I'm not up to date on the point and shoot camera world, so maybe someone here can help me out. My real job is that I'm a chemical engineer at a nuclear plant. I have to have a camera for work purposes that goes into radiologically contaminated areas pretty often. Up until now I've always used the Canon Powershot S3 IS. It has been great performance wise, but it's life has come to an end. It has been banged up and abused, and the lens will no longer retract into the camera. Just makes grinding/motor sounds and gives me a "lens error. please restart camera." My boss has given me to the go-ahead to write a purchase request for two "good, but not top of the line (aka not too expensive)" digital point and shoots. I would say on average once per day I'm inside a c-zone dressed in full yellows with my a camera taking photos of the inside of a pipe wall, valve, heat exchanger, etc. Most of the time it's pretty dark where I'm taking the photo. I would like to get something without a lens cap because that's always been a problem in the past having to find a place to put it once I'm inside and taking photos (no pockets in the yellow suits). I don't think I'll want an ultra-compact just because I'll always at least be wearing one pair of gloves while using it, and the buttons can get pretty small. I'm not certain I'm confident in the quality of an ultra-compact anyway. The photos can get pretty high exposure. This week I took about 40 photos with my powershot that had to be used to evaluate the degradation of a couple of valves that isolate a safety related system we have, and the evaluation of the photos caused the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to send out a team that showed up this morning to inspect the valves themselves, and the story made the front page of our paper and the evening news. If only my hobby photography got that kind of exposure... haha.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys and gals!
The G9 looks like a nice one. I'm not sure if I can get them to spend that much on two cameras (after all, this is government work ;) ), but that would be my first choice.
The Exilim z1080 is more in the price range of what I can probably get them to approve. The catch is that I'm going to have to pick up the camera locally in the morning, and it will probably have to be at our local walmart. For some reason they seem to build nuclear plants in pretty remote areas.
We were very happy with the S3 IS, until we had it tear up on us during a forced outage when we needed it. That's the reason we're buying two cameras this time. But from what I hear, the lens error issue is something that's affected 40,000+ S2/S3/S5 users.
The brother got one of these after recommendation from a chum who has worked for National Geographic and all sorts. Serious optics - don't know so much about the resistance to absolutely everything though. Skiing and mountaineering it has to handle, that much I know :)
If you were happy with the S3, why not go for the S5? You can get it for around $300 now if you shop around. The G9 sounds good except that it's size and lack of a handgrip probably won't be the best for use while wearing a rubber suit. It's also more $$.
If you need to go even cheaper, the Fujifilm S700/S5700 is a pretty decent larger compact, with a deep, rubbery grip on it. It can be gotten for $200 or less now. And Wal-mart sells it.
I use a camera a lot for work as well (aerospace engineer). I use the S3. For work use I love the great macro capability, large zoom range, useable images at ISO 200 & F2.7 for all the low light conditions, and the flip out and twist view finder is invaluable as many times I'm taking a picture of something where I can't or don't want to have my head behind the camera. Plus the video capability cames in handy quite often when a photo won't tell the whole story. Several of my coworkers bought D40's with the kit lens and frequently come borrow my S3.
I'd make a list of the features you want and need first and then narrow it down to a list of cameras that have those features.
