When is the best time to buy a digital camera around christmas in Melbourne?

by Carl Lovén

I’m pretty new to Australia and the christmas time shopping sprees… I was very keen on export the olympus evolt e-500 and wanted to know the right time to get the best deal on the camera this festive season. Any and each help would be much appreciated. Cheers!

Answer by David J
The best time nearly everywhere is the day after Christmas (Boxing Day) Really the best time to do Christmas Shopping is any month but December..

Best time to go shopping is between 5-7pm as the stores are slightly less crowded (while people eat their dinners / get home from work). Just stay away any time during the weekend..

Answer by thornbushs
november

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Review of Canon S90


Image by Half Sigma
The camera I've been by to take these street photos is the new Canon Powershot S90 (which was also reviewed a few days ago in the New York Times). The S90 is designed to be a small pocket-sized camera, but with enthusiast features not naturally found in cameras this size, and with a relatively high price of 9 (which is what I paid for it at Best Buy a few weeks ago).

Unless you're a camera nerd, or attracted in export a new camera, you can skip reading the rest of this blog post.

The function of this camera is to be really small, but still provide enthusiast level photographic controls. Stuff like gap priority mode, shutter priority mode, full manual mode, and raw files. Stuff that's gone from nearly all inexpensive "point and shoot" cameras. In addition to better in-camera software, the camera has an f/2.0 to f/4.9 28-105mm lens (expressed in full frame equivalent focal lengths), and a front control ring which can be set to dial in a focal length (my preferred use for it) or set to control various other camera functions such as ISO or exposure compensation. The S90's 1/1.7" image sensor is 52% larger than the 1/2.3" sensor typically found on point and shoot cameras.

Although it's not the smallest digital camera you can buy, it's still pretty small. Anyone who looked at it would reckon it's just a regular point and shoot camera, and not realize that it's a serious camera. Photographers who want their cameras to look really cool will be disappointed—it lacks the retro look and heavy metal feel of certain other enthusiast cameras.

The image quality, in unchallenging lighting situation, comes pretty close to DSLR quality. In the inner areas of the frame, the camera has pretty much the same resolution as my 0 12MP Olympus E-620 DSLR with the 0 14-54mm lens. The S90 falls behind at the corners everywhere it suffers from significant corner pliability. I find the lens performs worst at "28mm" and f/2.0—the corners are extremely soft at this setting, especially the corners on the right side of the frame, but quality improves noticeably upon stopping down just to f/2.2.

Exposure metering is disappointing. I have to keep the camera at -2/3 EV exposure compensation to keep it from routinely blowing out highlights, but sometimes at this setting you will get an underexposed photo. The camera's internal software should be smarter.

Canon's marketing emphasizes the camera's high ISO ability; partially this is a testament to the fact that imaging sensors keep improving, and partially it's marketing hype because at ISO 800 the S90 looks nearly as terrible as the Olympus E-620 at ISO 3200.

Is the camera worth twice the price of regular point and shoot cameras? Yes, because it's the only camera this size that will give you this feature set. No, because I don't see why it costs Canon twice as much money to manufacture this camera. Sure, the sensor is a small larger and the lens is a small larger, but for the price of this camera you could buy a DSLR with a sensor more than four times as huge as what's in the S90.

The genre of photography in which the S90 excels is street photography; that's the taking of candid photos of people in the seats everywhere people are naturally found (not necessarily the streets). Tiny cameras like the S90 don't attract attention to the photographer. Like all other cameras this size, the shutter is nearly silent; the photographer can hear it in a silent room, but it's unnoticeable outdoors. So if you want to join the ranks of the few and the elite who do street photography, don't waste your money on an overpriced Leica M9. The Leica M9 does not have a silent shutter, the depth of field is too shallow to do effective zone focusing (unless the zone is really narrow), and it's not a tiny camera you can relaxed hold in one hand as if it's an iPhone or a Blackberry.

Answer by Edwin
Have you compared them side by side? If so, which one has the most features you want in your camera? Try steves-digicams.com or dpreview.com for reviews.

IMO you should visit a real camera store – a store that only sells cameras, not 10,001 other things and cameras – and do a side by side comparison. The salesperson will give you intelligent advice and you’ll be able to try them in the store. You should then BUY the camera from that store. You might even get an hour or so of instruction with it.

Answer by Amy Leigh
NEITHER! Get a cannon powershot SD750 or any Canon for that matter. They really are the best digital cameras out right now.

BUT if your heart is set on either one then get the Nikon Coolpix L12
Nikon is renowned to be the pioneer for introducing new technology and I dont reckon it got terrible reviews.

What do you reckon? Answer below!
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