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I'm looking to replace my old Canon S1 IS. What I liked about the S1 is:

  • image stabilization, my hands shake.
  • very little shutter lag
  • decent low light
  • AA batteries mean I'm never without juice long.

My wife hates it because its bulky and has lots of buttons that she has no use for. So we got a Nikon s210 which has all of 3 buttons and a touch screen. That was a waste of money. That Nikon couldn't take a decent picture for Ansel Adams let alone the two of us.

We have an 8 month old baby so we're taking lots of indoor shots and the occasional video of our son. He rarely sits still long enough to compose and fire, so the camera has to have as little shutter lag as possible and work well in indoor (read: bad) lighting.

How can I cut through the clutter of specs and geewhiz elements to find a camera that is fast (shutter lag) and can handle the indoors well?

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Are AA batteries a must? Most of the high end compacts will have proprietary batteries so that the size can be reduced. Also when you say decent at low light are we talking about focus or ISO performance? – dstrom♦ Nov 4 at 8:01
@Dstrom - battery type isn't a pre-req. I'm looking more for guidelines in how to shop for a new camera. – Rob Allen Nov 4 at 14:09
Pedantic, but Ansel Adams would still have made a stunning image out of the picture because he was so good at his development and post-production. – Alistair Knock Nov 4 at 23:57
@Alister - maybe, but you need material to work with in post. This camera makes such blotchy, orange-tinged photos without the flash or perfect lighting that I doubt much could be made without drawing it pixel by pixel. These are lighting situations my old S1 handled easily. – Rob Allen Nov 5 at 15:35

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We also have a new baby. I have been very pleased with our Cannon PowerShot S90. Controls are very similar to other Canon P&S cameras but it it has a much larger sensor than most P&S and a lens that opens to F/2. I find that its speed and time to focus is typical of other P&S cameras but if I half press the shutter and wait until I get the position/expression I am looking for it keeps up just fine.

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I picked one of these up a few weeks ago, it is a good camera, but I think that there are a few issues with the camera. If you shoot RAW, there is quite a bit of barrel distortion that is corrected in the jpg's. There is also a fair bit of purple fringing and finally there is only a single focus point (though you can focus lock and recompose). These aren't show stoppers but its something worth noting. Having said that I've taken some great photos with this camera. – dstrom♦ Jan 30 at 7:44
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The Canon PowerShot cameras with models starting with an 'A' will use AA batteries. Their current line if A1000, A1100, A2000 all have IS and will allow you to shoot at ISO 3200.

http://www.dpreview.com always has decent reviews of most cameras.

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