8-megapixel effective recording * 2-1/2" color LCD screen * real image optical zoom viewfinder * 4X optical zoom (4X digital/16X total zoom) * 35mm equivalent lens focal length: 35-140mm * optical image stabilization * top JPEG resolution: 3264 x 2448 *Customer Review: GR8 Point and shoot camera for the price paid
I have a DSLR and wanted a simple point and shoot camera. This was the perfect fit.
Customer Review: An all around fantastic camera!
So allow me to start by saying i'm just your average "joe-user" who enjoys snapping photos while on vacations and out with friends. Recently i owned an Olympus Stylus 810 and was very, very pleased with it. Unfortunately i dropped it damaging the entire lens assembly and it was going to cost $140 to repair. With a week at the beach coming up i didn't have time to research a lot. On a friends recommendation i made this purchase. Now my goals are to have a smaller sized camera that will allow nice point and shoot photography but has some manual (even minimal) controls as i do enjoy photography and if i decide to go further, i'll be familiar with the manual controls and such. So after getting this camera i did a few test runs to get it all working w/ my MacBook Pro laptop. Here's my experience thus far: Install on Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard were both absolutely flawless. Software went right in, once connected downloading the images and viewing them was a one click event. The software bundled is actually quite nice. I no longer have iPhoto (thanks Leopard) so i was unsure what to use for basic photo management. Not to worry Canons bundled software, "ZoomBrowserEX" does a fantastic job of that. Now as far as options go i'm by no means skilled in the realm of cameras, however from my limited experience i can say this camera packs quite a large array for such a small price tag. The auto modes work very well, not to mention having the ability to just pop it into "Manual" mode and tweak by hand! All it takes is 20-30min of reading on the internet and you can be messing with the settings and taking some great low light, artistic, etc... photographs. I also found it's quite easy to use single handed. A lot of times on my beach trip i was holding onto a rock to balance myself and only had my right hand available. Switching into say "Macro" mode is very simple. Same goes for things like zoom, flash, etc... overall very user friendly design. Picture quality has been absolutely stunning! I truly did not expect it from a camera under $160. As with most "point and shoot" cameras when upping the ISO level to take dim light shots without a flash it does tend to get grainy. Although this camera does counter balance that a little, and does a good job, it's still noticeable. That's where the "Manual" mode came in for me. Being able to adjust shutter and aperture etc... really allowed me to take some exceptional low light shots that are not grainy at all. So my overall impression is absolutely pleased! For the money i doubt you'd find a better camera with as many features that can produce the quality of photos this can. I was impressed to see how small it is in person and exactly just how well constructed it feels. Also the thing i loved is there's a huge wealth of accessories like extra lenses such as telephoto, macro, lens filters, etc... Amazon has a "kit" that looks like a fantastic deal that comes with most of those things including a tripod. That is definitely going to be my next purchase. So if you're looking for a great camera that can "point and shoot" and has the manual controls if you think you may be interested in getting into photography, this is my recommendation hands down. I posted 11 photos in the "Customer Photos" section. Feel free to check them out to hopefully get an idea of what this camera can do with "default" settings, i was blown away. Lastly as i'm finding out photography is all about your "eye" and knowing enough about your hardware to capture what you "see." I'm not much for taking pictures of people i really enjoy closeupsngle0d so that's what i'm learning to capture with this camera. Hopefully my pictures will be a decent display of what this camera can do. Just remember if you don't like your photos it's probably not the cameras fault! There will never be a one stop solution, but overall this one is fantastic! Hope it helps, Happy picture taking, Frank L. Morales II
Enticing title, huh? No, we wont be discussing nude photography, at least not today. Rather, this article will, hopefully, shed some light on the tremendous image quality advances of todays digital cameras.
Imagine taking a developed 4x6 snapshot of your childs birthday party and scanning it into your computer. If you printed the resulting photo, you would notice some considerable degradation of the image quality. The interesting fact is that most JPEG images are comparable to the quality of the scanned and reprinted image. Surprised? The JPEG image format is, by all means, acceptable for most consumer and even some professional purposes. JPEGs are definitely the best choice for sharing in email and even for printing on photo paper to place in an album or share with family and friends.
If, however, you are a camera geek (like me), you are simply not going to be satisfied with anything less than perfection from your images. In that case, you will definitely want to consider purchasing a camera with RAW image format capabilities. Working with the RAW format is the equivalent of working with a color or B&W negative. You have substantially more technical and creative control. The downside is that the RAW image format requires significantly more storage space on your media cards and demands more advanced photo-editing capabilities, which means investing in more powerful software with integrated RAW image editing functions (i.e. Adobe Photoshop CS2, retail cost $649). But, in my humble opinion, it is well worth the higher learning curve and expense.
Serious photography hobbyists and certainly those who may want to sell their photographic work will benefit tremendously from the superiority of the RAW format. The good news is that several reasonably priced prosumer digital cameras now offer the RAW image format. The Canon Digital Rebel XT 8 MP camera (est. retail $650) offers both JPEG and RAW formats. Likewise, the Sony Cybershot DSCR1 10.3 MP camera (est. retail $850) offers RAW image capture and an impressive array of features. For die-hard Kodak consumers, the new Kodak Easyshare P880 8MP camera (est. retail $500) offers a wide-angle optical zoom and RAW file support. Last, but not least, the Nikon Coolpix 8700 8 MP camera (est. retail $600) offers RAW mode image recording and many of the features commonly sought after by professional photographers.
So, if you are in the market for a new digital camera, you owe it to yourself to check out the latest, surprisingly affordable innovations in RAW image capture. I doubt you will be disappointed.
Balsman Photography, LLC
Kim Balsman is the owner of Balsman Photography, LLC, a small, professional photography studio in Longmont, Colorado. Kims background is diverse, including formal education in communications and law at Truman State University and the University of Houston, as well as professional photography studies at the New York Institute of Photography. Kim spent more than a decade working as a paralegal, practicing in numerous legal specialties with law firms in Texas. Throughout her career, Kim has written thousands of legal documents but prefers the creativity of writing short stories, novels and journalistic pieces. Some of her work has been published in corporate magazines. Kim has lectured at entrepreneurial symposiums and educational facilities and led an initiative to help small printing franchisees compete for demanding legal document reproduction business. Kim enjoyed a brief career in real estate as a Century 21 agent in New England, grossing more than $2M in sales in a matter of a few months. She now devotes her full time to her photography business and writing.
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