What camera should I buy ?

Question

I am hesitating between these ones:

- Olympus Stylus 740
- Casio Exilim Zoom EX-Z700
- Kodak Easy share V 705
- Panasonic Lumix DMC- FX07

I would like to take picture of portraits, landscapes, and also have nice pictures by night.

Can you help me please ?

Answer 1

I do not have personal experience with any of these cameras, but you can go here to compare the specs:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=casio_exz700%2Ckodak_v705%2Coly_stylus740%2Cpanasonic_dmcfx07&show=all

The Olympus has by far the better "star" rating, but bear in mind that this is only based on two people's opinions. Well, we can add SpaceCowboy's opinion, which seems to be pretty high.

Among this group, I see that the Panasonic also offers the highest ISO rating, which is what you are looking for for those nice pictures at night, but the use of "3200 high mode" looks like it involves some digital tricks and they don't always work out that well.

Panasonic: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/fx07_pg5.html Steve says, " just be sure to compare some similar models before making the final decision." That's pretty harsh criticism for Steve, who praises easily.

Casio: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/ex-z700.html is not too thrilling...

Olympus: I am not finding a review at Steve's, but if you go to Amazon.com and search for the camera, you can read 19 user reviews. Yahoo! shopping only has one customer review for this camera.

Kodak: Please choose another camera. Kodak is a good company, but this novel idea has not reviewed too well.

Answer 2

Of the four cameras you have listed the Olympus is probably the best quality camera of the bunch. They are well made, durable, and pretty user friendly. The only downside to Olympus is that they use XD cards instead of the standard SD for their memory storage. They tend to be a little bit more expensive since there is not as much competition in the XD market (only Olympus and Fuji use them as far as I know). I have been told that the XD cards write speed is faster than SD but i've never seen proof of it, nor do any of the compact digitals have a high enough frame rate to maximize its potential anyway. I used to work at a major electronics store and i'd say that by far the casio elixim cameras were the most commonly brought back camera and our display models were constantly breaking down. They have a ton of automatic settings though so if you want to risk the durability issue they have a "best shot" mode which basically lays out automatic settings for any circumstance you can imagine. I dont know the number on that particular model, but i'd say probably around 25-30 auto settings. If you choose this route though i'd recommend looking into an extended warranty. The kodak cameras are the most user friendly cameras on the market, so probably great for a young child's beginner camera, but along with the user friendly interface you lose a lot of flexibility. Also the light and color sensors in the kodak cameras are just not as strong as the other cameras you have listed. However, if you are going to be heavily cropping your photos with the kodak cameras you will generally get the most megapixels for your money... but still probably not worth it. The panasonic has the best lense by far in any of these cameras. It uses a built in 28mm wide angle leica lense, which is a very reputable high quality lense and it gives you the wide angle capability. Overall as a company panasonic is a relative new comer to the digital cameras so they have some catching up to do, but they make a pretty solid product and i'd say it makes a strong case as probably the 2nd best camera on that list. For the price range of those cameras though you might want to also check out the Canon SD600 or SD630 (the 630 just has a bigger LCD screen and 2 more auto functions) or the S9 by Nikon. The Nikons seem to have the best color reproduction capability and a very good light sensor. The Canons have the fastest internal processors of the compact digitals so they are great for taking action photos. Also just to remember, basically every camera on the market has a portrait, landscape, and night mode on the camera. The quality of the picture is going to depend on the quality of the camera so Olympus is going to be the best quality on your list, but i'd also seriously consider the SD600/630, and the S9.

Answer 3

Olympus has earned my loyalty. Great results day and night.
Koday has used plastic lenses in the past, make sure it's glass before you consider it.
Friends have said Casio are great. Reviews have always liked the Panasonics.

Check www.dpreviews.com for unbiased reviews and sample pics from each camera. Best review site for dig cameras I know.

Answer 4

I really can't help you, but I must say you really picked an odd array of cameras.