which one should I go for, I like the zoom and usb on the kodak, but the fuji's are nice and small? Your help please!

-- Richard Wait (RichardWait@Mail.com), July 31, 2000

Answers

About6 weeks ago I had the same decision to make with the same cameras plus the olympus 460Z. After doing as much comparison as I could and finding info by word of mouth, It came down to the Kodak DC280, because of it's ease of use, as I am new to digital photography, and there was a great price reduction special at that time. So far I am very pleased with the camera itself with it being very easy to use and its overall quality. However with the software that comes with it I have heard that most cameras have the same problem:Not very user friendly. the Adobe software is very complete and much can be done with it.But the catch is that it is very difficult to use when there was no info or documentation that came with it. Kodak referred me to Adobe to solve the download problems but I was lucky to have had a software engineer that helped me through it in a few hours. I feel it is fair to warn anyone about this before they buy. As I stated before, that is the case with most of them. I hope everything works out for you and I wish you the best of luck. Thanks, M>E. Dorsey

-- Michael E. Dorsey (michael.dorsey@med.ge.com/), August 03, 2000.

Well after looking at a few more cameras, I have decided to put a bit more money towards it and maybe get a Sony S50, the reason why:

Low light performance Tiff Mode Semi Manual Settings (Aperture & Shutter Proirity) 3x zoom (2x Kodak) USB (Not available on Fuji's) Small size

I did consider a Tosh PDR-M4 (it was really cheap), but the picture quality just didn't match the others, I will however wait until the PDR-M60 gets a review and see what that is like before making my final choice. But so far the Sony has it!

-- Richard Wait (RichardWait@Mail.com), August 03, 2000.

I'm not sure what your criteria are, but if you're considering the M60, have a LONG look at the PDR-M70. I have one, and so far it's the most impressive camera Toshiba has built.(I also have a M1 & M5) To make it more attractive, they just came out with a $100 rebate.

3.3MP, 3X zoom with an adapter for add-on lenses, manual shutter, manual aperture, auto in portrait; landscape, action, night shot, etc. modes, movie mode with optical zoom, USB, digital voice recorder -not just a 10 second annotation, as long as you like -up to 1 hour per 16MB card! Etc, etc. With the rebate and features, think "Jack the Giant Killer..."

From what I've seen, about the only things missing are a built-in panorama mode and the wonky 2 or 3 distance range manual focus options laughingly offered for a few hundred more from Oly & Nikon. Oh yeah, and a Tiff mode for the people who pretend they can see jpeg artifacts in a 4 or 5:1 compression Jpeg without resorting to magnified viewing. ;-)

Take a look, it's a nice camera. Completely silent, unless you turn on the sound effects which sound like a 35mm shutter & film advance... :-)

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@surferz.net), August 03, 2000.

The M70, is out of my price range, in the UK its #740 (over $1100!), I might look at the Sony DSC-S70, I wouldn't mind the viewfinder, but I think my wife may say no, as it is #150($225) more than the S50.

-- Richard Wait (RichardWait@Mail.com), August 05, 2000.

Pretty much faced with the same decision - except for me its come down to the kodak dc280 and sony s50. I am new at this and this is going to be my first digital camera. However, I love taking fotos so it seems like a good thing to get. The s50 is a lil more expensive but it has the movie feature, more as far as digital zoom goes - not that I know what all that translates to!

So, b/w the two could anyone help me figure out which one to get? I sure wish the s50 had a view finder!!!!

Thanx

-- Zainab (zshah@resecon.com), August 07, 2000.