Which one would you get? (digital cameras again!)

[joshwa]

Sorry to be a pain, and go on about it, but just spotted this (the kodak) - which out of these would you go for? Apparently the Kodak will let you record videos with sound for however long your memory card lasts, which sounds cool...

Kodak DX6340, 3mp, 4x optical, video with sound 1.8" tft, macro: £159 inc postage amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...617477-1848416

Olympus C-350, 3mp, 3x optical video (no sound) 1.8" tft, macro: £152 inc postage amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...617477-1848416

Fuji A303, 3mp, 3x opt, video (no sound) 1.5" tft, macro:
£159 inc postage amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...617477-1848416

[Hat]

id go for the kodak again.. cos i had one for a while.. ( not that model though).

THe video wasnt great qualtiy.. but absilutley fine for those snapshot video moments.... churns thru the rechargeable battery though doing vids... so dont expect anymore than 5 mins or so

Video without sound imo is pointless.. so video on the otheres are neither really hereor there,.. so its down to the other features

[Saracen]

Is video with sound (or without, for that matter), important to you?

How often will you use it?

Is it just a gimmick?

I can't comment on those three specific models from personal use, but I have tested dozens (quite literally dozens, and I'd guess >100) of digital cameras over the years. My general conclusion from that would be Olympus, with Fuji closely behind, and Kodak a long way behind.

I've yet to see an Olympus which produces bad results. Not one. Ever. The major negative of Olympus over the years is that the control system has been a bit unintuitive in some models, but this is mainly in older models and has pretty much been sorted in in the last couple of years.

I've seen a few dodo's from Fuji, but for the main part, they are either good or very good. If it were me, I'd at least have Fuji on my short-list.

The following is probably going to upset a few Kodak owners, so if you've got one and are happy with it, I'd stop reading here if I were you





Then there's Kodak. I recently GAVE a 2MP Kodak away because the camera was so problematic I didn't have the heart to sell it. An impecunious mate wanted a digital camera to play with and couldn't afford one, so I warned him of what I thought of it and told him it was his if we wanted it. I probably could have sold it for a few quid, just by describing the spec and features and keeping my opinion to myself, but I wouldn't do that to someone who, if buying a camera of that spec second-hand is probably doing so on a tight budget and is brimming with excitement about their new toy.

Not all Kodaks are going to be that bad, obviously, but I've had 7 of them, and NONE of them have been wildly impressive.


Assessing digital cameras is not an easy task and there are a number of factors that can affect overall performance. For me, issue number 1 is image quality. If the image quality is mediocre, nothing else in the feature set matters to me. The prime factor (but not the only one) in determining image quality is lens quality and I have yet to see an Olympus with a poor lens.

Olympus are lens specialists. Experts. Not only do they have decades of experience in making high quality lenses for their cameras, but they also make high quality precision optical instruments including microscopes and a VAST range of optical surgical instruments. If you've ever had one of those tiny little fibre-optic cameras inserted into a bodily orifice, there's a better than even chance it was made by Olympus. These guys rely on the quality of their optical expertise.

All this bodes well for the quality of their camera lenses and all I can say is that in some seven years of testing and reviewing digital cameras for various magazines, I have NEVER seen a poor Olympus. It's no coincidence that my current camera selection includes an Olympus E-20 SLR and a C-5050 compact camera.

[Howard]

In my humble opinion the order of the quality for those will be something like:

Olympus > Fuji > Kodak

With the Olympus and the Fuji being of very similar (good) quality, and the Kodaks in my opinion falling behind.

[joshwa]

Thanks for the replies - I've used 2 digital camera's a Fuji a202, and a Casio EX-S2, and was quite impressed with the fuji, it seemed to have fairly good image sharpness, and I thought the Casio was o.k. but not brilliant for image quality.

I think I would definitely regret buying a digital camera such as the Kodak and finding the images weren't very sharp (That would annoy me quite a lot). I've also read the reviews of these three cameras on imaging-resource:

kodak: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/DX6340/D63A.HTM

olympus c-350 / d560 : http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/D560/D56A.HTM

fuji a303: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/A303/A303A.HTM

and find it weird that the high resolution pics of the house for the kodak and olympus are at least 1mb up to 1.7mb (olympus) in size, but the fuji picture of the same pixel size is 670k

also, if you look at the trees against the sky, just above the white point in the house, the tree leaves and branches there and to the right seem kind of blurry. i suppose i might be being a bit too analytical and expecting to be able to spot which one is the best, as well as that the photos will probably have been taken on different days and at different times of year?

the fuji seems to have been out the longest, so I think I am now swayed back to the olympus.

you're all right about the video thing, it would be nice to have sound, but I would be disapointed (I think) if I had sound at the expense of image quality - although I may not be able to tell the difference between them I'm more likely to use the photos part of the camera 95% of the time and maybe the video part 5% or less...

[Trash Man]

Have a Fuji at the moment, a 2800Z, it's a very good camera, easy to use and great results. Skii and Caged also have that same camera.

Looking at getting a Olympus 3050 or a Fuji S7000 next, prolly go with the Olympus as it's around £120 less than the Fuji.

[kaillum]

from a users point of view, i've only had 2 digital cameras..

a Fuji FinePix 40i and my current one an Olympus C350..

the Fuji has been in and out of the repair shop, and eventually ended up stuck on a shelf never with letters going to and fro Fuji trying to get it sorted!!!.. shame as it cost me over £400 to buy and another £80 up to present shipping to and from Fuji to fix various things wrong with it..

when its working its a very good quality camera.. easy to use and took excellent quality piccys...

but my partner bought me the Olympus C350 because I was wingeing about the lack of digital camera and IMHO its the best £250 ever spent.. picture quality is really sharp.. its not as user friendly as the fuji, the controls are a little small for my big fingers, and the fact that it takes an XD Picture card was a little annoying as I had a few 128Mb Smart cards for the Fuji and coundn't re-use them... but once your used to it.. its great.


If you want simple point and shoot and good results then i'd go with Olympus.. i'm no longer a fan of Fuji, but thats just because of personal experience of a fault ridden camera.

if you want to see any shots with the C350 then mail me and i'll send you a couple..

k.