2007 Year End Candy Store for Photographers

[kgphoto]

My friend has a Leica digital camera, I don't remember the model. It crapped out and had to be sent to Europe for repairs and took months. Not my idea of a good one.

[jfrancho]

The more I look, that Panny looks like a pretty good deal, with few compromises in your plan. You could go over to Pbase, and do a search on the camera, and possibly hunt down some contacts for testimonials.

[tomrock]

One thing about the Leica (and the Panny) is they take 5-6 seconds to save a raw file and the files are 20 megs each. Buy a fast card.

But the jpegs are better from the Leica.

And admit it -- you want that red dot.

[Tom Swaman]

No, Tom I do not want that Red Dot. It sounds too much like noise to me!

I am convinced that the Pan..... and the Leica are the same. except for the red dot, of course. The warranty on the Panasonic really bothers me if you read the fine print. This warranty is for all practical purposes a 90 day warranty and not the usual 6 months to 1 year. I wonder if there is a reason for this. I am convinced that the camera has the features, but the reviews are all over the place on this one as far as performance. Gosh the camera was panned because you have to push a button to get the flash to pop up. I love it. I hate pop up flashes and automatic crap lighting. Frankly, the variable reviews scare the devil out of me as this is an expensive camera.

John, I just called a taxi to take me to pbase. Thanks.

Tom

[Tom Swaman]

.....and the Pbase report is "you pays your money and takes your chances."

This one is a very difficult call. Based upon all that I have read, there exists little doubt in my mind that the Panasonic is the way to go, but that these cameras are not "shirt pocket" size due to the protrusion of the lens/lenscap. Also, I think the overall opinion of my perusal is that the RAW mode politely sucks on both cameras due to its file size and required processing time. I get the impression that the JPEG mode is better with the Panny than with the Red Dot and the Red Dot color may or may be better than that of the Panny out-of-doors and vice versa indoors.

I kind of gather based upon sales information that the Panasonic is not doing very well in the market place and many dealers may be closing this out. So, it looks like this may not be a wise, long term purchase choice and the wise old owl practice of "hold it in your hands first" is essential. I know where to get my hands on the Leica DLux-3 so I will do this in the next couple of weeks.

Finally, it sounds to me like giving up RAW mode preference in a pocket camera is the first omission required. I stll would like to get that 28mm equivalent lens as this makes a pocket camera many fold more useful. Does anyone have any experience with such a camera??

And you thought the dSLR market was complex. That is nothing compared to the point-and-shoot market and the latter may be getting worse rather than better since features like style and color have overtaken image quality among the demands of many potential buyers. I cannot resist asking whether you think these fashion-conscious buyers are professional photographers?

What a sad commentary on progress and quality,
Tom

[jfrancho]

I have a Canon S500 - size of a pack cigarettes, 5 MP, zoom, works great!

[Tom Swaman]

Thanks John. I appreciate the recommendation and the hands-on comments. I sure hope others chime in with what they use and with what they like and dislike.

Have a great evening,
Tom

[cyclohexane]

What a sad commentary on progress and quality,

Have you read this? Thom Hogan's Compact Camera Challenge

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As for Panasonic, it appears that the image quality has gotten worse with each new iteration, as they're just packing more pixels onto the tiny sensor without any regard to improved noise handling or anything else that you'd worry about on a small sensor camera. My uncle tried one Panasonic camera (forget which one), and the files looked pretty bad for anything but small prints.

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I have the Fuji F30, which delivers a decent file at ISO 400, an okay 800 file (lots of noise reduction though), and a passable 1600. Currently, it's produced the best files I've seen out of any compact, though the lens (both in sharpness and range; it's something like a 35-70 or 35-105 equivalent), design (no optical viewfinder, chunky), controls are a bit wanting (only aperture/shutter-priority; very limited speeds), and there is no RAW.

It does, however, have one of the fastest AF systems I've seen on a compact, and when I get a chance I'll be printing from it at various sizes to see what I can get.

I haven't used the Fuji F50, which is the latest model, but this one portrait sample looked mighty impressive considering the amount of pixels on the sensor... still, I don't think it features a wide angle or RAW.

[aam1234]

Tom, have a look at the winners of this contest, most were taken with compact cameras. Impressive.

Edit: Noticed many of the compacts were the Canon A series.

[Tom Swaman]

Michael,

Thanks much. I will look into the Fuji and I will read Thom Hogan, whose articles and information I typically find to be right on target. I have not read that one.

AAM1234, with appreciation for the impressive link. A week from tomorrow I am paying a long visit to my friendly camera dealers to take a good look. I am rapidly folding into the fold that Canon and compact are near synonyms. Furthermore, I have convinced myself that what I would choose and what I can obtain are rather divergent. You know how it goes, something like ,".....to err is human, to compromise is more human."

Happy weekend,
Tom

[nemo]

Tom,

I am looking for something similar to your original specs. One camera I have found that is very close is the Fujifilm Finepix E900. I'm still doing some research, but I haven't found any bad reviews for it, and the price is good. I'm primarily looking for a photojournalist-style camera, so I think it will be a good fit.

Has anyone else had any experience with this camera?

-Joe

edit: I just discovered that is uses xD cards and the write speed for raw is approximately 6 seconds. Not so great, but still seems to be a good model.

[aam1234]

Tom, if you haven't bought a cam yet then you might want to have a look at this DPR review of Canon A570 IS.

Btw, my colleague is still coming to my office telling me how impressed he is with his cam (same as the above).

Btw II, I don't work for Canon

[jaguar]

If you can buy a Canon A650IS that is not in the serial number range of the "light leak" recall....this little 12mp jewel can produce some respectable images.

[Tom Swaman]

Alas and alack, I did buy the Canon 870 IS. It takes pictures. I truly feel it is over priced. The large screen works better than I imagined, but it is far from being an optical finder. The manual settings are highly rinky-dink and I do mis RAW mode. The photo quality is just OK and the lens is OK+. Overall, I think I purchased an expensive toy. The lens focal length range is near ideal and ought to be used on many other point-and-shoots.

Thanks to all of you for your help, siggestions, ideas and the like.

Tom

[jazzology]

Has anyone done a comparison of shutter lag times on these.... I've been thinking seriously about a G9... it really seems like a good value in image quality, but .5 seconds and a proprietary battery have kept me on the sidelines.
My wish list in a point n shoot
1 Quick focus, Quick shutter release
2 Raw ability
3 able to use AA batteries
4 cost less than "thousands"