recommendations for new P&S camera ?

[Peakbagr]

I use a DSLR and for lousy conditions, a small P&S camera that belongs to my company.
My SO asked for her own P&S and I was wondering about recommendations.
High Resolution, good durability and ease.
Would prefer one $225 or under.

Thanks

 

[Quietman]

From past threads, here are a few questions that will narrow down your choices.

• Optical Viewfinder? Very helpful in sunlight.
• AA or proprietary batteries? I prefer AA's
• Full manual exposure control? Very helpful for difficult lighting
• Wide angle lense?
• High power optical zoom?
• Image stabilization? I really like this feature
• Size? Really small, or pocket size
• Price?

There may be others but these are the main ones that will help with a recommendation.

I just found this Canon A590IS I'd buy a backup in a heartbeat at this price if I had an extra dollar.

 

[David Metsky]

Drop the resolution requirement. Anything over 8MP (and you can't really buy anything with less) is more than enough. Except for the hardened cameras, most of the others have similar toughness.

Answer the questions Quietman posted and we can give you a few suggestions. I'd say the biggest questions would be size of the camera, zoom desired, and manual controls.

 

[Peakbagr]

Dave,

Good point about resolution. I'd say 'small', easy to use, and manual controls would be seldomly used. Different automatic modes would be nice, i.e. flower, distance, scenery, sports, etc.
Zoom would be important as well.
I'd carry the camera when the conditions or terrain is such that I didn't want to carry the DSLR.
Much of the time, family would use it.

 

[David Metsky]

If you want a good zoom range, no manual controls, and plan on using the camera mainly outdoors I'd go for the Panasonic ZS1 or ZS3. If you plan on shooting indoors a lot but trying to avoid flash I'd get the Fuji F200 or F70. If you want to use manual controls to get the best image quality out of a small camera I'd go for the Canon S90 or the Sony WX1.