Looking at Ricoh RDC-5000, Toshiba PDR-M5, Epson 850, Olympus 2000z, but not sure which one to get, any suggestion? 1.Quality is important (for magazine print 133lpi typical size 4x6 to 8x10 & web design) 2.Manual features not as important 3.Don't want to pay more than I have to 4.Optical zoom is a must 5.USB is a nice feature (400 Macintosh B/W) 6.Would like to purchase before the end of August, if possible

Also who is selling the Ricoh & in the review there was talk of possible image quality improvements when the (real version) came out, is there any signs of this or is there still a compression problem?

Does anyone know dates for the Toshiba or Ep

-- Rob Centilla (SHORTnTIE@aol.com), August 02, 1999

Answers

No time for anything like a full answer, but at least the PDR-M5, maybe the Epson 850 (?) probably won't be out until after August. The RDC- 5000 is apparently only being sold through QVC thus far. I'd heard from a Ricoh guy that there was in fact an image-quality fix in a firmware update, but that it wasn't yet in a form that a user could apply to the camera themselves. Haven't had any word at all though, for something like a month, so I'd be cautious on that one. (If you're interested though, I have one here that I took in trade for some ad space for Ricoh, could give you a good price on it. Image quality is as you see it in the mini-review though, so look before you buy.)

Hope this is at least some help...

PS: FWIW, I'd recommend an external USB card reader for the Mac, as it really beats plugging the camera in all the time, in my book...

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), August 05, 1999.