Small point & shoot - $600 budget?

I'm looking to buy my g/f a digital camera; however I've not really kept up
with what's new on the market since buying my PowerShot 400 nearly 2 years
ago.

She's used my 400 on a number of occasions and has always complained that
the response time of the camera is too slow. I suspect that she's not
referring to the auto focus, but rather the navigation when browsing and
reviewing pictures on the camera.

I advised her to go to a camera shop and play with different cameras models
to get a feel of how they operate. She came back she said that she liked the
Pentax Optio S4 - any opinions on this camera?

What other small point and shoot cameras should we look at? Budget $600.


TIA

On Fri, 1 Oct 2004 12:12:28 +0100, "Jamie" wrote:

I'm looking to buy my g/f a digital camera; however I've not really kept up
with what's new on the market since buying my PowerShot 400 nearly 2 years
ago.

She's used my 400 on a number of occasions and has always complained that
the response time of the camera is too slow. I suspect that she's not
referring to the auto focus, but rather the navigation when browsing and
reviewing pictures on the camera.

I advised her to go to a camera shop and play with different cameras models
to get a feel of how they operate. She came back she said that she liked the
Pentax Optio S4 - any opinions on this camera?

What other small point and shoot cameras should we look at? Budget $600.

Look at Canon and Nikon cameras.

Look at Canon and Nikon cameras.

I'm very happy with my Nikon 3100 (a newer model is surely out), which fits
the hand very nicely, except for the slight blue/magenta cast of most
pictures--the pictures are wonderfully sharp, though. But I am SUPER happy
with my Canon SD-10. It is the tiniest camera you can imagine. It doesn't
have a viewfinder, which I wouldn't use anyway, and it doesn't have a zoom,
which I don't use anyway either (life is just fine without zooming, in my
experience). But it has 4mp (the new SD-20 has 5mp), excellent color, and
you can carry it anywhere, anytime because it is so small and weighs next to
nothing. It fires up fast, and is so easy to use and handle that nothing
compares to it--it makes photography as effortless as waving your hand
around.

Look at Canon and Nikon cameras.

I'm very happy with my Nikon 3100 (a newer model is surely out), which fits
the hand very nicely, except for the slight blue/magenta cast of most
pictures--the pictures are wonderfully sharp, though. But I am SUPER happy
with my Canon SD-10. It is the tiniest camera you can imagine. It doesn't
have a viewfinder, which I wouldn't use anyway, and it doesn't have a zoom,
which I don't use anyway either (life is just fine without zooming, in my
experience). But it has 4mp (the new SD-20 has 5mp), excellent color, and
you can carry it anywhere, anytime because it is so small and weighs next to
nothing. It fires up fast, and is so easy to use and handle that nothing
compares to it--it makes photography as effortless as waving your hand
around.

"Jamie" wrote in message ...
I'm looking to buy my g/f a digital camera; however I've not really kept up
with what's new on the market since buying my PowerShot 400 nearly 2 years
ago.

The new polariod x530 has better video than the best dedicated cam
corders, as well as 4.5M HUGE pixels, for the first noise-free compact
at ISO 100. It has larger pixels than the Canon 20D!

The Maven of Misinformation has returned.

Georgette Preddy wrote:

"Jamie" wrote in message ...

I'm looking to buy my g/f a digital camera; however I've not really kept up
with what's new on the market since buying my PowerShot 400 nearly 2 years
ago.


The new polariod x530 has better video than the best dedicated cam
corders, as well as 4.5M HUGE pixels, for the first noise-free compact
at ISO 100. It has larger pixels than the Canon 20D!