Fast Point and Shoot

[Gheen]

Looking for a new point and shoot. The old Canon PowerShot SD1000 gave up the ghost (due to some abuse). The slow shutter reaction on that camera was a buzz kill when shooing speedy kids or any other action. What is your best recommendation for a pocket camera for action? Looking at the $200-300 range. Waterproof would be handy, since we do some boating, but not required.

[Photo-John]

Gheen-
The SD1000 came out in 2007. There have been a lot of improvements since then (IS, HD video, better image quality, better batteries, etc...) and I think it's going to be easy for you to get a better camera. I don't know what you've looked at on the site so far, but I think you should read our Outdoor & Waterproof Camera Guide and the Summer Digital Cameras list I published this week.

Waterproof cameras are really convenient if you're outdoors a lot but there are definitely compromises - mostly image quality. You know I use them all winter and a lot on the mountain bike, though. They beat worrying about your camera or not having one at all. That said, if performance and image quality are top priorities then I don't think I'd recommend a waterproof point-and-shoot. Right now I really like what I call "pocket superzooms." This category was started by Panasonic with their TZ series - compact point-and-shoot cameras with 10x zoom lenses that fit in a pocket. There are a lot of options right now but I think I'd steer you towards Panasonic, or - since you know the Canon UI - Canon. Here are three cameras to look at:

Canon PowerShot SX200 IS >>
Panasonic Lumix ZS3 >>
Panasonic Lumix ZR3 >>

The Canon and the Panasonic ZS3 will be a bit bigger than your SD1000 but they have a lot more power and features. The ZS3 is last year's model but I thought it was a great camera and if you can track one down the price will be better than the current, Panasonic Lumix ZS7. The Panasonic ZR3 is sort of a ZS7 Lite. It has almost all the same features with an 8x zoom lens instead of the ZS7's 12x zoom. That makes it smaller and less expensive.

I recommend going to Best Buy and/or Pictureline to try these cameras in person. I'm not sure that they'll actually be much quicker than your SD1000. Shutter-lag is still one of the biggest issues with point-and-shoot cameras. I do think it's been improved in the past couple of generations, though.

I'll throw one more out for you - this is the best point-and-shoot camera I've ever used - the Canon PowerShot S90. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the pocket superzooms. What is has is excellent, full manual controls and the best image quality of any available pocket point-and-shoot. Personally, I'd trade a bit of image quality for the long lenses of the pocket superzooms. But I sure did love the S90 while I had one for review.

I hope that puts you on track. I gave you a few choices and I assume you'll have more questions. I'll be here to answer them