And the prize was a consumer digital camera with the following criteria:
- Under US $500
- New to the market
- Has wide consumer appeal
Which camera would you choose? I was thinking of the Canon Powershot S2 or the Sony Cybershot DSC-N2.
Any suggestions?
If You Were Running a Contest…
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DarrenBarefoot.com 
Kodak EasyShare V610
Canon.
That being said, I love, love, love my Olympus Camedia D-535 that I got through a contest.
The Nikon S10 — swivel, 10x zoom. The swivel alone makes it cool.
The Canon Powershot S2 is not new…it has already been superseded by the S3.
My brother recently debated over the same brands, slightly different models. He found a lot of users reported numerous issues with the Canon, so the Sony ended up being his choice. He’s been really happy with it since. Based on that, I’d say the Sony.
Go with Canon or Nikon.
The Canon, hands down. Sony is a sinking ship.
Thanks for all the useful, if conflicting, recommendations.
I’ll give you some reasons: I generally recommend Canon for consumer digicams, because they seem to wait and think about how to apply the latest technologies, rather than “hey, we’ve got a gazillion megapixels!” They also make great lenses and their cameras take good pictures.
Nikon, while also great for DSLRs (and, as an aside, even among SLR-using pros, who used to be Nikon fanatics in the film era, they’re losing out to Canon in may respects), creates consumer digicams with confusing interfaces and, to my mind, poor aesthetics. Kodak’s products feel low-end to me, and the Kodak I owned fell apart in too short a time. Olympus and Pentax are decent but I don’t have much more of an opinion of them in any direction. Panasonic is making some good cameras, but their consumer models lack optical viewfinders, which Canon still has and which are useful.
Finally, I reject any Sony products categorically ever since the audio CD rootkit fiasco last year, and other evidence that they despise their own customers. Plus the Memory Stick storage is too expensive and proprietary to Sony. Yes, the cameras often have nice Zeiss lenses, and their new Alpha DSLRs are competitive, but they don’t deserve your business.
Go Canon. The S2, even though an old model, is a good camera that takes great pictures, and that’s what counts.
I recently had the same though, with an article Sony DSC H5 v.s. Sony H1. That’s my two bits–I have a Canon and a Sony and prefer the quality of the Sony.
Well, Darren, since our business is contests, I’d have to ask you more about your audience and how you’re promoting the contest. The prize itself typically isn’t the hook you’d think it would be. Check out our blog for more about prizes and contest best practice. Feel free to email me too–happy to give you some pointers. Cheers!