Intermediate Point and Shoot Cameras

by dez on February 8, 2012 · 12 comments

in Baby Dez, Reviews

We purchased a Canon Powershot ELPH 300 HS last night at Target while it was on clearance. We’re taking it back today.

Why? the pictures are grainy! even at normal viewing size for Facebook the images look grainy. The high burst mode is even worse making 12.1 megapixel pictures looked like pixels exploded. The flash left light artifacts on the pictures in lower light situations.

The video camera was great as long as you didn’t start zooming. As soon as you pressed the zoom in the lighting quality went to shit (even if you hadn’t moved the lens).

The last straw on this camera was that it didn’t charge via USB and had a proprietary battery that needed to be removed from the camera to charge at all, removing the ability to quickly get a camera up for cute moments.

So, Megan and I are looking for a decent point and shoot in the intermediate range (we don’t want a DSLR) so that we have something for when the baby gets here that will produce pictures that could possibly be printed on photo paper for hanging/saving physically.

Any suggestions?

  • Anonymous

    That’s the camera I have and absolutely love it! 

    • http://iamdez.com Dez

      Do you have some tips for taking good pictures with it? Do you use the advanced controls or the presets?

      • Anonymous

        I don’t use “auto” mode, but I don’t go too far into specific advanced controls when just shooting casual pictures either. It’s taken pretty decent pictures even in low light. I haven’t printed any out to speak to that yet, though! 

        • http://iamdez.com Dez

          Megan’s big on printing out the pics. If @e092e57d2354c3d84e8ea8cc7ba8b6b0:disqus had been right that I could just crop out sections of a zoomed out image and it would be fine I’d be staying with it, but as it turns out those are pretty grainy.

  • http://www.lazylightning.org/ Bill Roehl

    At 12 megapixel the resolution is high enough that you can crop the photos to zoom. 

    • http://iamdez.com Dez

      That’s a good point. I’ll have to try that when I’m home for lunch today. I’m suspecting that they’re going to be grainy because even some not-zoomed in ones were grainy, but it’s worth a shot.

      • http://iamdez.com Dez

        I tried it while I was at home for lunch. The standard pics are 4000×3000. I cropped out a 1000×800 section from the picture. Grainy as all fuck. Still taking it back. 

  • http://www.widewhite.org/ Joey

    I just bought a point-and-shoot and did a ton of research before buying it. I went with the Canon Powershot SX230 HS for $190 on sale. It’s been awesome and definitely a big upgrade from my 5-year-old Canon Powershot A710. I considered the Elph that you got. I don’t remember why I avoided it. Probably the fact that it didn’t cost too much more to get the one I got, which is priced at $300 for regular price and compares well with the $300-350 range cameras from Nikon, Sony, etc.

    I did extensive online research and talked to a guy at Best Buy (I had a gift card to use there, otherwise I would have bought it elsewhere). The guy I talked to the most was a Fuji salesman and he said he uses Canon cameras at home. He didn’t even recommend one of his own brands. His opinion: Canon knocks it out of the park at every level (basic to pro), whereas other manufacturers do well in one category but not in others.

    You aren’t going to get professional quality with any point-and-shoot. Additionally, really high megapixels will usually be grainy, especially with poor lighting (i.e., indoors). It’s a lot more important to get a camera with great optical zoom and a good image stabilizer than one with a ton of megapixels. And regardless of how many megapixels you get, blowing it up to 100% will always look grainy.

    I’ve had my camera for a month and have been really happy with it. I also did a lot of test-driving of this and other cameras at the store and read a ton of reviews. I definitely recommend it.

    • http://iamdez.com Dez

      Target has/had the SX230 HS on clearance. However, the only one left at each of the store’s is the display model. I almost bought the display model last night because it looked like such a big step up from the ELPH, but I couldn’t get the 2 year warranty from Target on a display model and the cameras only get a 45 day return allowance through Target. 

      I wasn’t going to risk the money.  But I really liked that camera.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/SundvallKendra Kendra Sundvall

    Look into a Canon G11.

    • http://iamdez.com Dez

      That’s a bit out of our price range. We actually decided to stay with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ7 that I’ve had for a few years. It’s a good camera even though it’s only 7.2 MP. but it’s enough to print pics and it does take excellent pics.

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