Digital Camera experts or anyone else interest. I need help with a decision.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I want a new camera. I’ve used digital cameras for a good while and the little cheap ones that I could afford were no where near like the SLR I have, but the convenience has far surpassed the control of the SLR.

If you go look at the My Live Journal you’ll see the types of pictures I take. They are just snapshots, but even snapshots should be better than what I’m getting. I take pictures of flowers, cats, birds, butterflies, things like that. I don’t make prints, just post or email. Resolution isn’t a biggy.

Here are the two cameras I’m thinking about.

This is the Canon A60. WalMart and Target sell it for around $250. Optical zoom is important to me, birds don’t let you walk right up to them and then spend 10 seconds getting a shot off. I also like the movie mode, sometimes it’s nice to just open up and see what you can get. But the main thing is the manual override.

This is the Fuji FinePix 2800. WalMart sell this one for $300. It’s got a 6x optical zoom instead of the A60’s 3x. The resolution is the same. I didn’t think it had the manual overrides of the A60, but reading the specs, it does seem to.

My question is does anyone better at reading specs know how these two stack up.

The Fuji is plastic, the Canon is metal, I think. I’m not hard on my cameras, so that isn’t a big deal.

The Canon uses CF memory and I have an extra 32MB card plus a reader.

The Fuji uses SmartMedia card memory which means I’d have to upgrade memory soon.

So, is it worth the extra $50 plus not having extra memory and reader to get the Fuji??? The 6x optical zoom is hard to over look. But I don’t have a lot of money, but I’ll still talk myself into buying one of these or some equivilent.

So, what do you think? Or is there another one out there that is a better deal. I probably can’t talk myself into one over $300 to start and I may not even be able to talk myself into that.

2

This thread is better suited for IMHO. I’ll move it for you.

Cajun Man ~ SDMB Moderator

3

Canon makes a great digital camera.

Here’s a picture I took of our house with the A-10 at its lowest resolution setting (the A-10 uses the same lens as the A40, I believe, but it’s only 1.3 mp).

House Front

I’ve been going through the same decision-making process although I wanted a slightly more feature-rich camera. I just ordered an Olympus C-4040, refurbished for $419. The thing that attracted it to me is the fast lens - most digital cameras have an f2.8, and if it zooms, it’s usually out at f4 or higher at full zoom. I don’t like slow lenses. Flashes don’t work as well, indoor shots typically have more red-eye (especially in the compact cameras where the flash is right above the lens), and they don’t focus as well indoors. So I spent a little extra to get the Olympus f1.8 lens.
Excellent review sites for digital cameras:

Digital Photography Review

Megapixel.net

Imaging Resource

All of the cameras you’re interested in should be there.

4

You seem to have a good idea what you need. One question I have is what is the final resolution needed? For 8x10 prints or just for web? If just for web you can extend optical zoom range by cropping a bigger than needed image. Example is the Dimage 7 I shoot with. The zoom is equivalent to 200mm on a 35mm film cam and a high res image is 2560x1920 . If I can live with a 1280x960 image (1.3mp) more than big enough for web work I now have an effective 400mm lens. If I crop to 640x480 I have 800mm.

FWIW my canon A10 is two years old and I still get a lot of use out of it. The underwater housing is one of the most fun photo accessories I ever bought. Unfortunately the 105mm equialent zoom isn’t enough for birdwatching.

Olympus makes some good cameras but you’ll have smart media. You may look around for an Oly E100RS. A kind of specialized high speed 1.5mp camera with a 380mm equivalent zoom. It was too much of a niche camera and has been pulled from the US market but you may be able to find one used. It’s potentially as fast as video with better resolution.

5

Slight hijack.
I bought a 25 dollar digital camera at Walmart for Christmas.
It has done well…100’s of great shots, did my whole website.

Now, suddenly, the colors are a little odd.

Is it the cheap camera?

I probably shouldn’t complain or mention this…it was still cheaper than a roll of film and developing.

6

I’m interested in the Fujifilm Finepix 2800 as well, although my other choice is the Nikon Coolpix 2100 (so, with apologies for hijacking your thread, if anyone has an opinion about the Coolpix I’d be grateful). :slight_smile:

The big thing for me about the Finepix is the 6x optical zoom. Although the guy at my camera shop was not overly impressed because he said it would give underexposed pictures. A complaint I’ve heard many times about the Fuji is that the screen is very dark in low-light situations.

Is there any chance of getting yourself to a camera shop to handle them yourself?

7

Thanks, Sam for the info. I checked out the reviews and they both seem to be rated very well for this class of camera.

Padeye, I would use it almost exclusively for web work. I’m not a birdwatcher as such so I really wouldn’t spend a lot just for that. It’s just that when you shoot a brown dove on brown dirt at 75 feet and no zoom, all you get is brown.

DMark, I don’t have any help for you. It would seem like any camera should last more than 6 months. But then again, I’ve never seen a $25 digital camera.

Kayeby, I read serveral of the reviews and didn’t see anyone complaining about overexposure. I did handle both cameras at WalMart, but without a memory card in them.

Another interesting feature of the Fuji 2800 is the TTL (Through The Lens) viewing. I like that a lot too. It would seem to help when the LCD screen is hardly visible, as in bright sun or low light.

8

Lord Jim, have you considered buying the camera from an online retailer? Several of the reviewers have links to them, and most seem to be selling the Finepix for around $265.

9

Sure, the ones I saw, the freight was about $20. So with having to pay sales tax here, it would save me about $30. Also, the Canon A60 sells for about $220 online before freight.

Since there doesn’t seem to be much against the Fuji, it’s probably worth the extra $50 for the TTL viewing and 6x zoom.

There is also the $25 memory card and $15 reader that I can’t reuse. So, depending on how I get rid of my camera and whether I get some of that value back, I’m talking about almost $100 difference between the two cameras.

That’s kind of my problem.

10

The difference between my chosen cameras is also around $100, so I’m in a similar boat to you. It might be worth checking the comparison meter on the Imaging Resource site - it lets you take two cameras and compare the sample photos side by side.

For what it’s worth, I think I’m leaning towards the Fuji over the Nikon. The guy at my camera store was a little unenthusiastic about the Fuji, but this could have been because they don’t stock it. I like that the Fuji has a very distinctive look, but I do wonder whether I actually need a 6x optical zoom - I tried a 3x optical in and that seemed to do quite nicely. The photo store guy seemed to think that a 6x zoom would be best for occasions when you couldn’t get closer to the action, like a sporting event or at the zoo.

11

Lord Jim, I struggled between the Fuji 3800 model and the Canon A70 for a few days before going with the Canon. I loved the slr-like interface of the Fuji, as well as the nifty 6X zoom. For an old SLR photographer it felt exciting to use the camera in the store. However, I read a lot of reviews about how poor the low-light performance was and how you couldn’t see through the “viewfinder” under low-light conditions.

I went back to the store (and the stores are very well lit) and brought my black leather jacket, placed some moderately contrasty trinkets upon it and tried to block out the bright lights by placing the items in the corner of the store. It became harder to see what I was shooting and that was not good. Unlike the Canon, the Fuji doesn’t have a focus assist light (that orange light that comes on for a few seconds).

More importantly, on a third visit, I started shooting folks moving to see how the delays and focusing ability would impact the actual shot. Compared with the Canon the shots were not well focused, and significantly delayed. Also the size of the Fuji is less enabling for carrying in a waist bag on the go, and the lens protection always has to be external. So the Fuji seems to have a few feature hooks, but overall poorer complete execution, which I still find disappointing. If I did studio shooting with good lighting it would be more fun and useful to me. The zoom is great though!

Get the A70 over the A60, it is only 50 bucks more but you will get a few more features. Great size, uses cheaper compact flash memory (I just got a 256MB card at Amazon for $32 A/R) and AA batteries. The lens is on the soft side, but it is quick and the color fidelty is more than acceptable. The manual controls are amazing for the price point. The macro feature is pretty darn good. Though it was not my intent, I am using the movie shooting to capture my little kids and it is VGA quality so on the big TV it looks OK enough. You can also get a range of accessory lenses.

Really, for $300 how can you beat the value?

12

Just wanted to chime in and say in my experience, Cannon make better cameras than Fuji. The general build quality tends to be better, and the lenses also.

13

No matter how big you want the final file, the bigger file you start with, the better the end result will be - in terms of compression.

I know little about Fuji, but I know Canon are regarded highly by camera professionals for their lenses. Whether this is true for domestic products I am not certain, but if a company is advanced in technology in a particular area, their full product line should benefit in some way.

14

Very interesting, Geoduck. You obviously have a critical eye for cameras.

I may be over-valuing the 6x zoom. But the pictures I miss not taking by not taking out the 35mm SLR with a 200mm lense are things like instead of a backyard with a woodpecker in it, I could take a picture of the head of the woodpecker. Instead of a picture of a tree with a kid hanging in it, I could take a picture of the smile on her face. Instead of picture of a big building, I could take a picture of the gargoyle on the edge of the roof or the inscription above the door.

Those are the pictures I miss. Still 99% of the pictures will be stills of plants or cats or kids and it really won’t matter. My worry is that I’ll tire of the lower zoom because of what I still can’t do.

But maybe as Padeye says, I can get the same with just a high resolution and cropping.

15

I’ve used the forerunner of the Fuji 2800, the 2400 model, for two years and about 10,000 shots. I was happy with it at first, but not so now. This may be a sample difference, not a model difference, but new batteries aren’t new enough for it, it is constantly turning itself off immediately after being turned on, and it has insurmountable problems with high contrast scenes. An earlier Fuji, the 2100, I believe, had pretty much the same problems. I think there are better cameras out there.

Nevertheless, I took all these pictureswith the Fuji 2400, mostly at 1280x960 pixels, but downsampled for the web.

16

Gartog and istara, the Canon does seem to be the better camera.

In the head to head comparison at Imaging Resource, the Canon seemed to be the best. I compared the Canon A70 to the Fuji 3800. This indoor pictures seemed noticably better for the A70. But the outdoor ones, particularly the house one, seemed to be slightly better for the Fuji.

Either way, the differences weren’t enough to put one above the other as for most of the pictures I take.

17

Just to add a little more confusion, I found an Olympus 720UZ factory refurb that fit in the under $300 range with freight. This is an 8x optical zoom, 3Mp. It sounds like a nice camera. The movie mode seems limited,15 secs without sound. I’m not sure I’d use that anyway.

Does anyone know anything special about this one?

18

I have a Fujipix 1.3. I love it. I download the photos to my computer & in my graphic program I use the option to auto adjust the image & guess what? It doesn’t change it at all. Yep, the image is already perfect.

19

I am partial to the Canon - however, I would be called, at best, an amature. Still, my Canon gives my great pictures and I’ve had nothing but good luck with it.

20

I strongly recommend Nikon cameras, especially the ‘Coolpix’ range. I’ve had two so far.

Range of cameras to suit different budgets and requirements.

Well made, well designed.

Good value for money.

Big company with a big operation - you can get repairs and spares and replacements and answers.

Reliable.

Results good enough for web or print, cheap and cheerful shots or professional masterpieces.

I have no financial interest… this is a genuine testimonial.

Advice when buying: I’m a huge fan of buying online, but when it comes to digital cameras, I say go to the store and see and hold and try out the different makes and models. Some will feel ‘right’ to you more than others, and it’s important. The ones you think you like… ask to see them working and have someone take you through the basic menus and functions to show you how it works. Digital cameras use no consumables, so there’s no reason why a decent store won’t actually show you it working. Once you’ve seenthe model that’s right for you, you can either buy it from the store or get it cheaper online. But DO physically handle the camera before you decide to buy it.

Small tip: A self-timer can be more useful than you might think.