So i'm looking for a camera and 200 dollars is my limit. I'm looking for a camera with good picture quality (for the price) that has the ability to take video w/ sound. I would prefer a camera that has or can be upgraded to a lithium ion battery but not necessary. I plan on upgrading the memory card.

Here's what i've found so far:

kodak easyshare m1093 IS

canon powershot a590 IS

Any thoughts on these or if you know of a better alternative feel free to post. This will be my first camera so any other advice is appreciated. Thanks.

Well Canon over Kodak any day of the week.

x2 Canon

That Canon is not lithium-ion. It can use alkaline or Ni-MH batteries.

For what you're looking for the Canon Powershot SD1100 IS would be more of a fit. It's $180 on the Canon website - which means you can get it for cheaper. It has movie w/monoaural sound, & li-ion battery.

Or a step up from that is the SD790 IS. It has a better battery (5L vs. 4L), better image quality, bigger LCD & a few other things that won't effect your decision. Canon website places it at $200, but a quick Google search yielded a Best Buy price of $180. I would choose this over the SD1100.

If you don't want Canon you can look into Nikon. I'd look at some myself but their website is so heavy and unfriendly that it's taxing on my work computer.

This post has been edited by Supersprynt: Apr 22, 2009 - 9:56 AM

From my own personal experience, I'd stay away from the Nikon Coolpix if you got a Nikon point and shoot. Frist one I had lasted a good 3 years or so, but second one only lasted about 6 months

I think a Canon Powershot would be a nice choice, those are what I was looking into before I got my dslr camera.

thanks for the advice and input. I think I'm going to go with the SD 790, it looks like a great camera, especially after reading the reviews. It's only about $15 more than the SD1100 and seems to be a good improvement over it.

ok well I was just about to purchase the SD790 when my friend told me about his A480, they just came out. He's very happy with it and recommended it to me. It doesn't use Li ion batteries but it does have very similar specs to the 790 and is $50 cheaper. It also says it has motion detection, is this comparable to optical image stabilization or is one better than the other?

I would opt for IS over "motion detection." Motion detection will increase your ISO automatically to decrease shutter speed to prevent motion blur. Increasing ISO will increase noise, which is gross. The IS works differently in slowing down image movement internally, and not manipulating your settings. I NEVER use auto settings so this obviously would be my choice.

Also the SD790 has a bigger LCD screen (3.0'' vs. 2.5'') and the LI-Ion battery was something you wanted.

But it's your money and $50 is a big difference. The rest of the specs, besides different focal lengths, are pretty identical. You may want a camera that will never take out of Auto. I do everything manually and would never want my camera to decide what to do for me so I hate the thought of it. But if this is something to take when you go out just to capture snapshots of friends and events, I don't think you'll ever notice the difference.

This post has been edited by Supersprynt: Apr 23, 2009 - 2:35 PM

well I would like to take more artistic pictures, for instance shoots with my car and I plan on traveling more often in the future and sightseeing. I'm not sure how auto settings ties into the motion detection, are you saying you manually control the IS to prevent blurry pics and that motion detection is always automatic?

No it's automatic - you can probably turn it off & on tho. Not sure, I don't have a P&S camera. The SD790 has Manual settings as well - it doesn't appear the A480 has that. It's more of a camera for people who don't know anything about photography just want pictures.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controll...fcategoryid=113

This post has been edited by Supersprynt: Apr 23, 2009 - 5:29 PM