Decision time - Go or no go for C-720 ?

[Jerry Rosen]

so don't buy it.

I personally would not buy a camera that has no manual focus. I
would not provide support to Olympus or any camera manufacturer
that would skimp on something as basic as manual focus. I played
around with the dispaly model at a Circuit City, and had a lot of
problems focusing on various objects in that lighting and setting.

Robert
Oly C-4040Z, Oly C-2100UZ, Tiffen Megaplus 2X

 

[Robert Blee]

Jerry,

I'm sorry if I irritated or offended you. The original poster (Sean) was asking whether or not he should buy it, so I provided an answer. I am not the one trying to determine whether or not to buy it.

I personally would not buy a camera that has no manual focus. I
would not provide support to Olympus or any camera manufacturer
that would skimp on something as basic as manual focus. I played
around with the dispaly model at a Circuit City, and had a lot of
problems focusing on various objects in that lighting and setting.

Robert
Oly C-4040Z, Oly C-2100UZ, Tiffen Megaplus 2X

--
Robert
Oly C-4040Z, Oly C-2100UZ, Tiffen Megaplus 2X

 

[erin.]

Sean,
Today I have made several photos with C700 and C720 in ComUSA. It
was very simple test. The C720 showed significantly more artifacts
and shade noise. I am very disappointed because was thinking to
replace my C700 with 3mP C720 after all these good reviews. Both
C720 and C700 showed very significant purple fringing. I also
tested simple Fuji 2800 with X6 zoom. To my surprise it did show
very low shade noise, no blue/purple fringing and very sharp, clean
picture. I have to repeat the test to make a sure conclusion. You
can take your memory card and run a similar test in your local
photo store. I would like to know sombody else test results. Fuji
2800 has very good review by Megapixel. I would go for 2800 but it
is not very pockatable. However, non-of the above is portable.
Leo

I would not recommend the Fuji 2800 for nature pictures. I upgraded from it to the 2100UZ because I just couldn't get close enough with the 2800. I didn't like the lack of manual controls, the focus seemed soft, and while the lighting and my technique leaves much to be desired, look at this noise:
http://www.pbase.com/image/2462803
an animal pic, taken thru plexi, but still probably the best one I got:
http://www.pbase.com/image/2508388

Additionally, it requires bright light for indoor pics or the EVF is useless, and doesn't have a focus assist lamp. And even with just 6x zoom I could have used the image stabilization of the UZI. But the price is attractive and there's little CA. It's now my portable point-n-shoot (which I haven't touched since I got the new one - I'm sorry for sounding like the rah-rah squad for the team you aren't interested in).
Erin

 

[Hej]

Sean,

Being the owner of a C-700, and having tried the C-720, my recommendation would be to buy a C-700 for less money over a 720. Despite a supposid increase in resolution, the picture quality hasn't improved but rather deteriorated as far as I can see with the 720. I have had some complaints about my C-700, mainly about the CA you mentioned, but the 720 is a step in the wrong direction. I took some sample pictures indoors with the display model, locked in the ISO setting at 100 to insure the lowest possible picture noise, and it still had a large amount of noise that even my C-700 does not exibit (and noise had been one of my other gripes about the 700). As far as making 8x10 prints, being that the lense itself was not improved, I would say that the C-700 would do just as well of a job as the 720.

-Erik

--
Find a job you like doing, and you'll never have to work a day in your life.

 

[Adam-T]

the focus seemed soft, and while the lighting and my technique
leaves much to be desired, look at this noise:

That looks like a more extreme version of the "noise" we get with the 2400Z, I'm not sure if it is over in-camera sharpening (which looks likely in the 2400 at least) or a not too hot JPG algorithm but if it IS, it isn't as good as the one Nikon and Olympus use and the files take up the same space as fine mode on the Nikon and the C2000Zs top quality too...

I've heard this mentioned with other budget Fujis too but haven't seen it this bad and don't remember it with the MX1700 and haven't seen it with the 6800Z.

I created a despeckle action in PS to correct it without oversoftening the picture too much

--
Olympus E10 / WCON, E100RS, Nikon E950, E900.

 

[Adam-T]

the focus seemed soft, and while the lighting and my technique
leaves much to be desired, look at this noise:

Just checked the house pic -- no disrespect to your Photography skills (as it's obviously a camera thing unless you had it in poor quality mode) but that has to be the worst quality pic I've ever seen from a Fuji! - even at the £79 I paid for the family 2400Z, it would have gone back if the results looked like that in fine mode! . it looks like it came from a CMOS 2mp garbage-cam !..

Here's a pic from the cheapest EVER Fuji, the £49 full-price VGA CMOS Axia AX10 which isn't at it's best in bright sunlight



--
Olympus E10 / WCON, E100RS, Nikon E950, E900.

 

[Daniella68313]

I think that there is a mistake on dpreview for the C720 specs..they may have copied the page from the C700, not sure. The c720 does not have manual focus however and that can be a problem some times, but most of the time you will not need it.

People have complained about not being able to focus on sky and clouds..if that happens...than you're out of option..or you can try to focus on something that is located as fas as possible.

Most problem will come if you are tryng to catch a little bird between branches..then manual focus is mostly the only way to do these shots.

Hi folks,

This will be my first digital camera and I will use it for indoor
family and outdoor nature photography. That is why zoom is
important.
I am leaning towards the purchase of C-720 camera primarily because
of zoom, compact size but am still concerned on the following:

1. Writers in this forum have mentioned that there is no manual
focus control on C-720
but the review secion of this website mentions that C-720 has Mnual
focus control.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?cameras=oly_c720uz&method=sidebyside

2. External flash and sound are not important but are extra 1 mega
pixel better than 10X zoom of C-700?

3. Is this camera really bad in its class as far as noise and CA
concerned?

4. What is the story on price? The following site is selling it for
$469 with the claim
"All items we carry are brand new, factory sealed, and comes
complete with a USA manufacturers warranty."

http://www.centraldigital.com/cen.cfm?fuseaction=cen.proPage&product_id=1320&com=8
The are rated five stars on

http://www.dealtime.com/CompareDeals/DoItem/1,2642,7185-3-1-1-20247066-1,00.html?GSID= {92FC8102-DAFF-4E81-BDA0-F7BE29C082AE}

But how can these folks sell at $469 when other stores are
typically selling it for $599?

Thanks in advance.
Sean

--
Daniella
http://www.pbase.com/zylen
C700 FORUM: http://www.c700uz.com

 

[erin.]

I'm not loading this because I'm linking to the original, high quality mode, and I don't want anyone's system to be tied up unnecessarily. I have to be fair about this:
http://www.pbase.com/image/3207395/original

Just checked the house pic -- no disrespect to your Photography
skills (as it's obviously a camera thing unless you had it in poor
quality mode)

I went back, and it was my editing (at least half of it)

but that has to be the worst quality pic I've ever
seen from a Fuji! - even at the £79 I paid for the family 2400Z, it
would have gone back if the results looked like that in fine mode!
. it looks like it came from a CMOS 2mp garbage-cam !..

Here's a pic from the cheapest EVER Fuji, the £49 full-price VGA
CMOS Axia AX10 which isn't at it's best in bright sunlight

After seeing your "worst ever" pic, I had to look a little more - guess you can see how far this forum has brought me in only 2 months. But I'm still not pleased w/ the Fuji. Got a great laugh out of your post, though.

 

[Adam-T]

I'm not loading this because I'm linking to the original, high
quality mode, and I don't want anyone's system to be tied up
unnecessarily.

Whewwwwwww!!!!.. That's incomparibly better! - CMOS Garbage-Cam turns into decent (Sub-£300) 6x Zoom budget job of excellent value for money LOL .. As I said, i think that Fuji add in camera sharpening which is accentuating any JPG artifacts, that one looks on a par with the 2400 which is the older 4-battery version of the 2600 which in turn is the 3X zoom non-EVF version of the 2800 - you have to admit that for a 6X zoom EVF camera with a full retail price of under £300 it ain't half bad, you can't pick up a refurbished Oly C700 for that in the UK!..

After seeing your "worst ever" pic, I had to look a little more -

LOL - that was taken by my 75 year old mother with a £49 camera which was designed as a "Web cam + more", Fuji's cheapest of the cheap and a great home for the useless 8 and 16Mb smartmedia cards they laughingly bundle with E10s, E100s and Fuji 2400Zs ;-) -- in it's - Ahem - Fine mode it stores about 100 pics on an 8Mb card LOL .. believe it or not it's best at portraits!!, they print out at 5x3 or what ever quite happily and is better than a polaroid instant

But I'm still not pleased w/ the Fuji. Got a great laugh
out of your post, though.

Thanks you should have posted that on the Fuji Forum as a "best of 2800Z" , it would have made the threads about Fled look short hehehe

--
Olympus E10 / WCON, E100RS, Nikon E950, E900.

 

[Leo]

Erin,

It is a very good image. It may be not as good as you can get with a $1000 Nikon 5000 but no different than an average 2-3Mp digicam. I was surprised how clean an accurate were images from the store Fuji 2800.There are several benefits this camera has compare with an average digicam. The first is a X6 zoom, the second is EVF. I would never buy a camera without EVF. I may buy a cheap simple PS just for bike rides. The third it is a low cost camera. On the Internet the lowest price is $199 + shipping. You can not get wrong with that. But it is still a bit boxy to put in a jersey pocket.
Leo

Just checked the house pic -- no disrespect to your Photography
skills (as it's obviously a camera thing unless you had it in poor
quality mode)

I went back, and it was my editing (at least half of it)

but that has to be the worst quality pic I've ever
seen from a Fuji! - even at the £79 I paid for the family 2400Z, it
would have gone back if the results looked like that in fine mode!
. it looks like it came from a CMOS 2mp garbage-cam !..

Here's a pic from the cheapest EVER Fuji, the £49 full-price VGA
CMOS Axia AX10 which isn't at it's best in bright sunlight

After seeing your "worst ever" pic, I had to look a little more -
guess you can see how far this forum has brought me in only 2
months. But I'm still not pleased w/ the Fuji. Got a great laugh
out of your post, though.

 

[Daniella68313]

let it go...the guy is mentally retarded..nothing to do with your post.

I'm sorry if I irritated or offended you. The original poster
(Sean) was asking whether or not he should buy it, so I provided an
answer. I am not the one trying to determine whether or not to buy
it.

I personally would not buy a camera that has no manual focus. I
would not provide support to Olympus or any camera manufacturer
that would skimp on something as basic as manual focus. I played
around with the dispaly model at a Circuit City, and had a lot of
problems focusing on various objects in that lighting and setting.

Robert
Oly C-4040Z, Oly C-2100UZ, Tiffen Megaplus 2X

--
Robert
Oly C-4040Z, Oly C-2100UZ, Tiffen Megaplus 2X

--
Daniella
http://www.pbase.com/zylen
C700 FORUM: http://www.c700uz.com

 

[J.G.107046]

Is purple fringing better on the 720 than the 700?

There is far less noise in the 720 pics compared to the 700.
Others on this forum has commented the samething.

Far FAR less.

 

[Veronica94446]

Well, I discovered that no one camera can possibly fill one person's needs (sort of like people), so, what I'd suggest is to go with the features you "need" as opposed to those you "want". I love my 720, check out my spot on pbase if you'd like, it's just a great camera, and while it doesn't do EVERYTHING I'd like, I do like what it does.

--
8
Veronica
C 720UZ pbase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/veronica

 

[Jimm]

Well, I discovered that no one camera can possibly fill one
person's needs (sort of like people), so, what I'd suggest is to
go with the features you "need" as opposed to those you "want". I

OK, the votes are in and the winner is.............the c700!
Actually, who is counting?

My feeling is that the 720 isn't a better camera than the 700 and worse in some ways. I'd only be tempted with a c700 upgrade to more pixels and not losing any features.