card (40X) is capable of a max throughput of 6MB/s, for example and most cards only peak or burst at their maximum rating, rarely do they actually sustain it. I run SanDisk Extreme and Transcend Class 10 SDHC cards (16GB for the SanDisk, 8GB for the Transcend). Class 10 cards are roughly 10MB/s (80Mbps) and RAW files from the G9 are 14.7MB on average. So it takes 1.5 to 2 seconds to write a RAW file even with a Class 10 SDHC card. Cameras like the LX3 and D-Lux 4 that can shoot bursts in RAW do so to internal memory and then write that to the memory card as they flush the internal memory and it takes several seconds to do so.

The SDHC interface on the G9, and with the G11 when I tried that, does indeed seem to be slow in itself as I saw no real difference between Class-6 and Class-10 SDHC cards in those cameras.

I'd like to see more of nice pancakes or 3x zoom lenses with larger sensor compacts though.

Me too.

If your willing to go into that price range, you might want to consider the Canon Rebel XS. Throw a cheap zoom lens or the 50mm f/1.8 on it.

Kinda defeats the whole concept of a point and shoot camera. I already own the G9 I keep talking smack about (and my old G2), a 7D and just recently acquired a 5Dm2. I also own a D50, D2Xs and a D3X on the Nikon side of things and I have extensive lens collections for both. I keep eyeing the new Panasonic micro 4/3 cameras, the G2 model. I'm just not sure if I want to start down the m4/3 path and acquire more glass for yet another system.

There are times I like to have a camera that fits easily into a coat/jacket pocket and something I can hand to a friend or let the wife use, etc.. I've got DSLR's, video, cinema, etc.. covered. I want something I can throw in a pocket, that shoots RAW.

I've just made it a rule for myself that I refuse to buy anything new unless it can shoot RAW and it can at least take a few shots back to back when needed.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I may just bite the bullet and go micro 4/3....

Been playing with the Panasonic DMC-GF1 w/ 20mm pancake lens for the past half hour. Not really any larger than the LX3, but I'm definitely a fan. I also looked at the Olympus EP-2 and it's nearly identical, but I like the Panny a bit better. FWIW, the Olympus 14-42 m4/3 zoom seems better than Panny 14-45. It's also a lot more compact and $100 cheaper - seems a bit slower with AF, though..

I would love a few more pancake lenses like a 10, 15 and 30mm! Too bad they only make the 20mm right now.

The GH1 and new G2 m4/3 cameras are nice too, but I'm going for more pocketable at the moment.