... I don't need lots of megapixels. ...
2.1
The camera must focus close.
10cm
The camera must be able to turn off the flash.
Yes.
The camera must be able to under or over expose.
+/- 2EV
Does the IXY satisfy the above requirements? I always liked those little cameras but I don't know much about them.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_s100.asp
I had one of the original Canon IXUS / IXY / S100 (depending upon country) cameras. I was (am) very pleased with the resulting images. If you look at a crude calculation of area per sensor pixel, the S100 stacks up well compared to some more recent offerings.
I've included the calculations below. The numbers are tab-separated, so you should be able to paste as text to see the columns lined up.
&i (:
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Type Aspect Tube Diag- Width Height Area
Ratio Size -onal mm mm mm^2
1/2.7" 4:3 9.407 6.721 5.371 4.035 21.67
1/2.5" 4:3 10.16 7.182 5.760 4.290 24.71
1/2" 4:3 12.7 8 6.400 4.800 30.72
1/1.8" 4:3 14.11 8.933 7.176 5.319 38.17
2/3" 4:3 16.93 11 8.800 6.600 58.08
1" 4:3 25.4 16 12.800 9.600 122.88
4/3" 4:3 33.87 22.5 18.000 13.500 243.00
APS-C 3:2 n/a 28.3 23.500 15.700 368.95
35 mm 3:2 n/a 43.3 36.000 24.000 864.00Theoretical area per megapixel (mm/Mp) Type 2.1 4 5 6.3 1/2.7" 10.32 5.42 4.33 3.44 1/2.5" 11.77 6.18 4.94 3.92 1/2" 14.63 7.68 6.14 4.88 1/1.8" 18.18 9.54 7.63 6.06 2/3" 27.66 14.52 11.62 9.22 1" 58.51 30.72 24.58 19.50 4/3" 115.71 60.75 48.60 38.57 APS-C 175.69 92.24 73.79 58.56 35 mm 411.43 216.00 172.80 137.14
Indexed theoretical area per megapixel relative to sensor 1/2.7" 2.1Mp Type 2.1 4.0 5.0 6.3 1/2.7" 1.00 0.53 0.42 0.33 1/2.5" 1.14 0.60 0.48 0.38 1/2" 1.42 0.74 0.60 0.47 1/1.8" 1.76 0.92 0.74 0.59 2/3" 2.68 1.41 1.13 0.89 1" 5.67 2.98 2.38 1.89 4/3" 11.21 5.89 4.71 3.74 APS-C 17.02 8.94 7.15 5.67 35 mm 39.87 20.93 16.74 13.29
