The price for such a camera is quite nice and instantly attracted me to it. The features make this camera easy to use for anyone between a novice and a pro.
Unfortunately, a camera is only as good as what the lens and film (sensor in the case of digital) take from what they see. And that popped into my mind shortly after first picking up the demo unit.
The sensor is passable and the colors in standard mode are close to real-life. They can have saturation added into them via any photo program if you care. Personally, realistic tones mean more to me than florid ones! Noise levels aren't bad; I've seen far worse.
I rather liked the electronic viewfinder. No parallax scan problems and it uses less energy than the huge honkin' 2" bugger on the back.
The images come out quite soft. This can easily be fixed with unsharp masking. Besides, too little is better than too much - but if offshoring occurs because US workers aren't bright enough, what's the excuse this time?
Read my problems below, but save $100 more and go for the Kodak P850 (the new 12x zoom model) or Panasonic DMC-FZ5, even if both of them are 5MP only.
Problems:
Chromatic aberration is ATROCIOUS. It's somewhat visible in the 1x end of the camera (wide-angle). And at 12x telephoto it's outrageously bad, and you can even see it appear in the viewfinder! For 6MP, I would expect to get a decent 13x19" print. But with all that purple and (on the opposite edge) green fringing due to a fourth-rate lens, it necessitates the need for massive fixing up via programs that claim to remove the fringing. (nor can they do it perfectly well either. An ounce of prevention vs a pound of cure...)
As for construction, it feels like cheap plastic that will break. The design is a bit awkward as well, and my previous camera was a Sony Mavica CD-500!
Unfortunately, a camera is only as good as what the lens and film (sensor in the case of digital) take from what they see. And that popped into my mind shortly after first picking up the demo unit.
The sensor is passable and the colors in standard mode are close to real-life. They can have saturation added into them via any photo program if you care. Personally, realistic tones mean more to me than florid ones! Noise levels aren't bad; I've seen far worse.
I rather liked the electronic viewfinder. No parallax scan problems and it uses less energy than the huge honkin' 2" bugger on the back.
The images come out quite soft. This can easily be fixed with unsharp masking. Besides, too little is better than too much - but if offshoring occurs because US workers aren't bright enough, what's the excuse this time?
Read my problems below, but save $100 more and go for the Kodak P850 (the new 12x zoom model) or Panasonic DMC-FZ5, even if both of them are 5MP only.
Problems:
Chromatic aberration is ATROCIOUS. It's somewhat visible in the 1x end of the camera (wide-angle). And at 12x telephoto it's outrageously bad, and you can even see it appear in the viewfinder! For 6MP, I would expect to get a decent 13x19" print. But with all that purple and (on the opposite edge) green fringing due to a fourth-rate lens, it necessitates the need for massive fixing up via programs that claim to remove the fringing. (nor can they do it perfectly well either. An ounce of prevention vs a pound of cure...)
As for construction, it feels like cheap plastic that will break. The design is a bit awkward as well, and my previous camera was a Sony Mavica CD-500!