Help needed to buy P&S digicam

On Mon, 22 Jan 2007 04:32:11 -0800, BuzzyBee wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm wanting to get a small P&S camera to take around in my bag on a
> daily basis. I normally shoot with an SLR (Nikon D70 and film camera
> Nikon 801). The last P&S digital I had was a Ricoh 3MP camera and I
> am well in need of an update.
>
> I was told by two different camera shops that the Panasonic DMC-FX07
> 7.1MP camera is an excellent choice. I don't want to spend a fortune
> on it, as I would rather put money into my SLR kit, but I do want
> something that will take good images. I've just been reading up
> various reviews on the Lumix FX07 and nearly all talk about the poor
> quality images and noise problems.
>
> Can anyone else throw any light on this for me, and make any
> recommendations for a P&S which has a fast reaction time and good
> quality images.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help people can give me on this one.
>
> Jenny

FWIW - I recently bought a couple of refurbished cameras from the Kodak
online store - good product, good price. I'd suggest you look for some
manufacturer's online stores with refurb products - Kodak is the only one
I know of.
 >> Stay informed about: Help needed to buy P&S digicam 

I purchased a Casio EX-Z600 for my daughter for Christmas. 2.7 inch
screen was a big selling point. Very compact. Excellent picture
quality. 6.0 mega pixels. Nice built-in features.

P
http://photography.interpresence.ca

BuzzyBee wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm wanting to get a small P&S camera to take around in my bag on a
> daily basis. I normally shoot with an SLR (Nikon D70 and film camera
> Nikon 801). The last P&S digital I had was a Ricoh 3MP camera and I
> am well in need of an update.
>
> I was told by two different camera shops that the Panasonic DMC-FX07
> 7.1MP camera is an excellent choice. I don't want to spend a fortune
> on it, as I would rather put money into my SLR kit, but I do want
> something that will take good images. I've just been reading up
> various reviews on the Lumix FX07 and nearly all talk about the poor
> quality images and noise problems.
>
> Can anyone else throw any light on this for me, and make any
> recommendations for a P&S which has a fast reaction time and good
> quality images.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help people can give me on this one.
>
> Jenny
 >> Stay informed about: Help needed to buy P&S digicam 

On Mon, 22 Jan 2007 08:41:14 -0800, irwell wrote:

>On 22 Jan 2007 04:32:11 -0800, "BuzzyBee" wrote:
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I'm wanting to get a small P&S camera to take around in my bag on a
>>daily basis. I normally shoot with an SLR (Nikon D70 and film camera
>>Nikon 801). The last P&S digital I had was a Ricoh 3MP camera and I
>>am well in need of an update.
>>
>>I was told by two different camera shops that the Panasonic DMC-FX07
>>7.1MP camera is an excellent choice. I don't want to spend a fortune
>>on it, as I would rather put money into my SLR kit, but I do want
>>something that will take good images. I've just been reading up
>>various reviews on the Lumix FX07 and nearly all talk about the poor
>>quality images and noise problems.
>>
>>Can anyone else throw any light on this for me, and make any
>>recommendations for a P&S which has a fast reaction time and good
>>quality images.
>>
>>Thanks in advance for any help people can give me on this one.
>>
>>Jenny
>
>I carry around a Sony W100, has a lot of good features,
>including an optical viewfinder. Takes great pictures.

Sears has a Casio on sale, with the same sort of
specs as the Sony w100, has a view finder and is pretty
slim looking. 8.0 megapixels.
 >> Stay informed about: Help needed to buy P&S digicam 

BuzzyBee wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm wanting to get a small P&S camera to take around in my bag on a
> daily basis. I normally shoot with an SLR (Nikon D70 and film camera
> Nikon 801). The last P&S digital I had was a Ricoh 3MP camera and I
> am well in need of an update.
>
> I was told by two different camera shops that the Panasonic DMC-FX07
> 7.1MP camera is an excellent choice. I don't want to spend a fortune
> on it, as I would rather put money into my SLR kit, but I do want
> something that will take good images. I've just been reading up
> various reviews on the Lumix FX07 and nearly all talk about the poor
> quality images and noise problems.
>
> Can anyone else throw any light on this for me, and make any
> recommendations for a P&S which has a fast reaction time and good
> quality images.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help people can give me on this one.
>
> Jenny
>
Take a look at the Kodak c743. 7.1 mp, and nice pictures.
 >> Stay informed about: Help needed to buy P&S digicam 

BuzzyBee wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm wanting to get a small P&S camera to take around in my bag on a
> daily basis. I normally shoot with an SLR (Nikon D70 and film camera
> Nikon 801). The last P&S digital I had was a Ricoh 3MP camera and I
> am well in need of an update.
>
> I was told by two different camera shops that the Panasonic DMC-FX07
> 7.1MP camera is an excellent choice. I don't want to spend a fortune
> on it, as I would rather put money into my SLR kit, but I do want
> something that will take good images. I've just been reading up
> various reviews on the Lumix FX07 and nearly all talk about the poor
> quality images and noise problems.
>
> Can anyone else throw any light on this for me, and make any
> recommendations for a P&S which has a fast reaction time and good
> quality images.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help people can give me on this one.
>
> Jenny
>
Oh, I forgot to mention 3x optical zoom, optical viewfinder, 2.4" LCD,
and low price ($140).
 >> Stay informed about: Help needed to buy P&S digicam 

"BuzzyBee" wrote:
> I've just been reading up
> various reviews on the Lumix FX07 and nearly all talk about the poor
> quality images and noise problems.
>
> Can anyone else throw any light on this for me

The noise issue of the Panasonics does tend to get overstated - in sunny
conditions you can produce very sharp A4 prints with no visible noise using
the FX01 or FX07, it's only when you make images that dwell on shadow areas
or in low light situations that the noise becomes noticeable.

Try printing out some sample images from the review sites and then make
your own judgement. E.g. dpreview.com has galleries of full resolution
images at the end of each camera test. The best thing is to pick a couple
of shots that correspond to the sort of pictures you take and print them
out at the maximum size you would intend to make and see if they are good
enough. When just looking at images on your computer monitor it's easy to
zoom in close and become hypercritical about issues that in reality aren't
going to be a problem unless you are cropping down to a small part of the
image.

If you look closely at FX01 or FX07 images, ie. at 200% magnification, then
there is certainly chromatic noise in the shadow areas even in bright
conditions, and the dark low contrast detail tends to be somewhat smeared,
but since our eyes are normally drawn to the brighter parts of an image it
is not something viewers will normally notice as noted above.

If you are going to do much low light work or make images with large dark
areas then you would probably want to try another brand such as the Canon
IXUS or a Fuji, but all compact cameras suffer noise to some extent in dark
areas, it's the price paid for having such small sensors. The Panasonics do
have good sharp lenses even at the 28mm end though, whereas the Canon IXUS
with a 28mm lens (the 850) is said to be rather soft, which is unfortunate
since the IXUS 800 with the 35-140mm lens is very sharp. It seems there is
still something to be said for a Leica lens when going for a wider angle.
 >> Stay informed about: Help needed to buy P&S digicam