Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/07/16

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Subject: [Leica] Digital P&S purchase
From: woc2 at earthlink.net (Bill O'Connell)
Date: Fri Jul 16 04:27:27 2004

John,
  Can comment on a few.  Not sure of your budget or requirements but among
those that I have used;

  Olympus Stylus 400 and now 410.  Plus is size, and water resistant.  4mp,
nice optics but IMHO, not up to the standards they set with the film based
stylus.  Flash is not very good and found that indoor shots zoomed out can
end up with very very underexposed images.  Almost black.  They know of the
problem but...  Pretty much a phd, not a lot of control available.  Have not
tried any indoor shots with the 410 yet to see if they made any changes (400
had some problems and they offered a upgrade at a semi reasonable price).
There is also a 300 version, 3mp. All are 3x optical zoom with an optical
viewfinder.

  Konica KD-500Z.  Willoughby's bought a boatload of them and sells them on
Ebay for 298 including shipping and with a spare Konica  battery.  Again, a
phd with no controls but it's 5mp and will fit in a shirt pocket.  3x
optical with an optical viewfinder. Movie mode with sound.  Uses SD memory
cards.  Very good optics, especially for a pocket sized camera.  These are
the original Konica branded cameras that were dumped when they bought
Minolta.  There is a new improved Minolta version which I never tried but a
friend that is pretty fussy upgraded his Konica to the KonicaMinolta, and
promptly downgraded back to the Konica, said the optics were noticeably
better.  Don't work for Willoughby's, nor Konica, just very happy with a
camera that is that good for that price.  One of the ebay links is:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=30019&item=3827786097

  Olympus 5050, very good optics, 5MP, 3x optical zoom, P,A,S,M modes, fast
1.8 lens, lots of control available, very good output, runs on AA batteries,
takes Compact Flash and XD cards. Hot shoe for accessory flash.  Very happy
with mine, but more the size of a CL.  Built on same frame as 2xxx, 3xxx,
and 4xxx models over the past few years.  Been upgraded to the 5060 with a
slower 2.8 lens.

  Canon G5, belongs to She Who Must Be Obeyed.  Very similar to the Olympus
5050 in quality, size and operation.  It is her travel camera when lugging
the SLR is not on her priority list.  Again, very good but may be more then
you are looking to invest in the project.  If this or the Olympus is not out
of the price/size range, can't go wrong with either one.

  Panasonic LCxx Forget the rest.  2mp, Leica lens, 3x zoom.  Nice camera
but by the time I used it I was used to the higher rez cameras and it only
lasted a short time before it went away to a young man that only wanted a
camera for internet stuff.

  Hope this is of some value.
Bill


-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+woc2=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+woc2=earthlink.net@leica-users.org]On Behalf Of John
Collier
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 10:04 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: [Leica] Digital P&S purchase


I am getting a digital P&S for my daughter and I am wondering if there
are any users out there who would like to comment on their choice. Any
complaints or praise? Good or bad service?

Thanks,

John

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Replies: Reply from Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com (Frank Dernie) ([Leica] Digital P&S purchase)
In reply to: Message from jbcollier at shaw.ca (John Collier) ([Leica] Digital P&S purchase)