Reliable/recent opinions on the SX100?

I'm not seeing much chatter about the SX100. Need to replace a dead A610 and thought this might be the ticket but have seen vague references to poor IQ (noise mostly). Which leaves me with either the A710 (if I can find one) or A720 (noise again maybe?). Or maybe an S3 (the things weighs one pound!). Looking under $300.

I don't expect it (any of the above actually) to do as well as any A6xx because of the chip size but do like the lens length and the IS so trying to compromise. It truly is just for travel and snapshots - not sure I can see dragging the weight of a 30D and 28-135 through a week at Disney.

If anyone has some good firsthand opinions on this, I'd love to hear.

No takers? Makes me wonder about this unit. Methinks sticking with an S3/S% might be the safer choice.

I take it you have seen the pop=photo review?

http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/4664/camera-test-canon-powershot-sx100-is.html

with it's MSRP of $299 until you looked at the online prices of the S3 IS at around $279 and the S5 IS at $349......

Kevin

Well, Circuit City has them on sale for $269 right now. Of course, I had to check other recent posts and find Dell has the A650 for $339. I'm thinking I'll take a chance on a corrected 650 for the extra few bucks. Heck, I really like the larger sensor. I'll give up the super zoom for that.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=25196525

Keith Van Hulle said:

I'm not seeing much chatter about the SX100. Need to replace a dead
A610 and thought this might be the ticket but have seen vague
references to poor IQ (noise mostly). Which leaves me with either the
A710 (if I can find one) or A720 (noise again maybe?). Or maybe an S3
(the things weighs one pound!). Looking under $300.

I don't expect it (any of the above actually) to do as well as any
A6xx because of the chip size but do like the lens length and the IS
so trying to compromise. It truly is just for travel and snapshots -
not sure I can see dragging the weight of a 30D and 28-135 through a
week at Disney.

If anyone has some good firsthand opinions on this, I'd love to hear.

Click to expand...

We'll be tinkering with it this weekend and I'll try to revisit this post with shots and my take on the camera. I got this for the wife since she couldn't stand using my XT+battery grip+24-70 2.8L as a walkaround setup.

First impression is the camera is a simple point and shoot with greater capabilities for folks that want "dSLR type control". The screen size is great and the screen resolution is adequate. The zoom is just great. My favorite part of this cam is the controls...the thumb wheel is SWEET!!! Other cams have very small buttons and are just not as easy to navigate through their menus.

Response time with out the flash is short...I'd say its easily as responsive if not better than the my dad's S3. With the flash the overall response time increases, but, I'm thinking that the over the counter alk. batteries just suck that came with the camera. I'll try to get some nice batteries in the cam and I'll make my decision then, recycle time is just slow, but not as slow as other point and shoots.

The S3 is larger with a smaller screen and that is why my wife didn't want it. At this point the new cam is pretty dang good, but, I'll know more this after tomorrow. S5 is way nice, but, again the overall time it takes to set-up a shot is slower than the SX just because of the menu buttons.

hope you'll post pics soon, i'm looking for an upgrade to my A710 - (the fantastic but-flash-problem-cam)