Medium to high end P/S or “prosumer�?

[Mr. Anderson]

OK Digital Shutterbugs

I am looking for a medium to high end point and shoot or “prosumer� (advanced amateur?)digital camera that can meet the following criteria:

-Less than $600 street price.
-Full manual to full auto.
-RAW+JPG and/or TIFF & JPG (I think I know what is going on here). Would like to have fast write times when using RAW setting (but I think I may be out of luck here in this price range).
-Prints up to 11x14 with minimal cropping and scaling up (generally 4x6, 5x7, and 8x10).
-Use it for: some sports (mtb of course), 2.5 year old, nature, and experimental (e.g. night shots with long exposures).

Would be nice to have (not required):

-Custom settings feature
-Use CF Type I & II
-Hot shoe
-Accepts filters on the lens (adapters??).

Cameras I am considering:

-Canon PowerShot Pro1 (would stretch the budget a bit) bulkier than I would like but still have not ruled it out.
-Canon G6 , hard to get rid of this from the list.
-Panasonic/Leica DMC-FZ30 or FZ20, I read it becomes unaccpetably grainy above ISO200 for the FZ30 (isn't this an issue with most digicams?)
-Panasonic/Leica DMC-LX1 , not a lot of reviews
-Minolta A200, like the Pro1 above, a bit bulky and possible stretches the budget.

I have a Canon Power Shot A70 and am very pleased with its user interface and features/$. I find it hard to move away from Canon but, there are so many nice cameras out there. Input on sensor technologies (larger better sensor better than megapixel numbers? Like say, would the larger sensor 5 MP be better than a smaller sensor 8 MP?). Information on the whole megapixel war would be helpful. Any other cameras I should consider? Thanks in advance and pardon my inability to explain things fluidly.

Anderson

[VanillaKisses]

my vote is for the A200, i have one, and am very pleased with it, and does all the things you've listed.. and more

I take mine everywhere i go!

I even shot a very good video, in low light with her lastnight, (my niece's school play).. i'm more than impressed with that bit!

[drg]

Keep in mind that this comment is perhaps tainted by the fact I'm pretty much a Canon person these days in this type of camera.

That being said, I'd suggest the G6. The Pro1 doesn't live up to all the expectations and some of its specifications are shaky. The Pro1 is also a slow camera and we never had good luck using it with an external (550series) flash. I've personally owned both a G3 and a G5 and bought and kept both a G5 and a G6 for work. Bought a Pro1 but sold it after about a month.

The G6 is a good picture taking camera. It also has some of the best battery life I've ever seen in a camera of any type. It's got all the goodies in terms of controls and custom settings if some are perhaps a little limited(like contrast and tone) compared to some other cameras on the market. Personally though I don't find that a big deal as it is hard to really adjust a photo on two inch monitor. It shoots RAW and if you are shooting in JPEG and want to convert the image to RAW it is a button press away.

It doesn't have a live histogram, but it does have a nice tethered mode.

The zoom might be slow for some action work. The shutter lag is seemingly improved over the G5. the buffer in use is much better than the G5 regardless of some spec charts. It makes good photos from AUTO to MANUAL. And it has the great swing out and around display.

The Pan/Leica LX1 I tried out produced off color photos.

I am wondering about long term support from K-M regardless of what they say about focusing on digital cameras in the future. After all, they did pull out of Canada rather suddenly. I've heard the A200 is contender from a respected souce or two, but haven't used one.

Do check out the pro review of the G6 here at PR and the reviews section generally.

Hope this is some help?

[Photo-John]

I've used three of the cameras on your list, the Canons and the A200. Of those three, and because I used it for a bunch of mountain bike stuff, I'd recommend the Konica Minolta A200. It's the most capable prosumer digital I've used. I think the Canon G6 has slightly better image quality, but the speed and flexibility of the A200 make it a winner for me. I also had a few full page images I shot with the A200 published in Mountain Biking mag this year. The only negative for the Konica Minolta is the size and shape. It won't fit in a backpack as well as the G6. It's still a lot smaller and lighter than a digital SLR, though.

[Mr. Anderson]

Thanks all. I keep thinking about the G6 (because it is a Canon) and the A200. The Panasonic/Leica sounds like a good bet too, but off colors could be a concern if that is an issue across the board. To summarize; if size is a consideration, then the nod goes to the G6, but if there is no limitation on size and more action photography will be done the nod goes to the A200. Both are very good cameras, capable of large 11x14 prints with minimal cropping and scaling. I must be missing some of the real world shooting parameters on the G6 though. Like, does it write reasonably fast to the card when shooting RAW? I suppose that is where the buffer comes into play, and do you find it acceptable? Thanks for bearing with me. I assume the A200 does well with write speeds. Assuming both are equipped with a card that is sufficiently quick (or is that snake oil?). FWIW, I plan on doing all post in Photoshop CS at work or ver. 7 here at home. So RAW seems the way to go (as PhotoJohn points out). I find this site to be overwhelming at times

Thanks,

Anderson

[Photo-John]

I find this site to be overwhelming at times

It's ok. There's a lot of stuff to learn. But keep it simple and don't worry about getting it all at once. We'll hold your hand through the process
;)

You might appreciate knowing that we have a G6 for our office camera. It's great. I likes the A200 better overall. But there's nothing wrong with the G6. Francis has one, too. So all of his photos that you see on Mtbr are taken with the G6. When they're bad, it's not the camera's fault, either

I haven't shot RAW with either camera. I only shoot RAW with my digital SLRs. I actually think that high quality JPEGs from good cameras are more than adequate for most purposes. The A200 photos I had published were from JPEG files. So I wouldn't worry about RAW. Definitetely try it out with whatever camera you buy. But I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. Keep it simple.