Aaron Lee Fineman: Canon S80
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U.S. News asked seven top photographers to choose the compact digital camera they like best.
Agency: none
Notable award: Pulitzer Prize nominee for breaking news photography
Favorite compact camera: Canon S80
"We sold the Canon G3 in 2005 and bought the Canon S80 (which is the newer version of the S50 that I had planned on getting). The S80 is nice, it is smaller, lighter, and goes to 28 mm, has manual controls, but it does not do RAW. I have actually used the S80 for work, at least for spot news when I am not working and I see something happen. The camera is fast (nearly no shutter delay), the lens is sharp, and the quality of the image (at low ISOs) is quite good. It is a great medium-sized point-and-shoot camera. But my next point-and-shoot camera will most likely be the Canon SD800, which is even smaller than the S80 and has a 28-mm lens. The size of the SD800 is small enough to put in almost any pocket, but it does not have much in the way of manual controls and does not do RAW."
Price check: Amazon, $989 (not widely available as a new camera)