25 July 2008

Picture Perfect

I know an adventurer. She's inspired me to travel and see the world as much as I can. She's hiked Kilimanjaro, gone white water rafting on the Chobe River in Zimbabwe. Yea, I admire this chick.

She called me up the other day. She wanted to know my opinion on a good digital camera. Normally I stay away from this topic because I don't completely understand how a camera works (What the heck is an ISO???).

Anyway, I couldn't turn her down. I decided to enlist the help of an old friend who, along with his son, is really into photography.

Initially, because if her adventurer spirit, I figured she would require a camera that would see a lot of action.. enough zoom for her safari / dolphin swimming / whale watching / Mount Olympus Hiking trips.. It would have to have a quick shutter speed and also has to be pretty rugged and most probably waterproof with a more than decent battery life. I initially recommended a DSLR (Digital-Single-Lens-Reflex) with a caveat that she would lose portability as they can be huge.

"A digital single-lens reflex camera (digital SLR or DSLR) is a digital camera that uses an automatic mirror system and pentaprism or pentamirror to direct light from the lens through the viewfinder eyepiece. The basic operation of a DSLR is as follows: for viewing purposes, the mirror reflects the light coming through the attached lens upwards at an approximately 90 degree angle. It is then reflected by the pentaprism to the photographer's eye. During exposure (when the photograph is taken), the mirror swings upward, and a shutter opens, allowing the lens to project light onto the image sensor." - Wikipedia

Unfortunately, the lady that I often bragged to friends about had slowed down a bit as she has gotten older (60's). She advised that an injury had severely damaged her achilles and she has had to slow down a bit. So she wouldn't be needing anything too fancy shmancy.. Just something to take a few nice pictures. So we would basically be going with a regular digicam.

"A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images on a light-sensitive sensor. Many compact digital still cameras can record sound and moving video as well as still photographs. Digital cameras can include features that are not found in film cameras, such as displaying an image on the camera's screen immediately after it is recorded, the capacity to take thousands of images on a single small memory device, the ability to record video with sound, the ability to edit images, and deletion of images allowing re-use of the storage they occupied." - Wikipedia

Here's what I found after a little research on Cnet.com.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 $299.99

Cnet Product Description
Specs: Resolution: 9.1 megapixels; Optical zoom: 10 x; Display type: 3 in LCD display

The good: Attractive, functional design; generally above-average photo quality for its class; nice, useful feature set; lens can zoom during movie capture.

The bad: Aggressive smoothing reduces detail in indoor shots, even at low ISO sensitivities; modest performance; poorly placed microphone.

The bottom line: Though it's not perfect, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5's compact midrange megazoom feature set puts it in a class with just its sibling, the TZ4, and should deliver a satisfying shooting experience.

I've had 2 earlier versions of this (the first TZ1 fell into a bucket of water). The second (The Lumix TZ3) takes fantastic pictures. It's 10x zoom comes in very handy when it's necessary to take pictures of lets say... a lion cub playing with his big brother in the wild?
The next 3 have received good reviews and are compact..

The Canon PowerShot SD750 $179.99
Cnet Product Description
Specs: Digital camera type: Ultracompact; Resolution: 7.1 megapixels; Optical zoom: 3 x

The good: Nicely designed; excellent high-ISO photo quality; relatively fast; above-average movie quality; face detection.

The bad: Photos tend to have purple fringing; no optical viewfinder.

The bottom line: The Canon PowerShot SD750 has an attractive design, large LCD, and excellent photo quality for an ultracompact.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W120 $189.99
Cnet Product Description
Specs: Digital camera type: Ultracompact; Resolution: 7.2 megapixels; Optical zoom: 4 x
The good: Good picture quality; quick performance; broad feature set.
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The bad: Small buttons; misses many on-board editing options other models have.
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The bottom line: It's not as feature-laden as higher-end models, but the Cyber-shot W120 offers plenty of style and substance for the price.

Nikon Coolpix S7c (A favorite among buyers) $299.99

Cnet Product Description
Specs: Resolution: 7.1 megapixels; Optical zoom: 3 x; Display type: 3 in LCD display

The good: Great click wheel; attractive, slim design; supports photo e-mail from T-Mobile access points; solid color reproduction.

The bad: Annoying top buttons; no proxy Wi-Fi access other than T-Mobile.

The bottom line: Nikon adds T-Mobile hot-spot access to its slim Wi-Fi camera and continues to deliver the image quality we enjoyed in the S6.
Cnet Product Description
Specs: Digital camera type: Full body; Resolution: 7.1 megapixels; Optical zoom: 12 x

The good: Has 12x optical zoom; optical image stabilization; manual exposure controls.

The bad: Noticeable fringing and artifacts in images; noisy images at ISO 800 and ISO 1,600. (Wait. Hold up... Whut?)

The bottom line: Kodak's EasyShare Z712 IS is a nice superzoom, especially for the price, though its image quality does falter at higher ISOs.
http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-cameras/kodak-easyshare-z712-is/4505-6501_7-32412495.html?tag=prod.txt.1

The Winner!!

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 $299.99After my photographer friends approval. The adventuress decided on the Lumix. The truth was that she had her eye on this model coincidentally, but wanted some 'expert' advice.

She's currently planning her next adventure to Lima, Peru. I'm look forward to seeing it... Second hand.

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