On New Years Eve, December 31, 2011, I was at the KLCC at the Petronas Twin Towers. I used the Sony DSC-HX9V to take some great pictures of the huge crowd, and also of the fireworks. I also used a Samsung ACE phone to take some pictures and post them to Facebook. I happened to be at a place that allowed me to have a Malaysian flag with the fireworks behind the flag, making for some very nice pictures.
At the end of the event, I put the camera in a belt holster case. The crowds leaving the venue were huge, and people were pushing, and slowly marching in different directions. The announcers asked everyone to leave in an orderly way, and not push, but at times the crowds pushing almost knocked people down. Tempers were getting short.
Once I finally got out of the crowd, I noticed that my camera case had been worked open, and someone had relieved me of my Sony. I nice camera, and a couple of months of photos, gone. Still have to check if I have any backups of the pictures I took on that camera.
I looked around in Kuala Lumpur for a replacement, but that Sony is not available there, the most advanced Sony they have is the HX7V, the previous model. There was an Olympus model available that had 24X zoom. Its pictures at full zoom seemed clear, but I didn't have the chance to try it side by side with the Sony. In spent a fair amount of time at about three different stores playing with the Olympus, and pulling up reviews on my tablet, but the menu settings on the camera seemed over simplified. I found a couple of other superzoom models, including from Fuji and Canon, but again, didn't have the chance to do a side by side comparison.
I also noticed that camera prices in Kuala Lumpur are close to 50% higher than the prices at Best Buy here in the United States. So I wasn't too enthusiastic to pay a 50% premium just to have another camera for the last couple of days before leaving KL. I decided to just make due with the camera in my Samsung ACE phone. I also wanted to see exactly what my previous camera was that was sitting in a drawer at home. I had misplaced that other camera, and bought the Sony, but I knew I had found the other camera.
So I got home, found the other camera was a Canon Powershot SX210 IS. It is 14 megapixels, and has 14x zoom, in a compact size.
Yesterday I made a trip to Best Buy to compare the zoomed and unzoomed pictures with these other cameras:
- Nikon - Coolpix S9100 12.1-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black - With 18X optical zoom
- NIKON - Coolpix S8200 Black 16.1-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black - With 14X zoom
- Sony - Cyber-shot 16.2-Megapixel Zoom Digital Camera - Black Model: DSCHX9V/B - with 16X zoom
From the camera section I tested zooming in on some boxes at the back of the store. I propped my elbow on a counter when taking the picture with my camera, and then in the same position with the store camera. Then I would display the picture, zoom it up fully, and see which camera I could make out the most details.
I also took an unzoomed picture with each camera to assess how wide of an angle photo could be taken. I did this by positioning some object in the store on the upper right corner of the picture, and then seeing how far the picture would extend to the other side.
My findings
- There was very little difference in the ability to read fine text. Extra zoom, or extra megapixels, or even both, was not enough to make any significant difference. The Canon takes good pictures.
- None of the camera had a raw mode, so I wasn't able to see if that could help.
- The Nikon cameras did not have manual modes, so I wouldn't be able to do my own long exposure night time photography with them.
- My canon has a wide enough display on the back, but the pictures dont fill the display, making them appear somewhat smaller than the other cameras.
The advantage I found:
- The sony unzoomed picture was clearly wider, maybe by 15-20%. Canon is 28mm field of view, and the sony is 24mm. It is a very obvious difference.
What I was not able to test while standing around in the store was whether some of the new intelligent modes would make a big difference. The newer cameras are able to take multiple photos and then combine them to create an even better photo. For example the sony would often make the sound of several photos, then do some processing, before showing the final picture. I never played with this feature to really see what difference it makes. But I understand this kind of feature can do a good job of filling in shadows, etc. So it is possible that kind of feature could make a big difference over my older Canon SX210. But right now, I don't know.
So at the moment I havent replaced the Sony. I am inclined to just buy another one, but want to first make sure there is not some other compact super zoom with clearly better pictures for features. For now, it seems my Canon SX210 is good enough.
Fuji has just released a whole series of new Fuji cameras
- FinePix XP150
- X-S1
- FinePix XP100
- FinePix XP50
- FinePix T400
- FinePix T350
- FinePix SL300
- FinePix S4500
- FinePix S4200
- FinePix JZ250
- FinePix JZ100
- FinePix JX580
- FinePix JX500
- FinePix HS30EXR
- FinePix HS25EXR
- FinePix F660EXR
- FinePix F770EXR
- FinePix F750EXR
- FinePix AX550
Feature comparisons:
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