The dreaded "can you recommend me a good camera"?

Budget: $300. This friend of mine shoots with his phone and only looks at his images on his phone. He has some vague issues with his phone pics "some are blurry" and wants to up his game. He knows I shoot professionally and figured I'd know the $300 market (!)

Well...I told him to go on ebay and find a nice low-mileage 330 HS. I have one and am usually blown away by the SOOC jpegs and...bonus...a very very sharp 10x optical zoom.

I doubt if he could get some Canon 1" sensor camera in his budget but maybe I'm wrong. He knows nothing about post processing, If he'd come to me and said he really really wanted to get into photography and post processing etc etc I'd recommend some budget DSLR.

So, any suggestions?  A low mileage SX50?

toomanycanons wrote:

Budget: $300. This friend of mine shoots with his phone and only looks at his images on his phone. He has some vague issues with his phone pics "some are blurry" and wants to up his game. He knows I shoot professionally and figured I'd know the $300 market (!)

Well...I told him to go on ebay and find a nice low-mileage 330 HS. I have one and am usually blown away by the SOOC jpegs and...bonus...a very very sharp 10x optical zoom.

I doubt if he could get some Canon 1" sensor camera in his budget but maybe I'm wrong. He knows nothing about post processing, If he'd come to me and said he really really wanted to get into photography and post processing etc etc I'd recommend some budget DSLR.

So, any suggestions? A low mileage SX50?

Guess it depends on the market. I see g9x mki and g7x mki on the local craigs for 400 cdn and local photo store. That is 308 bucks US. Would he be bothered to carry another device?

Budget: $300. This friend of mine shoots with his phone and only looks at his images on his phone. He has some vague issues with his phone pics "some are blurry" and wants to up his game. He knows I shoot professionally and figured I'd know the $300 market (!)

Well...I told him to go on ebay and find a nice low-mileage 330 HS. I have one and am usually blown away by the SOOC jpegs and...bonus...a very very sharp 10x optical zoom.

I doubt if he could get some Canon 1" sensor camera in his budget but maybe I'm wrong. He knows nothing about post processing, If he'd come to me and said he really really wanted to get into photography and post processing etc etc I'd recommend some budget DSLR.

So, any suggestions? A low mileage SX50?

Used is a good way to go at this price point. Looking at what the very-reputable K.E.H. has right now for under $350, I see, and might recommend depending on your friend's needs and preferences, but going in order of my personal preferences:

* Sony RX100 (original), excellent-plus condition, with battery and charger, $299, (https://www.keh.com/shop/sony-cyber-shot-dscrx100-20-2-megapixel-compact-camera-674445.html);

* Canon G9X, like-new-minus condition with battery and charger, $313 (https://www.keh.com/shop/canon-powershot-g9x-silver-digital-camera-20-2-m-p-1.html);

* Canon S120, excellent-plus condition, with battery and charger, $313 (https://www.keh.com/shop/canon-powershot-s120-12-1-megapixel-compact-camera-black.html); or

* Canon SX730 HS, like-new-minus condition with battery and charger, $339 (https://www.keh.com/shop/canon-powershot-sx730-hs-silver-digital-camera-20-3-m-p-1.html).

FWIW, I have used the original RX100, and like it a lot, notwithstanding some of its ergonomic and functional aspects that are not as nice as those of some other cameras; I have an S110 but have not used an S120; and we have the much older SX230 HS; but I have not used the others. The G9X gets downgraded for its limited zoom range and mediocre lens. If your friend would like ease of use over photo quality, then the S120 would go to the top of the list; I find the S110 pretty easy / pleasant to use, considering its size.

You might look into a good used G15.  They can be found on EBay in that price range.

Does it have to be a Canon?  You might consider a Panasonic FZ80/82.  It has a long zoom and I believe 4k(I doubt your friend would use it, but who knows?). Just a thought.

toomanycanons wrote:

Budget: $300. This friend of mine shoots with his phone and only looks at his images on his phone. He has some vague issues with his phone pics "some are blurry" and wants to up his game. He knows I shoot professionally and figured I'd know the $300 market (!)

One thing to consider: does he only want to view his images on his phone? If so, then you need to consider how to get the pictures out of the camera and onto his phone. Canon's CameraConnect app works well for this but you'll need a camera that has WiFi.

KEH has a G9X (LN-) and an S120 (EX+) for $313. Perhaps something like that will work for your friend.

(CameraConnect compatibility: https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/explore/solutions-services/mobile-apps/camera-connect-compatibility)

FWIW, I have used the original RX100, and like it a lot, notwithstanding some of its ergonomic and functional aspects that are not as nice as those of some other cameras; I have an S110 but have not used an S120; and we have the much older SX230 HS; but I have not used the others. The G9X gets downgraded for its limited zoom range and mediocre lens.

Wow that hurts. Mediocre lens and the 3x zoom is limited as opposed to the 3.6x of the RX100. Stabilisation is probably a lot better on the G9X as opposed to the RX100.

A good point for the person needing the advice is to remember is Canon stuff does often get talked down routinely on a casual basis with strong descriptions of lesser problems and other brands talked up likewise so look around for all the facts. Of course users get defensive too so no easy way to find out what these cameras are really like.

This site's review of the G9X II, which I'm pretty sure uses the same lens as the original G9X, concludes, "Soft lens greatly reduces detail capture." See https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-powershot-g9-x-mark-ii-review/5. To me that's a pretty serious flaw. Put on top of that the smallest zoom range of the cameras discussed: 28-84mm equivalent f/2-4.9 for the G9X versus 28-100mm equivalent f/1.8-4.9 for the original RX100, versus 24-120mm equivalent albeit on the smaller sensor for the S120.

And yet despite that, I put the G9X as my second choice.

And you know what my biggest reservation about either of those is? That for $368 I can get a brand new RX100 with a memory card and case (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1209681-REG/sony_cyber_shot_dsc_rx100_digital_camera.html), or for $429 I can get a brand new G9X II with memory card and case (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1321603-REG/canon_powershot_g9_x_mark.html). IMOPO, your friend should stretch the budget just a bit and buy a new camera.

With its slick responsive touch screen interface the G9X would be natural for a smartphone user compared to the RX100. I think one of these 1" cameras would be better rather than the small sensor cameras for a noticeable improvement in image quality.

In my experience, the original Sony RX100 has better overall image quality than my Canon S110, but until you get into very low light and/or print sizes larger than 8x10 inches, the difference is pretty modest. See my post at https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/61545472.

Finally, over the years most of my compact cameras have been Canons; I don't think you can say I'm biased against Canon. I have owned the A570 IS (actually two of them, for a while the second was my 'car camera'), SD4000 IS, SX230 HS, S95, and S110.

I happen to also own an S100 that I'd love to get rid of. I bought it thinking it would be a step-up from my 330 but that's not the case. The lens isn't as sharp and basically it's a PITA to use. Which was really really surprising to me.

If you read up around here, you'll find reports of the S100's lens having optical quality problems. There were various speculations about why, especially because some cameras seemed much more affected than others, but Canon issued a product advisory. See:

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/2259215733/canon-powershot-s100-product-advisory

I suppose you could ask whether Canon would still fix your S100.

By all accounts I've read, Canon used an essentially-similar lens design for the S110, but had sorted out the problems by then. As DPR said in its roundup comments on the S110:

We had some concerns about the lens in Canon's previous S-series camera, the S100, but we're very happy with the optical performance of the S110's 24-120mm zoom which delivers good edge-to-edge sharpness across its span of focal lengths.

See https://www.dpreview.com/articles/2367736880/roundup-enthusiast-zoom-compact-cameras/4.

But I wouldn't pawn it off onto my friend, I'd rather sell him my backup 330. One thing to consider is, this guy is huge, he has really big hands. An RX100 would be too small.

To me the 330 HS, RX100, and S100 / S110 / S120 are all in the same size category. I like that category because they slip easily enough into most of my pants pockets and/or a small soft case on my belt. But how any given user likes or doesn't like the controls is a personal thing. For me, as skeptical as I was about the S110's touchscreen, I've really come to like it, especially for selecting the subject on which to focus.

DPR gave it a severe mauling but Cameralabs who are a better much source for this level of camera give it a highly recommended. As I said look around and then make the decision.

That "highly recommended" sounds like an overall judgment and not a report on lens quality.

One very plausible explanation for substantially different assessments of the lens from different reviewers is that type of poor quality control known as sample variation. I discussed that issue and noted that it had been widely acknowledged with the Canon S100 in a prior post in this thread (https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/61779863).

IMO if any serious reviewer reaches conclusions the differ substantially from other serious reviewers' conclusions, then obtaining another sample and testing should be done. If the two test much different from each others, then a larger sampling--maybe four or five, obtained from different sources--would be a good idea. Not saying I expect this to become the norm. But DPReview does sometimes do it, and about the S100, the review says:

Sample variation

Sample variation is a fact of life, sadly, and as we've already reported, we have used several S100s during the course of our testing. Working through our standard studio tests we found moderate to serious optical issues with three of them - significant enough, given the high quality of samples that we'd seen elsewhere, to give us pause (and to delay the process of completing this review).

We have now used five cameras, with lenses that span a range in terms of optical quality. The best sample offers good, uniform sharpness in all environments in which we used it, and the worst gives noticeably soft results on one side of images taken in the critical environment of our studio, but delivers perfectly acceptable results in 'real world' shooting.

See https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons100/5 (emphasis added).

So what I'm suggesting is that the G9X and G9X II may suffer from substantial lens sample variation, with some of them not good. Or maybe it's just not a very good lens. As to how much that matters ...

The whole thing in these sites is if a camera has a softer lens than another camera then it has a soft lens and the better camera has a sharp lens even if differences are such that most people would hardly notice and the less soft lens has less than perfect resolution itself. All these camera have software chicanery to get the best out of the compromised lenses, The G9X is all about performance for size and price I think mediocre really writes off this camera as any sort of choice and does not equate with the camera I have.

Well if all you ever do it look at pictures on a phone or webpage, then why even get a larger-sensor camera? It would be money (and size) not well spent. IMO the reason to get such a camera is largely because from time to time you'll want to make high-quality prints in larger sizes. And having a good lens is essential for that purpose. If another, similar camera has a significantly-better lens, then IMO and for me, it is a better choice.