digital cameras; ~350€

[Wulfman]

I've looked through the forum, the last thread about this topic was started in september, so here we go:

a friend is searching for a camera, pricetag around €350.

His current favourite is the Fuji finepix 2600 zoom.

Anybody with 1st/2nd-hand experiences, links to professional tests, alternatives?

thx,
wulfman

[LvR]

You can start your search at

http://www.digitalphotouser.co.uk/dpu/

Personally, been using an Olympus C2000 for the last about 18 monhs - love its manual exposure settings, and its supersharp and fast F2 lens. I know its outdated when compared to the current 5 and 6M pixel cams, but for my purposes, I find its able to produce very nice prints up to about A4 size without a problem on both the HP9xx and Epson 89x range of printers.

Also tried it on an Epson 2000 (A3 100 year archive ink etc etc) but while the result is amazing, one gets the idea that more pixels are needed to get the detail at those print sizes - The Minolta Dimage 5 or 7 (very expensive) produce really good looking A3 prints with its 5M pixel ccds.

I would suggest a look at the current range of Pentax and Epson cameras with 3M pixel ccds - results that I have seen from those cams certainly impressed me (not that it takes alot to impress me though )

Rough guide in the industry says 300dpi makes a "good" quality print (whatever the hell that is ?) - so in theory - get a camera with a ccd resolution equal to the 300dpi spec at the time of printing - ie - if you intend printing a pic with a dimention of 8x10 inches, make sure that there is enough pixels in the pic to ensure at least that res - you will need 8x300x10x300 (7M!) pixels in theory - the mind boggles!

[PowerHungry]

I just got for Christmas a Olympus D510. It is pretty good, 2.1 MP, SM card, and is the more personal version of the C-2040. But it sells for 400 USD, but I found it online for about 300 USD. Try http://shopper.cnet.com/shopping/res...r.mp.pr6051115

it is a CNET price comparison site, and the lowest I saw was 309 USD, which is about what you are looking for. I hope I was of some help.

[xortam]

I'm interested in finding the lightest digital cameras to use for backpacking. Do you know where I can find a list that includes the weights?

[LvR]

https://www.what-digital-camera.com

These guys used to list weight etc amongst other specs whenever they published a currently avaialble list of digicams.

Lots of other useful info there as well.

[xortam]

I see individual reviews which list the weight but I don't see a table of cameras and specs.

[Wombat]

I <I>just</I> bought the Canon Powershot S300 for myself. It's 2.1MP, 3x optical, 2.5x digital. Small, and even with it's all-metal case, it's < 300g with the battery and flash card installed (240g empty). It is about $400-$500 US.

You might also look at the S110. Very similar camera, but with 2x optical zoom, rather than 3x. It is smaller (the size of a deck of playing cards) and lighter (50g less), but still has the metal casing. It's also about $100 cheaper, and Canon has a promotion to get a free case, extra battery, and 16MB CF card, which is worth another ~$100. Also, both cameras can record MPEG movies in sound, for the times that might be nifty.

I looked at the Fuji 2600 as well. Nice camera, but size was a real concern for me. I don't carry around my film camera because it's too big to be practical, but this Canon will easily fit in my vest pocket.

[xortam]

Thanks Wombat. The S110 looks like it would do the job. I currently use a 130g disposable film camera but I'd go up to 2/3 # for a good digital camera. I wouldn't use the zoom feature and the 110's wide angle is the same as the 300's (35 mm) so I opt for the weight reduction. Looks like they've finally gotten these cameras hi-res and light weight enough for my use.

[Indiana]

I'd recommend an Olympus as well. They might be a bit more expensive (and unfortunately a bit bigger as well), but they have the "best colours" (to put it in a non-technical phrase), especially when you have less than optimal exposure/light conditions. They also usually have better possibilities for the user to manually adjust and still get high quality pictures where the automatic fails. I'd pay up to $100 more for an Olympus than an otherwise equally specced other digi-cam.

[Wulfman]

thanks so far,

I've forwarded every information to my friend, he is still not sure... wonder why?!

mfg
wulfman

[xortam]

I found another digicam site that I had bookmarked ... Megapixel.net. Good reviews but again no comparison table including weight.

[LvR]

Xortam

It would seem that this is one of those cases where its still better to buy the paper version (magazine) - I have a very nice table in the magazine but none on the website (what-digital-camera).

The magazine is expensive, but in your case most likely worth the money if you can find the mag locally.

Nice site you suggested there - thanks - the forum also seems to be very busy with a vast range of topics.

------------------------------------------------

Indiana

In my opinion and experience size defenitely counts with digicams. The "shutter action" 35mm equivalent on a didgicam seems to take forever on most (if not all) cams (the Nikon D1 range can do around 9 shots per second now ) - the result is a very "long" time required after the "shutter" button is depressed where the cam should be held still in order not to pic up "camera shake" and blurring pics. The smaller and the lighter the cam the bigger the chance of having blurred results - maybe its Jack Daniels talking as well, but the Coolpix 775, the Kyocera 3M and the baby Canon I had an oprtunity to try were all so cute and "pocketable" , but I will be damned if I could lay more than 4 fingers in total of both my hands on these buggers - the result being that you cant grip the darn thing and you end up wondering where the thing is pointed at exactly!

I also find the buttons on these super light/small cams in general way too small, but then again maybe its me.

[SuRGV]

This is very good site. Full reviews.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/

[xortam]

Need to buy the mag

Its starting to shape up that way Lawrence. I'll check the bookstore and probably find what I need. For now I'm just looking for a backpackable camera. I can research it more thoroughly later when I look for a general use photographer's camera.

[VJ]

Well, this is a good reference : digital photo review

Additional comment :
A friend of mine is very pleased with his Canon Powershot G2 (>1000 Euro), I was interested in a Minolta Dimage 7 (>1000 Euro), but I personally feel the camera is not that "comfortable" to handle (too small, no proper grip). It has the likings of a semi-pro camera, but lacks soms refinements...


Jörg