Original ExistDifferently.com Weblog of David, a Christian Network and Systems Manager, with topics ranging from Apologetics to Worldview, and some crypto, open source, programming, opinion, and daily life thrown in between.

I’ve been wanting a new digital camera for a while. My current, an Olympus D-450 Zoom, functions excruciatingly slowly, and only has 1.3 megapixels of resolution. It was top of the line for a consumer camera when I got it five or six years ago, and I’ve taken thousands of pictures with it (over a thousand in Holland alone last year). But it’s now old enough that it’s available on “eBay”:http://www.ebay.com/ for $50 or less.

I’m by no means a professional photographer, or even in the “amateur” category really. I don’t have time to develop those skills. But I like to pretend like I know what I’m doing, and maybe learn something when I have time. It’s an area of interest.

So, I want a camera that rocks, at a cheap price. Yeah, who doesn’t? :-) Well, my style tends to be, “develop composition mentally over a wide subject angle, test composition through camera (mainly LCD but occasionally viewfinder), shoot quickly before subject moves.” I take lots of pictures, fast. I don’t wait for the “perfect shot”, if needed I’ll take several in a row of the same thing to see which comes out best (quality-wise and in composition).

This style really seems to fit a point-and-shoot camera better than an SLR-like (or SLR, if that were in my price range). But I want the flexibility of as many manual controls as possible in case I want to do something a little more advanced, and have the time to set it up.

Also, because of my quick-composition and multi-pictures tendencies, I like to take some wide-angle shots in addition to closeups of the same thing, making a long and fast zoom very helpful.

I’m looking at three cameras, when I can afford one. I’ve been eyeing the “Fuji FinePix E550 Zoom”:http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E550/E55A.HTM for the longest. Earlier tonight I found three others that do that thing I hate — turning an easy decision into a much more subjective and time-consuming one! One is the “Olympus C-7000 Zoom”:http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/C7000/C7KA.HTM, another is the “Casio EXILIM PRO EX-P600”:http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/P600/P60A.HTM, and the final one is the “Canon Powershot S70”:http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/CS70/S70A.HTM. All those links are to reviews at a very awesome site, “Image-Resource.com”:http://www.imaging-resource.com. Another good site with lots of info and in-depth reviews is “Digital Photography Review”:http://www.dpreview.com/, which has info on most, if not all, of the same cameras I just mentioned.

Anyway, I’m going to go through each camera and give some highlights on why I like each. Then I’m going to go to sleep. And later, at a yet-to-be-determined time post more as part 2 of this post.

• “Fuji FinePix E550 Zoom”:http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E550/E55A.HTM
  This camera is awesome (second “review at DPreview.com”:http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilme550/ also available). It has nearly everything, the biggest downside is that it only has a 4x zoom, as opposed to the Olympus’s 5x. I don’t mind that it’s a 6.3 megapixel resolution (Olympus and Canon models have seven), six is plenty. A camera with five megapixels I might consider if everything else was awesome enough, but four or lower is a hard sell. It goes from point-and-shoot to full manual control, with lots of options. DPreview says that timing-wise, this thing goes from off to ready-to-shoot in 1.5 seconds, zooms from widest to maximum in 1.5 seconds, and takes a picture about 0.6 seconds after pressing the shutter release fully! That’s a speedy digital camera! All very suitable to my shooting style. Without the flash on, it’s also ready to take a second shot 1.5 seconds after the last, also excellent. My current camera takes 4-6 seconds to be ready for another, and it feels like an eternity most of the time, and it’s pretty bad in the other timing areas, too. But all these cameras here are faster than my existing one, so let’s go on. Oh yeah, it uses the xD Picture Card storage format: more expensive than most but not killer. Two other plusses include interpolated (before compression) pictures up to 12 megapixels from the 6.3 MP sensor, and (according to DPreview) “excellent color and exposure.” It’s also the cheapest of them all! Around $300; unfortunately a Fuji rebate of $50 just expired the end of January :-(
• “Olympus C-7000 Zoom”:http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/C7000/C7KA.HTM
  I’m equally balanced between the Fuji and this Olympus right now (this one has “a review at DPreview.com”:http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympusc7000/ as well). For one, my current camera is an Olympus. Actually, that’s a downside :-) But DPreview says it goes from off to ready-to-shoot in 1.4 seconds, a full-shutter-release-press (in one motion) takes a picture in 0.5 seconds, and runs 1.7 seconds shot-to-shot. All of which are just barely on either side of the times for the Fuji E550. But, this thing is a seven megapixel camera. Downsides include low battery life (still sky-high compared to my current one!) and a two-second delay before showing the next picture when browsing through existing shots in-camera. The others here are supposed to be much faster than two seconds to pull up a preview. Note again, that in comparison my current Olympus D-450 Zoom can take 4-6 seconds to display a preview of a picture in the camera, which is again an eternity, especially when trying to “scroll” through the shots! Nicest thing about this one over the Fuji (I think) is that the zoom is 5x optical vs. 4x. It has a fast zoom, extending at startup in one second (not sure on speed while zooming but I would assume it’s equally impressive). Media is xD Picture Card.
• “Casio EXILIM PRO EX-P600”:http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/P600/P60A.HTM
  This one isn’t directly reviewed at DPreview, but the next model up, the EX-P700 (substituting seven megapixels for this one’s six) has a “review at DPreview”:http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/casioexp700/ instead. The EX-P600 is about $80 cheaper than the EX-P700, and some of my info here is from the DPreview info on the EX-P700 instead of the 600. First of all, the timing appears to be very close to the above cameras, except it takes an extra second to turn on and be ready-to-shoot. Like the others (Except the Canon at 1.8″), it’s got a 2.0″ LCD display in addition to the viewfinder. I didn’t see the zoom speed mentioned, but shot-to-shot times were 2 to 2.5 seconds, a bit high. It’s got a 4x optical zoom, the minimum of these cameras. I haven’t gotten in-depth into this camera yet but it looks like a good backup option. Uses SD storage, just like my Treo 600!
• “Canon Powershot S70”:http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/CS70/S70A.HTM
  Also has a “review at DPreview”:http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons70/ and it’s a seven megapixel model, like the Olympus C-7000. Optical zoom is only 3.6x, a downside. It does have lots of scene presets for different conditions, and looks cool, being the only black one of the bunch. DPreview says the camera is “not a particularly speedy camera” and focusing in low-light can cause a lot of hunting. Picture playback speed also suffers. Almost three seconds from off to ready-to-shoot. Shooting lag time is one second (higher than the others), and zooming full-wide to telephoto takes 1.8 seconds, admittedly not horrible. A good last choice with high resolution but less zoom and speed.

That’s it for my first roundup! I’ll follow up when I get the chance. And when I make the purchse, whenever I happen to save up the money (sooner if I get the Fuji! :-)