I'm afraid I'm am going to ask the usual question: "which camera should I choose?" Looking for a decent point and shoot, not a lot of fuzz, but still taking pride in getting good results.
Sony DSC W100 Fujifilm Finepix F30 Canon SD 550 (Canon SD 600, wasn't able yet to test this camera myself)
I have based my choice and opinion so far on online testresults, especially sample imgages I downloaded and I have tested the cameras, with the exception of the SD 600, myself in various photoshops I visited - getting on the salesmen their nerves... Though one shop, on a very quiet cloudy day, allowed me to upload different images, I shot with the cameras, on their computer to evaluate. They had fun too, comparing the photo's, but didn't necessarily agree with my findings, especially concerning colour reproduction.
You can read my findings if you like or you could skip this part and move to my questions at the end - yes I even wrote a long report and still cannot make up my mind...isn't that ridiculous?
My findings, categorized:
Color. Canon SD 550's color accuracy was the best, my findings corresponded with many online tests I read and the sample images I downloaded to compare. However: I find the saturation way too high and how accurately this camera reproduced the colors, I still find the results often to be rather unnatural, a cartoon world with very bright colors, sometimes at the cost of subtle details.
Fujifilm Finepix F30 is the complete opposite in this regard, the colors are mostly undersatured and the green and yellows, just like the digitalcamerainfo.com test showed, were noticably (even for the untrained eyes) different than the actual colors. But apart from that: I still like the colors, they have a subtle cinematic quality, I mean many movies nowadays aren't that brightly colored but show little, subtle color which looks classy to me (or maybe I have set the colors on my television pretty low?) You can also set the white balance on cloudy (or whatever Fuji calls it) which boosts the colors a bit, but to me that looked unnatural.
Sony DSC W100 performed the best in my opinion, the colors look very natural, aren't that highly saturated as Canon's nor are they tame and undersatured as Fujifilm's. And the biggest advantage to me is the following: when setting the color-mode on "vivid", it actually mimics Canon's default setting, pretty handy if I want to have that bright, highly satured blue sky, which sometimes can be very pleasing. (though in some cases, with the "vivid" mode, the image would turn out a bit darker, but brighten it up in the most basic photo-editing program will probably be adequate) And setting the color-mode on "natural" it undersatures the colors and almost mimics in that way Fujifilm's default setting.
The resolution/sharpness/iso showed Fujifilm as a clear winner. Fujifilm's images looked very sharp with a good amount of contrast, lots of detail up to iso 800. Sony perfomed well too, but at iso 800 it got more blurry, iso 400 did it handle pretty well, though not as good as Fujifilm. Some tests on the internet showed some soft edges and purple fringing with this Sony model, I didn't notice that myself in the shots I took, that said, I probably won't make larger prints than A4 anyway. The Canon performed poor at iso 400 (Fujifilm performs even better on iso 800 than that), lot of noise in comparison with Fujifilm and Sony, but at iso 80, 100 and 200 it matched Sony. All models perfomed well in the "noise-department" at iso 80, 100 and 200 settings, although some tests I read on the internet showed Fujifilm as a clear winner, closely followed by Sony.
The exposure of all models was good, I encountered not one poor result, though just like imagingrecourse.com and digitalcamerainfo.com mention, Fujifilm slightly overexposures outdoors, not a real problem actually, setting the exposure compensation fixed at -0,3 or -0,6 will do the trick.
Low light performance (tested without flash) There's no clear winner here. Fujifilm has the advantage on paper: an iso range from 80 to 3200, very low noise, a custom white balance and "long shutter" option, 15 seconds as longest time (curiously enough the shutter priority programs longest shutter is 3 second) - and good flash features, but as said I didn't use them. The results didn't necessarily favour Fuji over the others. Fujifilm's colors were, when using manual white balance, a bit dark and lacklustre, automatic white balance did add some warmth, where Fujifilm's images faired well with. Canon and Sony both have their strong points and weak points Canon has the "long shutter" option and manual white balance as-well, but it's iso only goes to 400 and is not usable for A4 prints, way too much noise. Sony has manual control of the shutter, up to 30 seconds, an iso range from 80 to 1600 and it lets more light through its lens than Canon and just like Fujifilm usable A4 prints at iso 400 Unfortunately Sony doensn't have a manual white balance and this may be Sony's achilles heel - exactly the point where I'm gonna ask some questions about later on.
All camera's delivered pretty good results in low light, though some images by Canon were darker, where other images by Fujifilm could use more color-saturation (I can learn from experience in this case, where exposure compensation is required and where not) Canon's color rendition was the best overall, in both tungsten white balance and manual white balance, though Sony's pictures, not having a manual white balance, didn't look unnatural at all, a slighty yellowish glow at worst. Yes, the yellow glow is noticeable, but to be perfectly honest it only turned out inferior or negatively in direct comparison with correct white balanced pictures by Canon and while seeing the results on the actual place I took the shot. In comparison with Fujifilm I liked Sony's colors better. And finally, Fujifilm's and Sony's pictures were better exposed than Canon's, which images were darker.
(There is a way in which Sony's non-manual white balance works a bit better in difficult lightings: when I choose color mode "natural" it undersatures color quite a bit and couple that with tungsten white balance setting and an exposure compensation of +1 or +1,5, the results are very similar and even better than Canon's tungsten white balance setting...but still not as good as Canon's manual white balance though)
Focussing. Sony and Fujifilm performed the best. They offer what I like best: a choice between Single (Center) AF and Multi AF. Canon doesn't have a choice, it chooses the focus point itself out of 9 points, which is a hit or miss. Sony isn't that snappy, but it performed silent and solid, whereas Fujifilm was noisy at times.
Speed. Not an issue for me, it is not likely I'm going to take shots of moving objects. Canon is the fastest overall.
Features. Canon has the most fancy pancy tweak options. "My colors" is fun, though in practice only the custom color mode is really useful, where you can alter the saturation of red, blue and green and skin tones. It doesn't have, with the exception of exposure compensation and manual white balance any manual controls. Sony has a (limited) full-manual control, but why you only have a choice between 2 apertures at a time beats me and why oh why doesn't Sony have the abilty to set the white balance manually? Fujifilm has the best manual options: shutter and aperture priority, many flash settings and manual white balance, but lacks an optical viewfinder. Fujifilm's manual controls are really nice, but I'm not particularly looking for them, I want a good point and shoot only.
Handling. Sony was the most intuitve, fits my hands well and its optical viewfinder is slightly better than Canon's. (I do like the looks of Canon's screen menu the best, the familiair icons which reminds me of Canon's and Nikon (film)SLR's I used)
Looks. Sony. Hands down. I ike conventional (retro) boxy cameras a lot and if I had to choose on good looks alone it would be either the Sony or the Canon SD600 (which I haven't tested myself yet). Sony looks and feels solid, it is sleek, though in an understated way. The Canon SD550 is a tad too shiny, the chrome parts on the lens, and I don't like the curve on the right, the boxy SD600 is much prettier The backs of the Canons look more plasticky than Sony. Fujifilm is gorgeously built, but it doesn't look as good as the Sony and the Canons.
So there you have it, I did my homework well and while I evaluate my findings I tend to give Sony DSC W100 my final choice. However, this camera doesn't have a manual white balance and although I got good results with its auto and tungsten white balance (at low light and indoors choosing "natural color") I'm not sure it will perform that good in other, more difficult lighting conditions. Is there a way you can trick the auto white balance, getting a little more control out of it? And will editing in Photoshop, removing the yellow glow if necessary, damage the picture, adding digital noise to it? Last question: how does Canon SD600 compares to Canon SD550? If better I would be interested, if worse than pass that one.
By the way, I'm aware of all the reliability issues regarding Sony on this forum, in the Netherlands however I more often read about Canon's E18 error than any particular Sony camera malfunction, but I really would like to keep this reliability issue out of it, I don't see the need in doubting the reliabilty of the cameras I mentioned. Mostly I read and hear good experiences about Sony, Canon and Fujifilm in the Netherlands, and as I said earlier: I did my homework...and I feel lucky ;)
Finally, it is possible you'll encounter the exact same long post somewhere else on another forum. I have put some time in it, trying to write in proper Engish (which is not my native language) and just copy/paste this text is far more economical than writing the same long report/question again. Thanks for reading this post anyway.
Thanks for your answer and yes, it is true all models will serve me well, but considering I tend to favour the Sony I would like to know if the absence of a manual white balance will cause problems in the long run: poor results which cannot be properly corrected in a photo editing program?
The results I got with Sony's auto white balance and various presets were good, natural and even favorable, colorwise, to Fujifilm's manual white balance, but I didn't test it properly of course, I didn't have enough time to test in various situations, surroundings and lightings.
I don't mind editing results afterwards, in fact I would enjoy it a lot, if it is possible of course without adding noise to the picture.
I just recently got more interested in digital photography and occasionally I have tweaked some pictures I downloaded from the internet, just to learn from it, especially about color reproduction. What the real colors of paintings by Matisse or Klee look like you'll only know if you see them for real in the museum. It's great though to see all the different reproductions and deciding by intuition and personal preferences what looks best or most real. I don't necessarily strive for the upmost accuracy, adjusting the colors afterwards is fine enough, if it doesn't damage the quality that is.
From my experience, the white balance is never a problem with photo editing software and dependent upon skill. The only time you cannot do anything for a photograph is when you blow the highlights and over exposure.
If you tend to favour Sony, I suspect that you will be very happy with it.
