Megapixel Question, btwn C740 & C750

I am divided on which camera to buy, the C740 or C750. It seems there is a big price difference. The biggest difference I see is the megapixel.

Can someone tell me if there is a big difference between 3.2 and 4 MP.

I am trying to determine if it is worth paying more for the C750.

Roy

.... at resolutions less than 8X10 with no cropping, you probably won't be able to see a difference.

At resolutions greater than 8X10, landscapes or pictures with extreem detail, or on images that are cropped even a little you may be able to tell a difference.

They're both good cameras, but if you plan of doing any portrait, the hot shoe might be better than having to tote around a flash bracket.

Choices... choices....

--
Randy C.
C-2100, C-5050, TCON-17
San Antonio, TX

Was on the Olympus site and found this quote in their FAQ section.

I had forgotten about the sound and the remote control option.

**********************************************************

2.) What is the difference between the C-740 Ultra Zoom and the C-750 Ultra Zoom?

The C-750 Ultra Zoom camera offers the following additional features:

40X total seamless zoom (10x optical/4x digital) on C-750 Ultra Zoom versus 30X total seamless zoom on C-740 Ultra Zoom (10x optical/3x digital)

4.0 Megapixel CCD (effective) on C-750 Ultra Zoom versus 3.18 Megapixel CCD (effective) on the C-740 Ultra Zoom
TTL Hot Shoe
Sound on QuickTime Movie
Built-in Speaker
Remote Control Capability (with optional accessory)

--
Randy C.
C-2100, C-5050, TCON-17
San Antonio, TX

It's not just the megapixels that are different..... The 750's case is metal, compared to plastic with the 740. The 750 comes with a wireless remote, NiMh batteries, charger, and hot shoe(which can be considered a priceless item if you do a lot of indoor photography).

I liked the 750 images better than the 740's personally. Download some and compare for you personal taste. I thought the 750 images were cleaner and a lot more workable(make sure you're using production camera images). The 750 also gives you a little room for cropping to correct/fix framing etc.

What exactly is a HOT SHOE??????

Bradly said:

It's not just the megapixels that are different..... The 750's case
is metal, compared to plastic with the 740. The 750 comes with a
wireless remote, NiMh batteries, charger, and hot shoe(which can be
considered a priceless item if you do a lot of indoor photography).

I liked the 750 images better than the 740's personally. Download
some and compare for you personal taste. I thought the 750 images
were cleaner and a lot more workable(make sure you're using
production camera images). The 750 also gives you a little room for
cropping to correct/fix framing etc.

Click to expand...

A hot shoe is a fitting on top of the camera into which you can slide a camera flash. It is called "hot" if it has all the connections for the flash so that you don't need an external cable to make the flash work.

It is very useful (if you like to use external flash).

Teufuelhunden said:

Bradly said:

It's not just the megapixels that are different..... The 750's case
is metal, compared to plastic with the 740. The 750 comes with a
wireless remote, NiMh batteries, charger, and hot shoe(which can be
considered a priceless item if you do a lot of indoor photography).

I liked the 750 images better than the 740's personally. Download
some and compare for you personal taste. I thought the 750 images
were cleaner and a lot more workable(make sure you're using
production camera images). The 750 also gives you a little room for
cropping to correct/fix framing etc.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

If you have a concern about noise in your pictures,
you may be interested in a technical assessment
that was posted in another forum. It claims the 740
has much lower noise than the 750. This is expected
since the individual 740 pixels are larger than the 750
pixels (the 750 has the smallest pixel size of any camera
made I believe). This may also be the reason that ISO 50
was added to the 750 -- to give the photographer a way
to get really low noise pictures.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&message=5668807

Darrell

That person only said he seems to think that the 740 has less noise than the 750. There wasn't any listing of technical assessment of the two camera's. Was he looking at the pre-production images from the 750? Production images from 740? Lots of other factors, and only a statement of what he had seen in whatever images he compared.

Darrell Spreen said:

If you have a concern about noise in your pictures,
you may be interested in a technical assessment
that was posted in another forum. It claims the 740
has much lower noise than the 750. This is expected
since the individual 740 pixels are larger than the 750
pixels (the 750 has the smallest pixel size of any camera
made I believe). This may also be the reason that ISO 50
was added to the 750 -- to give the photographer a way
to get really low noise pictures.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&message=5668807

Darrell

Click to expand...

My general opinion is that greater megapixels = greater detail even if you are talking about printing 4x6 at 300 dpi (1800x1200), and the cameras resolution in both cases exceeds that.

I tend to think looking at a picture resampled to 1600x1200 on my monitor with it's resolution set at 1600x1200 at a distance of about 3 feet is equivelant to looking at a 4x6 at about 1 foot from your face.

If that is a close approximation then look at samples from the imaging rescource in the "resolution series" test, shot at 1600x1200 out of the camera (luckily Olympus has a VERY good resampling algorythm in camera.)

Here are the 1600x1200 output from both the 740 and 750 in that order. Allthough not a perfectly controlled shot, my eye likes the 750 pic better.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/C740/FULLRES/C74FARMF.HTM
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/C750/FULLRES/C75FAR1600F.HTM

Teufuelhunden said:

I am divided on which camera to buy, the C740 or C750. It seems
there is a big price difference. The biggest difference I see is
the megapixel.

Can someone tell me if there is a big difference between 3.2 and 4 MP.

I am trying to determine if it is worth paying more for the C750.

Roy

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/andylandfather
http://www.pbase.com/andylandfather1/olympus_c-5050

Bradly said:

That person only said he seems to think that the 740 has less noise
than the 750. There wasn't any listing of technical assessment of
the two camera's. Was he looking at the pre-production images from
the 750? Production images from 740? Lots of other factors, and
only a statement of what he had seen in whatever images he compared.

Click to expand...

The measurements he refers to show that the c740 has lower noise
than the 1/1.8" C3040, which is quite remarkable. If you read the entire
thread, he seems to have done some very careful work. For the lack of
other comparisons at this time, I think his findings are worth taking
into account for someone trying to decide between the 740 and 750.

D

Teufuelhunden said:

I am divided on which camera to buy, the C740 or C750. It seems
there is a big price difference. The biggest difference I see is
the megapixel.

Can someone tell me if there is a big difference between 3.2 and 4 MP.

I am trying to determine if it is worth paying more for the C750.

Click to expand...

The 740 is the crippled version to sell at a lower cost, and is probably a lower profit item for olympus. Features have been removed so that people will still want to buy tthe more expensive one.

The big loss is the hotshoe, and I believe there's no external sync at all. This means that decent pictures indoors are a real hassle. a 1MP camera with an external tilt flash will generally give you better indoor pictures than a 4MP camera alone.

Also, check the packaging details. The remote control has value, and the 750 may come with batteries and charger.

In terms of the resolution, noise issues aside, the extra pixels should be worth up to a 10% premium based on you keeping the camera longer before upgrading.

Really though I think the biggest advantage of the 750 is the hotshoe, followed by the remote. The few extra pixels are a nice addition. If I were stuck to the cost of the 740, I'd wait until the 750 dropped to that, and buy then (taking into account the extra accessories in the comparison).