Digital Camera advice

[rockin_amigo14]

well, I'm looking to replace an old 4mp camera with something slightly more pocketable and better. It'll be used basically as a snapshot camera for summer purposes, no hardcore use intended. I know nothing about camera's, but I've managed to come up with the possibility of getting the Casio Exilim Z60. It looks good, plus I can get it for $215, with a 2-year warranty.


Any opinions?

 

[lini]

Well, what I wouldn't like about it is that it's one of the recent generation cams that don't sport an optical viewfinder anymore. Apart from that it should be quite a nice point&shoot cam - but many of 'em are. So actually I'd recommend you to visit some big store with a lot of cams, take the ones that seem attractive to you in your own hand and play around with 'em for a while, 'cause in that camera class you might find that the differences in handling are more important than the differences in picture quality these days...

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

P.S.: For myself, my most recent small point&shoot cam is a Kodak C360, btw - quite a nice thingy for 160 Euro, and easily good enough for my purposes. Creative photographers would surely miss more manual control options on it, though...

 

[Arainach]

That particular point is mostly moot because I'm unaware of ANY point-and-shoot with an Optical Viewfinder - they're all LCDs behind a piece of glass you can put your eye to.

 

[lini]

Arainach: You sure you aren't confusing digital video cams with digital photo cams there?

Grinnings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

P.S.: I know an optical viewfinder, when I see one. Why do you think that those cams with an optical viewfinder all have a small separate extra lens on the front?

 

[Naris]

Got to second your thoughts on the Casio. It's a lovely camera. I don't own one but did get to play with it for awhile (working at a radio shack has some advantages

). Nice picture quality in regular and fairly low light. Also quite pocketable. You could probably fit it in some of those tight jeans girls wear now days.

Mind you it's not at all an advanced camera. I believe it's zoom is only 3X optical, and like most point and shoots has a crappy digital zoom. There's not a whole lot of manual features either. It does have some degree of image stabilization though, which... would work for shaky hands I guess. I didn't try jumping around and taking pictures or anything.

 

[MD1032]

Check out dpreview.com I've been reading up there because I'm getting a Canon SD700 from my parents pretty soon as a graduation gift. They have a lot of information there, and if you can afford to carry something a little bigger than that tiny Casio, I'm sure you will be pleased with the image results you'll be able to get. The Canon A620, for example, is going to be discontinued so the price is going down (can easily be had for $200), but the camera is loaded with great features, more than the SD700 (but lacks the IS, which isn't since the aperature is so much larger on the A620 anyway) and takes some some awesome pictures, again, probably better than the SD700 because you're dealing with a bigger, better sensor and lens combo. The ultracompact cameras like the SD700 sacrifice that kind of stuff to be so frickin small.

 

[seeberg]

For the price range, I'd suggest also considering Panasonic, in particular the Lumix LZ3. 5 megapixels, a 37-222mm equiv. lens/6x optical zoom, and image stabilization, all for just above $200. The downside is that its not as compact as the Casio Exslims are and it has no accessory lenses(in my line of photography even a fisheye or wide adaptor comes in handy). A brother of mine has one and it's quite the camera, and makes me jealous I'm not using a stabilizer on my D50, though VR for a DSLR is quite expensive in comparison.

,
Abe

 

[rockin_amigo14]

hm. I was eyeing the Panny's for a while, but the compactness of the Casio's grabbed my attention.

I had lurked around dpreview.com's forums for many hours, but most of them are interested in photo quality over compactness, and therefore go for the higher end compact's, such as the Z1000, Z850. Even though I'll miss the optical finder, I think the Z60 is gonna be a good choice. I'm hopefully going to radioshack tomorrow to tinker with it.

 

[dj_mocok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lini Arainach: You sure you aren't confusing digital video cams with digital photo cams there? Grinnings from Hannover! Manfred / lini P.S.: I know an optical viewfinder, when I see one. Why do you think that those cams with an optical viewfinder all have a small separate extra lens on the front?

I think what Arainach meant was, on a point&shoot camera, although it looks like an "optical" viewfinder, but when you look through the small viewer, you are not actually viewing straight from the lens though (that's generally SLRs), but it's actually a small LCD screen (apart from the big one) with usually less resolution than the big one.

I know it's somewhat ridiculous, but I prefer it to be included though, being the only reason is, you will need it when you are taking picture in very bright sunlight (kills the main LCD screen).

But I am not really sure what you meant by small separate extra lens..?

 

[seeberg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_mocok But I am not really sure what you meant by small separate extra lens..?

I think he means that the small viewfinder is itself a lens- it has its own magnification and track (in the case of a motorized zoom lens), though it does not focus on its own. Either that, or the autofocus sensors perhaps.

,
Abe

 

[Kirosia]

I figured Ara was implying that the viewfinders in P&S are for the most part, useless. They're hard to look through, inaccurate; pretty much crap compared to ones you'd find on better cams.

 

[guzziguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockin_amigo14 hm. I was eyeing the Panny's for a while, but the compactness of the Casio's grabbed my attention. I had lurked around dpreview.com's forums for many hours, but most of them are interested in photo quality over compactness, and therefore go for the higher end compact's, such as the Z1000, Z850. Even though I'll miss the optical finder, I think the Z60 is gonna be a good choice. I'm hopefully going to radioshack tomorrow to tinker with it.

I have an FX-9, which I truly love. The image stabilization really works and is really useful on such a small camera. The current Panny ultracompact is the FX-01. You might want to take a look at it.

 

[Arainach]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirosia I figured Ara was implying that the viewfinders in P&S are for the most part, useless. They're hard to look through, inaccurate; pretty much crap compared to ones you'd find on better cams.

Pretty much. Even the ones that have a "Lens" (if you can call a poorly crafted piece of plastic that) on them don't accurately show focus or even, half the time, the actual image - most viewfinders I've seen in P&S cameras are visibly wider than the actual shot. Trying to focus with one is impossible, attempting to get any portrayl of depth of field or lighting is largely futile, and anyone who's ever seen someone looking through a secondary viewfinder while putting a finger over the actual lens knows how reliable they can be.

 

[lini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by seeberg I think he means that the small viewfinder is itself a lens- it has its own magnification and track (in the case of a motorized zoom lens), though it does not focus on its own.

Bingo!

Quote:

Originally Posted by seeberg Either that, or the autofocus sensors perhaps.

No - neither these, nor light sensors, nor autofocus help lights...

dj_mocok: And no, that's not a smaller second lcd screen - at least not for the plethora of point&shoot digicams I've played with over the last few years. As seeberg explained, those are real optical viewfinders - an opening in the front, a bit of lens optics in between and another opening on the backside. And the overwhelming majority of p&s cams sports one - it's a recent trend to leave these out (mostly in favour of bigger lcd screens).

Arainach: Granted, a lot of these optical viewfinders aren't great. But regarded as a power management (=battery saving) feature, even a bad optical viewfinder can sometimes be helpful...

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

P.S.: r_a14: Another thing to think about is the power source - personally, I prefer my p&s cams to run on standard AA NiMH cells...