Camera Purchase Suggestions

i think you'll be very hard pressed to find an 8MP camera with good video capabilities. in fact i reckon it'd be hard to find a good quality 8MP camera which can even take video at all.

The S3 IS is 6MP, not bad at sports shots, smaller than a dSLR, won't break your bank, and has a fairly good video mode (i think 640x480 @ 30 fps is the highest res possible).

To stop motion (if that's what you mean by motion shots) you're right that you need high shutter speeds, but all cameras these days have shutter speeds that are more than up to the task of capturing any speeds a dog is likely to attain (unless you combine the dog with some kind of supplementary propulsion system)

The problem is that in anything other than bright sunlight, because most point-and-shoot cameras have lenses with small maximum apertures, the in order to have enough light to expose the picture, you either need the shutter to be open longer, or you need to use a higher ISO setting. Most point and shoots have very poor high-ISO modes.

example: if there is only enough light to expose a shot properly at f/2.8 (the widest aperture on most POS cameras) at ISO 100 at 1/60th of a second. However, your dog is far away, so you zoom in, which increases the aperture to f/4.0, which lengthens the shutter speed necessary 1/30th of a second. This is going to too slow for actions shots. So, you can raise the ISO to 200, which would raise the shutter speed to 1/60th. Still probably not enough. ISO 400 would get you to 1/125th of a second. Much better. ISO 800 to 1/250th. Better still.

According to this review:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilmf31fd/

The Fuji f31fd has really good high ISO modes for a point-and shoot camera, up to ISO 800 according to the review. Most are pretty bad at anything over ISO 200 (even though this and other cameras can go as high as ISO 3200)

I've never used or seen this camera. But the review looks good.

Another point: this is 6.3 megapixels. 7, 8, or 10 megapixels are more, sure, but that doesn't mean that the pictures will be clearer.

miloblithe said:

all cameras these days have shutter speeds that are more than up to the task of capturing any speeds a dog is likely to attain (unless you combine the dog with some kind of supplementary propulsion system)

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LOL- You, uh, don't happen to have any pictures of what this might look like, do you? Are you referring to the now defunct, Jato Dog upgrade?

MiniMini said:

- A camera with high MB (Preferable higher than 8MP) for very clear pictures.
- Great for taking lots of "motion" pictures. (I'd be taking a lot of pics of my dog running, etc. Should I be looking one with very fast shuttle speed?)
- the smaller in size, the better. (A plus if it's good looking)
- Not too expensive (below $400).
- Can take great quality videos.

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A high MP count does not make a clearer picture. It could actually degrade the image quality with additional noise and sensitivity to camera shake with some many pixels crammed into a tiny sensor.

Smaller camera -> Smaller lens -> Reduced optical performance -> Reduced image quality

Check out DPReview as the previous poster has mentioned, do some research, and find the one you like.

I recently purchased a Canon Powershot G7 and I love it. Its full of functionality and allows to set pretty much anything you want. It has a pretty decent burst mode (for a none DSLR camera) and a great lens. I'm not sure what you pay for the G7 in your neck of the woods, but I'd have to believe its somewhere in the region of $400.