Digital cameras forum: Camera recommendations - confused by all the reviews

Here is the press release for the Canon A720IS:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0708/07082001canona650720.asp

It has all the bells and whistles you could want.

There are no reviews yet, but it is an update to the popular Canon A710IS, which takes excellent photos.

8 megapixels and 6X optical zoom.

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Each camera is different, and each camera is unique. Dont u dare be put off by the cnet cons because every camera will have them. When buying a camera you have to find what suits you best and if its good for what you want it for. Before you buy a camera mabe its best to have a look at it and mabe even use it for a bit because you just never know.

Anyway all the best and good luck

>cheers<

Personally, it doesn't really matter if there's a better one out there. As long as the camera you have is fine, then you oughtn't worry about it.
If the con ever talks about image quality issues, it'd probably be a good idea to ignore it. Frankly, if you have to ask the question what camera to buy, it is highly unlikely you'll have to worry about image quality. And that's because all cameras on the market today have sufficient image quality.
And it seems like you're into the whole pixel counting thing which I particularly hate. It's unlikely that you'll notice the difference between a 5 and 8 megapixel photo. Frankly, in the compact camera market, I'd go for the camera with lower-megapixel ratings since a cramped sensor means bad light sensitivity and bad noise performance.
As aforementioned the A720 IS might be a good idea. But by my guess, it's unlikely that a teen would want to be caught using one of those.
The Sony T100 is on sale right now, and I think it does match your needs. The reason why it's on sale is because it's been replaced by the Sony T200 which has a 3.5" touch screen (or something of similar size). Or unless you need touchscreen, you can go for the T200. It has 5X zoom, a large screen 2.5" or 3" I believe.
The more recent Canons and Sony cameras VERY GENERALLY have pretty good performance, with the exception of the T200.
Those are the only two cameras that come to my mind. Nikon does have a 5X zoom camera, but it has horrible performance (L5, I believe).

Reviews are helpful in pointing you to cameras that fit your requirements. You talked about camera specifications but didn't mention your photography goals or what kind of pictures you will be taking. After listing your photography goals and kind of pictures you will take, look for 3 to 5 cameras that meet your requirements. Visit some camera stores and actually handle the cameras to see which one you like best physically and for the photography you will do. I have 2 Nikon point & shoot (5 mega pixel & 8 mega pixel) and a Nikon D200 DSLR (10.2 mega pixels and lots and lots of bells and whistles. All 3 take excellent pictures and for the most part you can't tell which camera took what picture until you start enlarging them. The bells and whistles on the DSLR make the camera more versatile and let you do some of the advanced/professional type photography. But you pay for that versatility. The Canon A720 IS looks to be all the camera you would use. Go the the link that was given and read all the specs. If you know and understand what they are, then you should have no trouble deciding what camera you want. If you don't really understand all the specs, then you have some reading and experimenting to do to fully use the camera or any similar camera and you will have a great deal of room to grow with that camera. (I know as I am doing just that with my DSLR!). Don't forget to look at the other cameras that were mentioned, as one of them may end up your personal preference and/or fit exactly into your photography requirements. Good luck and happy shooting!

I was trying to find out where this new camera fit into the other lines of Canon cameras.

It appears to be quite similar to the A650IS except the SX100IS has the 10X optical zoom as compared to the 6X zoom on the A650IS.

The A650IS has 12 megapixels as opposed to the 8 meg in the SX100IS

Other than that, they seem quite similar except for the optical viewfinder on the A650IS

The A650IS sells for about $100 more.

The SX100IS does not have a viewfinder.
Do you find that to be a problem on your camera?
Any problems seeing the LCD screen in bright sunlight?

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