Question for digital photograpers
 

My two favorite things are travel and photography. My travel companions accuse me of traveling only to take pictures. While not exactly true I do love to take shots while I travel. I'm in the market for a new digital camera. My current one is an Olympus C2100 ultra zoom but it's only a 2MP and I want a 3MP so I can blow up the prints. I love the 10x zoom on my camera so I'm looking for recommendations for a digital camera with at least 3MP and decent zoom (more than the usual 3x). I'm looking at the Olympus 730zoom and the Fuji 602zoom. Anyone with either of those want to give recommendations (good or bad) - or any other suggestions. Thanks

Will you sell me your old one cheap?

Have you looked at the Sony F707 or F717. Doesn't have image stabilization, but is 5MP with 10X zoom.<BR>

I have had my Olympus 3030 for 2 years now and absolutely love it--never see the need to upgrade. I am not sure what the zoom is exactly--3X optical I think and maybe 7.5 digital. BUT my experience when I tested the digital zoom is that is nothing more than dropping the resolution down--it gets &quot;grainy&quot;. I handle the zoom capability when printing--it is ALL in focus when you crop it to get the equivalent of the zoom. Don't know if this makes sense or not.

You will get more info if you check out a website devoted to digital photography. One of the best is www.dpreview.com. Excellent detailed reviews of many camera models. You can also read the various forums to identify common complaints and read very biased user comments.<BR><BR>www.steves-digicams.com is also pretty good. Although the reviews aren't quite as thorough, there is an easy to use features chart for making comparisons.

Ann,<BR>If you're going to shop for another digital still camera, take Dave's advice.<BR>I don't think going from 2MP to 3MP is going to improve your enlargements much. That nice big zoom you already have is an underrated advantage for getting better pics. If you want to get more/better pics and have the bucks, I would recommend two approaches. <BR>Get one of the 4 MP cameras that fit in your pocket (like the new $500 Nikon, or the Canon). If it's small, you're more likely to have it around to get that shot.<BR><BR>And/Or: Buy a small (not tiny) mini-DV camcorder. The Canon &quot;Z&quot; series are not too expensive, and you can easily operate them with one hand. <BR><BR>I took both on my Europe trip. The stills are nice, but I can't imagine not having video of the trip....

Thanks for the replys. I have checked the dig camera websites but they are hard to ask questions on. This site gets so much traffic and I know from past history there are many photographers who visit here regularly, so that's why I posted the question here. Tim makes a good point that I won't get that much better quality just going from a 2 to 3MP camera and I might loose something by not having a 10x zoom if I go for the Fuji which only has a 6x. The reason I am considering a new camera is that someone made me a good offer for my C2100. I had also heard that both the Olympus 730 and Fuji 602 were greatly superior to the 2100 but now my research is showing that may not be so. Can't really find the answer to that on the camera websites. So does anyone else have opinions about digital cameras they use while traveling?

How many 8 by 11's would you ever print?<BR>If not many then a 2meg would do fine for 5 by 7's. Also remember that a 4 or 5 meg is going to take more storage capacity at full resolution. If using for pictures for a website a 2meg will do perfectly fine. But if you want more zoom or better optical lenses maybe you can find something recomended on www.pcphotomag.com

Ann,<BR>I came to appreciate the 10x zoom when using my ZX-25 camcorder, which captures stills. Even though they're not 2MP resolution, couldn't have got anywhere near that with the &quot;normal&quot; still camera. <BR><BR>Plus, the &quot;audio&quot; snapshots are pretty neat...

I've had a Canon G1 (3.3 MP) for eighteen months now and have taken thousands of pictures during our travels here in Europe. I am thrilled with this camera for many reasons, but the most important thing to me regarding travel photos is it's ability to take great photos in low light. I have many wonderful handheld shots taken in museums and cathedrals that I could not have taken with many other digitals. Also, I've enlarged many shots to 8x10 and even a few to 11x14 and have been extremely pleased with the results. The new Canon G3 looks impressive, but I'm perfectly happy with my G1. Also, apparently the G2 is having some problems with body cracking and the autofocus so you might want to avoid that model. Just my two cents.....

I have a Fuji 4900Z which has a 2.4Mp sensor but produces 4Mp pictures. (The sensor is in a heagonal pattern, so it interpolates to a square grid, effectively doubling the pictures).<BR>I love the Fuji's; fully manual or fully automatic or anything in between. The lens is 6x zoom; the latest model, however is only 3.3Mp (S602). they do have a &quot;S602 Pro&quot; version recently announced that has some nice extra features - DVD quality video (SHORT clips!) cable release, external flash shoe, etc. <BR> But, as mentioned above 2 to 3 Mp isn't much of an improvement. If you double the resolution in each direction (e.g. from 1200x900 to 2400x1800) you QUADRUPLE the pixel count. 'm waiting until there is at least a 6Mp camera before I trade up.<BR> I have a picture of my wife in front of San marco, Venice with the high water creeping up. The pigeons are crowded onto a small dry spot, the cathedral is reflected in the water, but you can still see the tile patter. This picture (4Mp? 2.4Mp?) is blown up to 11x14 and is still persentable. My impression of 4x6 from my Fuji 4900z was that they were&quot;painfully sharp&quot;. the details of texture in the old Italian brickwork and such is far better than any point-and-shoot 35mm, and better than most SLR's I've used. What would 8Mp be like, I wonder???

I'm another Canon G1 user. Have had it a little over a year. I have been a professional photographer for several years and never thought I would see the day I would sell my darkroom...sold it last week. I have not been to Europe yet..but the G1 is definately going with me with some extra cards so I can take lots of photos. If you get extra cards, and kind of select to use the large resolution for things you know you will want to enlarge you should be able to get some pretty good prints. Be selective on what resolution to use for what you want. I have 4x6 prints made using the Medium resolution and I can't tell the difference from my 35mm Nikon. <BR>Be sure to get an adaptor for your charger to use in european countries. Keep Smiling and enjoy the trip!

Fujifilm FinePix S304 is a new camera, almost the same as the old S602 only cheaper between 400-500US. At least that’s what it costs in the high cost Norway. I have a NIKON but at the price Fuji offers I think it must be a really good buy.

I just returned from Italy and took about 800 shots on a cheap digital 2.1 mp and I love the fact I could download the photos right after we got off the plane. E-mailed shots home from Rome and Florence and made some shot into backgrounds on my desktop and screensavers. But now my wife wants prints for her scrapebooking and the cheap printer we have sucks.Question?<BR>Any suggestion on a new printer or ??

Re printer question above:<BR><BR>HP just dropped the price point on the 7550 printer that you can use with or without a computer. Now $299 was $399 and some stores adding a $50 coupon with this. I got one and have been pleased. Have not bought ink yet and that is where the real money is in selling printers. I like the fact that this one has an edit screen built in where you can print 4x6 or 81/2 by 11 with no computer hook up. Quick and easy.

Zoom can be taken care of in cropping if you have a 3MP camera.<BR>Epson now has inks that are &quot;permanent/archival&quot;--something to think about.<BR>And LASTLY--don't forget a CD burner and backup ALL your pictures.<BR>And back them up to the NEXT technology breakthrough=DVD when you can. Otherwise they are toast to your heirs--if you care.

We lugged a laptop all over Italy. Recently bought a &quot;Archos Multimedia Jukebox&quot;. Much smaller and easier to carry; it downloads photots from a camera card in a minute or two. (64Mb Smartmedia, 1 minute). Plus, I have 2 data cards and 2 batteries.<BR>As you can see, the toys keep piling up. This can be expensive.<BR><BR>I would suggest finding a place online, or a nearby store, that does real photo prints from digital media. I can upload to Futureshop.ca or burn a CD and go to my nearest Costco and get prints for about 30 to 50 cents Canadian. That may sound expensive til you realize that a typically roll of 35mm may be less than 50% &quot;keepers&quot;, so the price is about the same. Need multiple copies or 8x10? Cheap!<BR>Digits are free, so you can take as many pictures as you like - same price. The review feature allows you to stop and retake if that shot didn't turn out right; no surprises at home when you get the prints...

Thanks for this thread!<BR>My husband has just decided on the G3 instead of the Nikon and I know nothing about the camera. So reading this has given me some idea of all the homework I have ahead of me

The G3 is a really good camera, and is said to be very easy to use. Congratulation!

Oh, thanks helen:)<BR> He spent months researching it, so I hope it is worth it. My thoughts are that now we have such a fine camera, we really should take a nice trip so we can really give it a work-out!<BR>Maybe I should take my little point and shoot just in case we still can't figure out how to turn it on? LOL