[asianromance]

i'm trying to decide which digital camera to get and need any advice you can give:

Deciding among:
Canon a630 (love the swivel lcd!)
Canon SD500 (small and compact)
Fuji a700 (love the design)

And does anyone have any idea about the flash recharge in these cameras. I heard the A630 is pretty good with it but am not sure about the others. Any other camera you would recommend [under $250]?

[15;;1/2]

Either of the two Canon cams would be good.. I don't know a lot about cams under $250..but Canon is a good brand so yeah.. ^^;

[tsuyoyo]

I have a Canon SD500 and it is an awesome camera. The flash recharge is a little slow, but not too much so. If you're in the right conditions, you rarely have to use the flash anyway. I love the special color modes you can put it in.

The only complaint I have about it is the zoom, which is a little choppy. But if you're like me and don't use zoom very much, it's not a big deterrent.

[malevolent.]

I have the SD500 and I love it. Highly recommend it.

[watcher]

the a630 will give you better image quality, but the sd500 isnt too far behind. the positives of the sd500 is that it's compact and looks nicer than the a630. but that's usually the case between the sd vs a models.

that fuji is kinda new...but on paper, the fuji seems to give the best of both worlds.

-has a larger sensor than either the sd500 or the a630 (usually leads to higher image quality).
-it's just a tad bit bigger than the sd500, but much smaller than the a630 (meaning it's ultra-compact)
-the LCD is 2.4' (the 630 is 2.0 i believe)

if you want to take a risk, i'd go with the fuji. if you want to go canon, it's a toss-up between slightly better image quality vs compact/style.

if it were me, i'd find a place where i can buy the fuji and return for full refund or store credit after 2 weeks. that way, if the fuji doesnt pan out, i can get either of the canon models.