Phog Allen
06-01-2008, 11:28 AM
Good afternoon chaps. My wife and I are in need of a new digicam. Preferably a P&S unit. Now the battles rage endlessly about features, quality, price, etc. In reality, they all seem to take a decent picture and it comes down to features and usability. For the most part, I have narrowed me decision to two brands and maybe three depending on your recommendations. Those two are Canon and Panasonic. These two are widely available at the electronics outlets(read Best Buy) and get almost universal praise for picture quality. Especially the Canon. Yeah, I know. What about Sony? I have all SD cards and do not want to start feeding Sony with yet another one of their proprietary formats. I know you can get other brands of memory sticks, I just don't want to deal with it. That is, unless you guys do some SERIOUS arm twisting.
Alright, down to business. While features are all the rage, I have found that menu usability is a BIG issue for most people including me. Some of these cams have menus that seem to go 3-4 screens deep for a lot of stuff. That is aggravating and time consuming at best. Don't get me wrong, features are nice and I don't mind them especially since even the most bargain basement cams come with quite a lot thrown in. I just want them to be USABLE without having to carry the damned manual around all the time. So in your opinions, who has the best user interface? From what I have seen each of the two preferred brands seem to carry consistent menu layout from model to model.
Now lets get to features. Where to stop and start? Here is a small list of what I think is useful and would like to have.
1. A large lcd. 3" would not be bad
2. The ability to clean all the icons, etc. off the screen fairly easily to get a good field of view. Should be easy to restore them as well.
3. Decent pixels but no need to go crazy. I would rather have 7-8 Mp with PROPER features and usability than 12 Mp and be usable only to an advanced photog.
4. SDHC card capable. Most cams are now SD,or at least multi card capable. I think the only hold out to xd cards is Fuji and of course Sony with those danged memory sticks. With SD card prices dropping like Bill Clintion's breeches, it is the only way to go.
5. Perhaps most important. A menu system that makes sense and is easy to navigate or at least something there is a decent web tutorial for. It amazes me that electronics manufacturers all seem to think that people should intuitively know that some button has three separate functions depending on menu page, whether it is labeled or not.:lol::lol:
6. NO FUNCTION WHEEL! No matter how I try to keep from bumping the one on our Nikon, it consistently gets moved around. I would rather have a four way toggling pad or button on the back of the cam. What say you?
And last. What about Nikon? No thanks. I have their Coolpix 4200. Shutter lag is slower than the line at the post office. Write time to the card, especially with flash is close to TEN SECONDS.The cam is finicky. Many times it will say "memory not readable" or something like that. Restart the cam, then it works. Sometimes it comes back. What a POS. PQ is pretty good but the cam is just a pain. Unless Nikon has come a long way with these things, no thanks.
Regards, Todd
Alright, down to business. While features are all the rage, I have found that menu usability is a BIG issue for most people including me. Some of these cams have menus that seem to go 3-4 screens deep for a lot of stuff. That is aggravating and time consuming at best. Don't get me wrong, features are nice and I don't mind them especially since even the most bargain basement cams come with quite a lot thrown in. I just want them to be USABLE without having to carry the damned manual around all the time. So in your opinions, who has the best user interface? From what I have seen each of the two preferred brands seem to carry consistent menu layout from model to model.
Now lets get to features. Where to stop and start? Here is a small list of what I think is useful and would like to have.
1. A large lcd. 3" would not be bad
2. The ability to clean all the icons, etc. off the screen fairly easily to get a good field of view. Should be easy to restore them as well.
3. Decent pixels but no need to go crazy. I would rather have 7-8 Mp with PROPER features and usability than 12 Mp and be usable only to an advanced photog.
4. SDHC card capable. Most cams are now SD,or at least multi card capable. I think the only hold out to xd cards is Fuji and of course Sony with those danged memory sticks. With SD card prices dropping like Bill Clintion's breeches, it is the only way to go.
5. Perhaps most important. A menu system that makes sense and is easy to navigate or at least something there is a decent web tutorial for. It amazes me that electronics manufacturers all seem to think that people should intuitively know that some button has three separate functions depending on menu page, whether it is labeled or not.:lol::lol:
6. NO FUNCTION WHEEL! No matter how I try to keep from bumping the one on our Nikon, it consistently gets moved around. I would rather have a four way toggling pad or button on the back of the cam. What say you?
And last. What about Nikon? No thanks. I have their Coolpix 4200. Shutter lag is slower than the line at the post office. Write time to the card, especially with flash is close to TEN SECONDS.The cam is finicky. Many times it will say "memory not readable" or something like that. Restart the cam, then it works. Sometimes it comes back. What a POS. PQ is pretty good but the cam is just a pain. Unless Nikon has come a long way with these things, no thanks.
Regards, Todd