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I've been using the S4100 as a convenient pocket-sized point 'n shoot camera, which does an "adequate" job on my travels. It was an inexpensive upgrade from my older Coolpix cameras.
But I've been somewhat disappointed in the quality and "spark" of the pictures it takes compared to what I see from the pictures so many of you folks have posted on C-D. Our travels last year were documented with the S4100 and the landscape, town, and museum photos were somewhat disappointing. The photos just seemed to have a "snapshot" level quality that wasn't very appealing.
Without spending a small fortune, are there better cameras in this size and convenience range that will deliver significantly improved picture quality?
Or will much better picture quality only come at the cost of a larger camera such as a Fuji x100s or comparable cameras? I am concerned about the convenience, size, and weight of such upgrades.
As well, I'm not a great photographer. Mrs Sun has a much better artistic sense and composition skills, but she doesn't want to have to deal with all the camera settings & adjustments of an upline camera. So the convenience of a point 'n shoot with minimal effort is a big factor for both of us.
I didn't mention price because I don't know what it takes to make a meaningful upgrade from my Nikon.
Are other inexpensive "point 'n shoot" cameras today a significant upgrade?, or should I be looking in the $500 (and up) range for a new camera?
My S4100 was "only" $60, a complete factory "refurbished" kit in a new box from Nikon. It's functioned flawlessly, but obviously has it's limitations compared to newer, pricier, cameras.
My hands shake a little and I'm kind of fidgety. I always found that Nikon point and shoots did not have as good vibration reduction as Panasonic point and shoots and I handhold everything.
I'm not up on the latest Panasonic cameras. I'm currently using one that is a few years old (FZ150) mostly for butterfly and flower photos but I know I would check out Panasonic before any other brand if I decided to upgrade. I use my Nikon dslr for everything else.
I recommend Topaz Adjust for basic post-processing and Topaz Studio for advanced post-processing. Install them as plug-ins with Photoshop Elements or regular Photoshop.
Sunsprit, we have a Nikon D600, full frame 24 megapixel DSLR. It sits more than any other camera we had.
We also have a Sony A600 and a Sony RX100. The last one was $ 368 from Crutchfield. Small and sharp, but not reliable, we are on our second.
I need to examine the photos closely to tell the difference; in fact, many of my pictures taken at the same time came out better on the tiny Sony RX100.
Battery life is poor, get at least one extra, but that is cheap.
DP Review rates these Sonys in the highest regard. The newest is $ 1,000 but the first, the RX100 is just as good without the 4 K video, for $ 368.
And thanks again for posting in the boating forum for me.
Last edited by mgforshort; 05-10-2019 at 11:08 AM..
With the acceptance that my photography "skills" are pretty much at "snapshot" level and the desire for a no-fuss convenient size/weight pocket travel camera along with a limited budget for this, I figured it best to adjust my expectations. $400 and up price range cameras appear to be way more camera than I might ever be able to effectively utilize, and $1,000 camera's are simply out of the question.
So I found a brand NOS in the box Canon sx620HS "kit" for $180. It's only 20.4 mp, but I think that's a huge step up from the 14 mp Nikon I'd been using. I've got a couple of high capacity memory cards, so didn't need to buy any new ones. The standard features of this camera far exceed my limited skills and I don't need the ability to pursue extreme situations of low light, far ends of the focal length ability, fancy details to composition, etc. We'll see how well it works on the next camping trip.
PS: it's amazing how the camera reviews and comparo's detail and confound a prospective buyer at the low end of the camera marketplace as to "why?" one camera might be preferred to another. The little details are lost in the bigger picture (pun intended!) of simply capturing decent quality snapshot photos to document our travels, scenery, fishing results, views from our campsites or enroute aerial photos of the scenery we pass by. In any event, it was difficult to appreciate that the subtle differences between much more expensive cameras would lead to a price/value decision of any meaningful value.
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