Movi's question prompted a variety of answers, including the usual few to say he'd asked the wrong question. Anyway, here's a chance to air any personal feelings about the best and most useful feature a modern digicam can have.
My game so I'll play first. My absolute favourite feature is a swivelling LCD screen. My Canon A640 from 2007 has one and it makes the thing so much easier to use that relying on a fixed screen seems archaic; even when I'm using the camera at eye level, I generally swing the screen out to the side. It opens up new possibilities in street photography too, because I can view at waist level and take pictures without conspicuously holding up a camera.
Who's next?
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>> My absolute favourite feature is a swivelling LCD screen.
>> My Canon A640 from 2007 has one and it makes the thing so much easier.
I have the same camera, and it's my favourite thing too. When I bought it, I didn't realise how useful and adaptable it would be. Great for taking self portraits mounted on a tripod - you can get yourself positioned perfectly within the frame before the self timer finishes. I've also taken shot's of the coast with the camera on a low wall as a steady and the screen swivelled upwards in order to take the shot from a sitting position on the wall. It's a bit bulky to transport compared to the slimline camera's but it's nice to hold in the hand.
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I likes everything about my Lumix G2 except ... the infra-red focusing thingamajig that scares the blimmin birds away!
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Love my G2 too, but I need better lense for it! Actually could that be a Birthday present instead of a prat nav? I will see how much some basic zoom lenes are.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Fri 24 Aug 12 at 12:47
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If you want the 45-200mm lens for the G2 from Panasonic then on Amazon they're just over £200. If you wanted the versatile 14-140mm then that's a lot more.
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>>Actually could that be a Birthday present instead of a prat nav?<<
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
:}
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My Olympus E10 Camedia (mint condition with all accessories including lithium power pack if anyone fancies it) from the year 2000 has a swivelling screen. It's beautifully made and works almost like a real camera but it's a bit bulky to be bothered with now.
My Nikon compact knows when it's looking at a face, which I think is pretty remarkable. Don't know what difference it makes though.
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My 1960 35mm Edixa SLR camera had a "waist level vewfinder and a removable pentaprism. It was such a rare feature that very very few realised I could take shots without lifting the camera to my eye.
My favourite feature on lenses prior to my DSLR was the depth of field scale.
Current camera is so so light compared with film cameras.
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>> My Nikon compact knows when it's looking at a face, which I think is pretty remarkable.
>> Don't know what difference it makes though.
It will make sure the face is in focus. I think I am right in thinking mine would ensure all faces are in focus. And track their movement too (or mine) and still keep focussed. If the camera is capable of it (mine is) it would then change the depth of field to slightly blur the background.
Mine (if I set it up) actually recognises the faces too! That's a bit pointless IMO.
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My Nikon SLR allows me to focus on a something like a football player, and it can then track him/her as they move across the screen, moving towards or away from the camera, keeping them in focus - even keeping it up when other people run across in front of them. It doesn't always get it right, but it is pretty amazing most of the time.
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The Panasonic Lumix G2 does that too (so do other Lumix cameras). You can even select the target to focus on by touching the screen.
If I'd made use of it, the preview feature is cool on the G2. It will preview the settings live... so if the long shutter speed would end up with a blurred image it shows that live. Likewise if the fast shutter would stop movement showing.
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"My absolute favourite feature is a swivelling LCD screen. My Canon A640 from 2007 has one "
I've got the A620, and I agree that the swivelling LCD screen is brilliant. More than that, it also has an optical viewfinder! Why can't most modern equivalents provide those two features?
However, I don't use my A620 much these days, but choose to use cameras (the Panasonic Lumix LX3 and the Samsung WB600) which lack those two excellent features. My main grumble with the A620 was that its zoom range was only 35 to 140. I could live with 140, but found not being able get wider than 35 was frustrating. The Panasonic and the Samsung both have a zoom range that starts at 24, so I guess if you can call that a feature, it's my favourite.
My second and third favourites? Probably the fact that the Samsung also has a pretty good (for a cheap camera) zoom range at the telephoto end (up to 360) - and the fact that both cameras have image stabilization - which is very hand for those of us who are too lazy to carry tripods.
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I've got a Samsung PL120. The best feature on it is the Smart Auto mode, it makes the camera far and away the best point-and-shoot compact I've had. It does faces, scenes etc and responds really quickly too. I've taken better pictures with this than any other camera I've had. Shame I smacked it on a rock whilst falling into a waist-deep rockpool the other week :(
70 quid new for a 14MP, 5x optical zoom compact, and it has more features than most models selling for twice the price. Biggest gimmick on it though is the front LCD screen - would be great for teenagers who take selfshots all the time but absolutely no use to me.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Fri 24 Aug 12 at 22:24
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I've had a Samsung WB600 for about 2 years now, great little camera, well made + excellent lens.
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I think you indirectly answered your own question about viewfinders, Tyro: the (welcome) trend towards wider zooms makes it harder for a straight-through optical finder to offer a view of the scene rather than a view of the front of the camera.
I chose the A640 as much for the optical finder as for the swivel screen (and over the perfectly capable A620 because I wanted it in black!) but I find I overwhelmingly use the screen. I would like something wider, which is why I've been looking at the G12 and G1-X, but Nikon's new P7700 looks good too, with a swivel but no finder. I suspect I'll stick with Canon, though, mainly because I'm used to the Canon interface; I find the Beestlings' Panasonics a struggle by comparison, although the results are good.
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Cameras: favourite feature - Fursty Ferret
