best for outdoor landscapes?

I'm considering buying the Nikon 950 or the Olympus 2020Z to use primarily for outdoor landscapes, printing out 4X6 or 5X7 images mostly, perhaps with an occasional 8X10. Any opinion which would be better? Should I perhaps go further and consider the 990 or 3000Z?

George:

If your landscape photos will include trees against a bright sky, I would strongly advise you to forget about the Nikon 950, Olympus 2020z, Nikon 990, Epson or Olympus 3000z and most other digicams.

I've just received my third digital camera, a Nikon 990, and will be selling it as soon as possible, since I consider it's photos to be unacceptable for landscapes, as I did my first two digicams.

The Nikon 950 and Olympus 2020z also have signficant purple fringing, when taking photos of trees against a bright sky (look at photos of trees from these cameras, and you'll quickly find the blue/purple tree tops).

The only camera that I've seen photos from so far that doesn't exhibit this fringing is the the original Sony F505 (not the new "V" model, which doe have some fringing)..

See this message thread for more info:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1008&message=367518

Good Luck with your search.

george egbert said:

I'm considering buying the Nikon 950 or the Olympus 2020Z to use
primarily for outdoor landscapes, printing out 4X6 or 5X7 images mostly,
perhaps with an occasional 8X10. Any opinion which would be better?
Should I perhaps go further and consider the 990 or 3000Z?

Click to expand...

I have a Nikon 990 and a Sony S70. I think the S70 takes the most detailed, perfectly color balanced and saturated photos I have ever seen. They are fantastic. It takes wonderful landscape photos in Auto, programmed AE, or manual mode from my experiences. Give it a look on the Sony forum. Only has an optical 3x zoom vs 5x on the 505v. The S70 is more of a traditional look and feel camera. Good luck...

Jim Cockfield said:

If your landscape photos will include trees against a bright sky, I would
strongly advise you to forget about the Nikon 950, Olympus 2020z, Nikon
990, Epson or Olympus 3000z and most other digicams.

I've just received my third digital camera, a Nikon 990, and will be
selling it as soon as possible, since I consider it's photos to be
unacceptable for landscapes, as I did my first two digicams.

The Nikon 950 and Olympus 2020z also have signficant purple fringing,
when taking photos of trees against a bright sky (look at photos of trees
from these cameras, and you'll quickly find the blue/purple tree tops).

The only camera that I've seen photos from so far that doesn't exhibit
this fringing is the the original Sony F505 (not the new "V" model, which
doe have some fringing)..

See this message thread for more info:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1008&message=367518

Good Luck with your search.

george egbert said:

I'm considering buying the Nikon 950 or the Olympus 2020Z to use
primarily for outdoor landscapes, printing out 4X6 or 5X7 images mostly,
perhaps with an occasional 8X10. Any opinion which would be better?
Should I perhaps go further and consider the 990 or 3000Z?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Yes, this sounds like something I would be unhappy seeing, but how noticeable is it? Is it obvious only on the monitor or in 5X7 prints as well?

Jim Cockfield said:

If your landscape photos will include trees against a bright sky, I would
strongly advise you to forget about the Nikon 950, Olympus 2020z, Nikon
990, Epson or Olympus 3000z and most other digicams.

I've just received my third digital camera, a Nikon 990, and will be
selling it as soon as possible, since I consider it's photos to be
unacceptable for landscapes, as I did my first two digicams.

The Nikon 950 and Olympus 2020z also have signficant purple fringing,
when taking photos of trees against a bright sky (look at photos of trees
from these cameras, and you'll quickly find the blue/purple tree tops).

The only camera that I've seen photos from so far that doesn't exhibit
this fringing is the the original Sony F505 (not the new "V" model, which
doe have some fringing)..

See this message thread for more info:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1008&message=367518

Good Luck with your search.

george egbert said:

I'm considering buying the Nikon 950 or the Olympus 2020Z to use
primarily for outdoor landscapes, printing out 4X6 or 5X7 images mostly,
perhaps with an occasional 8X10. Any opinion which would be better?
Should I perhaps go further and consider the 990 or 3000Z?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I hesitate to respond on this as people have different views on equipment and what suits one does not seem to suit another - also I am a bit biased as I have both a 950 and an original Sony 505.

I am quite delighted with the 950 and whilst there IS some purple fringing it depends on the shot and is probably no worse than most others - it is the nature of present amateur digi and I don't think ANY will overcome that completely.

I do agree that I believe the 505 to be preferable in many ways to the 'V' - the latter is a small technical advancement but the 505 produces superb Zeiss pics, VERY good colour and quality IMO and I would myself have no wish to 'upgrade' at what I regard as wasted expense. As a virtual lifetime medium format user I like the twist body (both have) as this gives wonderful benefits in usage, handling in different situations and a feel of better control instead of the 'hold out in front' idea of most other cameras, including the S20. I say this of course in the belief that v/finder use is ridiculous for many purposes if you require decent composition so you use the LCD.

So, you're on the right track I think. I wouldn't write off the 950 (I have no desire to change to 990 which I read too many 'cons' about) and the 505 original is an excellent choice. There is a certain time-lag (very slight in real terms) on the 505 but for your purpose I doubt if it would matter at all - I'd say THAT is an excellent choice.

Eric

george egbert said:

I'm considering buying the Nikon 950 or the Olympus 2020Z to use
primarily for outdoor landscapes, printing out 4X6 or 5X7 images mostly,
perhaps with an occasional 8X10. Any opinion which would be better?
Should I perhaps go further and consider the 990 or 3000Z?

Click to expand...

I would strongly recommend the Kodak DC 290. I've used it for many landscape shots including shots for large panoramas. Kodak's color is outstanding for outdoors. Also the 290 does not exhibit fringing and performs well in dark areas of a shot. The 290 does very well at night (with a tripod). The Digita operating system allows scripts that customize the camera's operation. The Digita system does slow the camera somewhat but that is not a problem with landscapes. The 290 has limited manual control, however. The autoexposure system is very good and that is what I use almost all the time. Good luck.

george egbert said:

I'm considering buying the Nikon 950 or the Olympus 2020Z to use
primarily for outdoor landscapes, printing out 4X6 or 5X7 images mostly,
perhaps with an occasional 8X10. Any opinion which would be better?
Should I perhaps go further and consider the 990 or 3000Z?

Click to expand...

George:

To my eyes, it's VERY noticeable. However, most others don't seem to mind it.

I've been looking at lots of photos, trying to figure out if any of the diigicams are going to be able to get around the problem. In the 3.3MP Digicams, the Sony S70 seems to be about the best, but it still has way too much blue/purple for me. See this post for sample pics:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1008&message=367651

So far, the ONLY digicam that I've found with an acceptable level of blue/purple fringing (based on looking at lots of photos on the photo web sites) is the 2.1MP Sony DSC-F505. Unfortunately, nobody seems to stock this camera anymore, since it was replaced by the DSC-F505V. The newer V model uses the 3.3MP CCD, and it seems to have as much blue/purple fringing as the rest of the digicams. So, I may look on Ebay for my next camera, and try to find a used F505.

Now, with the other digicams, the problem is not as bad if the sky is a deeper blue, and you make sure you take photos with the sun to your back. However, I don't want to limit my outdoor photos to perfect days, and only one direction.

I'd advise looking at as many photos as possible before making a decision.

george egbert said:

Jim Cockfield said:

If your landscape photos will include trees against a bright sky, I would
strongly advise you to forget about the Nikon 950, Olympus 2020z, Nikon
990, Epson or Olympus 3000z and most other digicams.

I've just received my third digital camera, a Nikon 990, and will be
selling it as soon as possible, since I consider it's photos to be
unacceptable for landscapes, as I did my first two digicams.

The Nikon 950 and Olympus 2020z also have signficant purple fringing,
when taking photos of trees against a bright sky (look at photos of trees
from these cameras, and you'll quickly find the blue/purple tree tops).

The only camera that I've seen photos from so far that doesn't exhibit
this fringing is the the original Sony F505 (not the new "V" model, which
doe have some fringing)..

See this message thread for more info:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1008&message=367518

Good Luck with your search.

george egbert said:

I'm considering buying the Nikon 950 or the Olympus 2020Z to use
primarily for outdoor landscapes, printing out 4X6 or 5X7 images mostly,
perhaps with an occasional 8X10. Any opinion which would be better?
Should I perhaps go further and consider the 990 or 3000Z?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Take a look at the F505 I just saw here, new:
http://www.thecamerazone.com/productdetails2.cfm?Product_ID=SNYDSCF505

I ordered the S70 from BestStopDigital for $649 plus shipping, and will be taking it on my annual month trip to Idaho and Washington. I'll report back later on the camera.Thanks for your help.