Rex and Thread,
I did a recent tour of some digital camera retailers locally and I am impressed by the offerings. The newer models remain spendy, but you get so much more for your money. I feel somewhat guilty about paying $499.99 for my Epson PhotoPC 600 (XGA resolution) a little over a year ago. I also paid $135.00 for a SanDisk 15 MB CF card with an adapter at that time.
Today your money gets you alot more. I have mentioned CF prices in an earlier post today and on prior days. CF is in the range of $2.50/MB, not $5 or $6 or $7/MB as IBM and Iomega would like you to believe. Thus, large capacity cards are more affordable.
The retail price for the following items as of yesterday afternoon were...
CF 8 MB ---- $49.99
CF 15 MB ---- $69.99
CF 40 MB --- $149.99
Thus, you do much better on the web at the e-malls especially since sales tax is avoided and base pricing is more favorable.
AS FAR AS CAMERAS GO...
Olympus' presence is noticable with the 320L, 400, 600 and 620 all being on the shelves. The C-2000Z retails for $1,000.00 locally. Again, on the web you can probably deduct 10-15%.
Kodaks DC 200, 210 plus, 240 and 265 are also popular.
Some places are carrying the Canon Pro Shot. I still think Canon made a huge mistake by not capitalizing on designs similar to the Rebel and Eos lines. Olympus has shown other manufacturers the power of brand recognition with the point-and-shoot lines mimicing their popular Stylus exterior.
I also was fortunate to try out the Nikon CoolPix 950. This is priced to compete with the high end Olympus C-2000Z. The Nikon is superior piece of engineering...hands down. I liked the feel (solid), the textured metallic (black) frame, the soft, well compensating flash, near-immediate shutter actuation, agile autofocus, clear LCD display, a fully enclosed Nikor zoom lens, rapid recovery time between shots and SUPERB IMAGE QUALITY. It blows you away.
In contrast, the Olympus "Camedia" model seems to have a slower CCD, noticably delayed shutter actuation, a pale, washed out LCD, sluggish autofocus, and an annoying protuberant zoom lens that makes the camera look a bit silly. Also, this camera is small and somewhat less easy to handle than the Nikon.
I was interested to see the Fuji MX-2700, but did not find it anywhere. I love the MX-700 design although some have complained about the lack of zoom and the less than ideal image resolution despite a capable CCD. If Fuji used CF I would be interested in their offerings.
On the US front, I hope that Kodak and Nikon carry the torch for CF. The recent link posted here suggests that the Japanese are interested in smaller cameras sporting SmartMedia. I find it sad that Fuji, Sony and Olympus decided to compromise the design by adhering to SmartMedia. In the end the consumers will decide if it was a correct decision.
Ausdauer |
