Here we go again - Digital Cameras!
 

Got to buy one for work - like they'll see much of it!

The choice is between the Canon PowerShot G2 and Olympus C4040Zoom.

Both good cameras - any personal viewpoints or alternatives?

Could do a lot worse than a Fuji FinePix 6900Z. It's the puppy's parts ;)

Nikon 995

http://www.nikon.co.uk/cool995.htm

Superb results and you can add on various lenses.

Example of Nikon 990
http://www.brodylimited.co.uk/pprune/ozex/DSCN2170.JPG

Certainly impressed with the results from the 990 , LOL
I like the Olympus, but that is personal taste.
One thing I would advise is a smart card reader, makes downloading a lot easier and quicker, and they are only about £30

I bought a Canon Ixus at the beginning of this year. Great little camera that suits me down to the ground. A couple of months ago, the zoom stopped working so I took it back to the shop, still under warranty, and it was sent back to Canon. Canon refused to honour the warranty claiming that the camera had obviously been dropped and they wouldn't repair it (the shop agreed with me there wasn't a mark on it). After much arguing, Canon then said that zoom had suffered pressure damage - I must have crushed it against something. More argument followed, the upshot being that whatever caused the zoom to fail, they weren't going to fix it. Short of buying a new camera at £440, I was left with no alternative but to cough up £120 for the repair.

On this basis, I cannot recommend the purchase of any Canon product.

Agree with SLF999 about the separate reader for whatever media your choice of camera uses. I too have a SmartMedia reader. The Sony memory stick is good as well and I now have a mouse with a Memory Stick reader built in. Saves hooking up the camera everytime. They're fiendishly clever these people you know!

I would have defended my Olympus 1400 but it's passé now. I liked it because it was once cutting edge (three years ago) and it was a genuine Through The Lens Reflex. But it is big (not heavy), of course because of the optical zoom and TTL mirror.

There are some wonderfully small, high quality jobs around now but small means fiddly controls and camera shake unless you're very careful.

When I dropped and broke my Olympus and caused 10 GBP of damage I decided to repair it myself by getting the parts. They took ages to come. Luton Camera Repair were best and took about 4 weeks. Lehmanns were helpful and provided me with the parts list but took 3 months to get the bits. After-Sales support is clearly something to think about and it would seem that both Canon and Olympus leave something to be desired. Unfortunately they've got the best products. During my struggle to get the Olympus bits, it traspired that there are no bits in UK; all cameras are shipped to Portugal for repair and that's where the bits came from.

Sorry! Not helpful about which to buy but something to think about.

Yet another one of my sideways looks at technology.

Why not buy a camera that was top of the range model from 2 years ago? One of those plus a smart reader and an extra 64Mb of memory will still cost less than half that of a humungo-pixel modern job.

The new 4/5/6 mega pixel cameras are ususable. Not trying to annoy anyone but unless you own an A3 printer you will never, ever see the quality you are paying for. Once tried you will also give up manipulating your images because the file sizes turn Photoshop into glue. Unless you do this for a living you will give up and drop the resolution.

Tell you what, assume I'm a demented loon and sneak a look at the LCD mode display settings on such beasts. Oh dear, all the early adopters settle on shooting the vast majority of their work in the resolutions which give sensible file sizes and output quality. Those resolutions are standard and half the price when you buy outdated top of the range cameras from respected manufacturers. Try a search on the Digital Depot, they specialise in these deals.

Regards
Rob

Much good sense there but I'll add just one point about getting your money's worth for all those pixels. If you want to enlarge a small part of a large picture then you can do so without your masterpiece turning into a modern art creation made from little rectangles.

Now, a serious Query, PPT. I have amost decide to go to Mac just to stop PhotoShop turning to glue. Aren't you a Mac person? Does it still grind to a halt with large file sizes. I can do a 50MB file even on a PC. Would a Mac cope? Help, my credit card is poised.

Quite agree, PPT. I have just bought a s/h Kodak 280, 2.1 megapixel, 750 shots taken (it's got a counter), zoom lens, plus CompactFlash card reader, plus extra CompactFlash card, 18 months old. Original cost- £550. Cost to me- £150.
Now, whilst I still feel that a medium quality 33mm SLR will give much better results quality-wise, the very reasonable quality of this camera along with the sheer convenience of the digital features, shines through (but not for £500-900!)

Definitely, older cameras are a very viable option.

Please ignore anything I've written. My dad was so impressed with my thoughts that he went out and bought a new 4.4 megapixel camera. That's right 4.4 megapixels. At least he does own and use an A3 printer.

fobotsco: Any copy of photoshop turns to glue whether PC or Mac with these file sizes if you do anything more than sharpen or crop. The program writes huge files to swop disc as well as Ram. Can't stop the ****** doing it even with the 640 Mb of Ram I have on board.


An A4/letter image in 32 bit colour will be more than 30Mb and that's before you start playing with layers, transparency undo and history. Having a single level of undo means the file must be twice the original size for you to revert to the image prior to the last action.

Yes the extra pixels are nice as a zoom but those extra pixels alone cost as much as a decent SLR with a long zoom. Any 100 quid 35mm SLR puts the most expensive digital masterpiece to shame if you want image quality - fact!

Regarding Photoshop I absolutely guarantee it is faster on a G4 Mac despite the apparent difference in clock speeds. A 733Mhz Mac beats a 1.4gig PC due to far more efficient processor design. On the other hand you won't notice a jot of difference when you write e-mail.

I strongly recommend Photoshop Essentials for all digital snappers. Less than a quarter of the Photoshop price and everything is tuned for what the photographer needs in language they understand. If you want to remove red-eye you simply click on the red-eye button.

Totally intuitive for everything you need yet the full monstrous power of Photoshop lurks underneath for when you want to get really ambitious with layers, superimposition Etc. A snip at around 65 quid and both PC and Mac are on the same disk.

Tosh, my reference to buying from the likes of Digital Depot may not have been absolutely clear. The cameras are new, sealed and unused. I bought an Olympus 920 Zoom with a construction date 18 months ago for less than £200 including taxes, postage and packing. I could have bought a digital video camera as well and still lay out less than the new 4.4 and upwards cameras.

As ever, I know I'm peeing into wind with my comments. The truth is we love the new and sexy kit but at least I tried - harumpff (shuffles into distance muttering....)

Regards
Rob

[ 20 October 2001: Message edited by: PPRuNe Towers ]

I use a Kodak DC4800, absolutely excellent, the question is what will you be using it for? I use it in 3.1megapixel mode (of which it has 3 settings for compressed/uncompressed) and get around 150 pics per 128mb card, (the same memory that fits my PDA) ave pic size around 500kb. This is sufficient resolution to print on an A4 glossy sheet with superb results. Any manipulation is done in PSP7. :cool:

This might seem a bit of a stupid question, but I'm quite a fan of Black&White film photography - what can I get / do that will provide me with B&W shots from a digital camera ?

Ta

In my Kodak, as most decent cameras (probably), you can take pics with various effects, i.e B & W, Sepia, negative etc etc. Failing that any decent, PSP, software can manipulate it as well. :cool:

Just gonna say DC (but Spanners always gets in first ;) that you can take colour with a digital and I use PhotoShop 6 to convert it to B&W - if I want to that is! :)

Thanks for all the advice all.

As I said, I'll be using it for work and while pics will go on the web site, they will also be printed on various glossy pamphlets at various sizes, which is why I'm looking at 4+ megapixels so I don't lose any image quality.

PPT, I know what you're saying - but work is willing to pay for a brand new toy for me!

:D