Looking for best of both worlds (P&S-DSLR) About This Page:

[Finiamh]

Ok so what is everyone's opinion on a good camera that has the ease of a point and shoot but the power and flexibility of a DLSR?

Thanks

[Tonichelle]

I like the sony line for P&S cameras with the DSLR capabilities... a friend of mine's mom has a couple of them and the way she talks you'd think she was Ansel Adams... her pictures are very good, but she can't tell you how the exposure happened lol

[WillCAD]

My first digital camera was a Fuji Finepix S602, one of the crop of cameras that looks like a small SLR but has a fixed lens. I was very happy with that camera, though I eventually upgraded to a DSLR. It had great color and lots of SLR-like features that made it a nice intermediate step between an P&S and an SLR. It's not made any more, of course.

A little bit of surfing turned up a current camera in the same class:

The Fuju S2000HD looks nice. It's 10mp, with a zoom equivalent to an SLR 27-414mm, and uses SD and SDHC memory cards. It also has a BIG 2.7" LCD and shoots movies at 3 different resolutions. Street price looks like about $260-$300.
Fujifilm FinePix S2000HD Digital Camera - First Shots - The Imaging Resource!

This is just an example; I am not endorsing that camera, because I have never played with it myself, I'm just going by the specs, the price, and my previous experience with a similar Fuji camera. YMMV.

[LizardCop]

There are a number of good "combo-compromise" cameras out there...

Jan has the Fuji S5200, and she loves it. High zoom, wide angle, takes great shots in all situations...

I've played with the Olympus SP series (350 and 550) and they are both good cameras also.

My advise, like always, do your research, go to a good camera store that has all the models to play with, see how they feel, test them, and make your decision...

[Dave Marx]

I'm also very happy with my FujiFilm S9000. They've had a long series of successes and evolutionary improvements in this line of cameras.

[Pax]

Originally Posted by WillCAD

My first digital camera was a Fuji Finepix S602, one of the crop of cameras that looks like a small SLR but has a fixed lens. I was very happy with that camera, though I eventually upgraded to a DSLR. It had great color and lots of SLR-like features that made it a nice intermediate step between an P&S and an SLR. It's not made any more, of course.

I have a Fuji Finepix S5700; it's pretty much the same thing as you mentioned, but a later generation. 7.1 megapixels, lots of control options BUT still plenty of automation, and decent optical zoom (10x). A nice, inexpensive "bridge" camera, IMO. We'll see if I stick to P&S, or if I make the leap to DSLR, in a couple years' time ...

I've just uploaded some pictures (resized tremendously, down to 800x600) from a trip to the Southwick Zoo (in Mendon, MA) this weekend - some by me, with the Fuji camera ... and some by my DGF, with her brand-new Nikon Coolpix L18.

One of mine, a closeup of a black swan:



One of hers, a closeup of a kookaburra (and all of, at most, the fifteenth or twentieth picture she'd ever taken with the new camera):


Hers is a pure point-and-shoot, but it's s nice one IMO. 8 megapixels, 3x optical zoom, and up to 4x digital zoom (with resulting loss of resolution, but when you GOTTA, you gotta - and those 8MP give her plenty of resolution TO lose; she can go to 2x and still take "snapshot"-worthy pics, around 3-4MP equivalent, IIRC).

Both cameras were under $200; mine was around $180, hers has an MSRP of $130 (and sold for less, through Amazon.com). Keep in mind, that's before buying needed accessories like rechargable batteries (mine needs four AA's, hers needs two AA's), camera case, memory cards, etc, etc.

[debsta922]

I have the Canon Digital Rebel which I love and would highly recommend.

[disneygramma]

I too have the digital rebel by canon (dslr) and it is fab. you can basically point and shoot by using the automatic setting, or you can choose all the settings if you place it in manual mode.

Good luck choosing.