Compact digital camera query

I have a Canon Ixus 500. Its served me well but looking for something a bit better. I've been condsidering a Panasonic FX500 but it has a smaller CCD than the Canon (1/2.33'' I think). At 10million pixels is this going to be silly to try to cram all these onto that sensor? The Canon has a larger 1/1.8'' CCD and 5 million pixels. Is it possible the newer camera will be noisier than the old one?

Why do the companies insist on making a big deal about pixels? Lenses and CCDs are surely more important?

So does anyone have an FX500?

For the same bragging reasons that MHz was used for in the computer world. Similar to how CPUs are now moving away from the more MHz = better trend, the compact digitals seem to be including more random features to distinguish them.

That said, I've got the Canon 960IS which has a ludicrous 12MP which to be honest I can't see any noticeable difference. My old camera was a IXUS 500 and it produces similar photos and the only reason I upgraded that the lens mechanism broke. The 960IS was on special offer at the time.

It is entirely possible I'm afraid and the extra noise will be covered up by very aggressive in camera noise reduction. This will be somewhat offset by the fact that there are more pixels, so for viewing the images at a given size you will effectively be zoomed out more from the higher res image.

I am still waiting for one of the manufacturers of consumer compacts to be brave enough to drop back down to 5 or 6 million pixels and focus on making bigger sensors. I can't see it ever happening though.

The Sigma DP1 is interesting, but it needs some more competition.

One of the camera guys at work has a Canon Powershot G9 that he's very happy with.

I'm also trying to avoid the megapixel mess. I'm now considering a 3.5 year old Canon Powershot S70 off eBay.

Or check out the Panasonic Lumix DMX-LX2. Not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but has good features in a small size.

for what it's worth, I have the Panasonic fz-50 (10mp) and the noise is an issue. very poor in low light situations.
as much as I like the camera, I would not recommend it for this reason alone.

I also have the canon sd400 (5mp) and while I am no pro, I would say it's image quality in low light is much better.

hope that's of some help.

-dan

Uhhh, yeah. WHat he said. Sort of.

I really like my FZ-50, but recognize that it is not the best low-light camera. I compensate by shooting low light at low ISO numbers to minimize noise, and hope that the image stabilization will compensate for the low shutter speeds thus required. So far it seems to have done pretty well.

The fantastic 12:1 Leica zoom lens compensates for many potential shortcomings IMHO.

Of course, by no stretch of the imagination can the FZ-50 be considered a compact camera.

tanstaafl.