I am off round the world next year and am thinking of buying myslef a decent compact camera. I noticed that the Canon G9 gets rave reviews (despite the "noise") however it is slightly out of my budget. Having looked round I noticed that the Nikon Coolpix P5100 also gets rave reviews and is listed as good as the Canon G9 and it is also closer to my budget. I just wondered if anyone has any views or experience with the camera?
To buy or not to buy......?!
Reply to this Sadly, my experience is that, despite my loyalty as a Nikon DSLR user, that Nikon point-and-shoot cameras tend to be a bit behind Canon's. The reason for the noise" is the smaller sensor size (not confused with megapixel count) that is found in point and shoot cameras. This problem won't be overcome until the sensor in the cameras becomes dimensionally larger.
Ultimately, you get decent quality out of either a Canon or a Nikon but Canon's color reproduction and sharpness is generally better.
Here's a couple of websites with reviews:
dpreview
Thom Hogan Reply to this We just purchased our first digital camera and using it on our current trip. It is the Nikon Coolpix p60. We have found it easy to learn, easy to use, and are pleased with our pictures. Keep in mind it's our first digital so we didn't want to spend a fortune yet wanted quality photos. I'm not sure what the P5100 is in comparison -- potentially much more professional than our click and shoot. It has both the standard digital screen wtih which to take pictures and a mode to change to see the "old fashioned" way, through a eye-view. We have made that switch many a time because we couldn't see the screen in sun, etc. It has been a big help in taking pictures outside, etc.
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